Pierre de Marivaux Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Derek F. Connon

Critical Essay by Derek F. Connon

SOURCE: "The Servant as Master: Disguise, Role-Reversal, and Social Comment in Three Plays of Marivaux," in Studies in the Commedia dell'Arte, edited by David J. George and Christopher J. Gossip, University of Wales Press, 1993, pp. 121-37.

In the follwing essay, Connon explores differing uses of the devices of role reversal and disguise in L'Ile des esclaves, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard, and L'Epreuve. The critic argues that these variations reflect Marivaux's movement away from the conventions of commedia dell'arte and towards a more realistic theater.

As is pointed out by Norbert Jonard in his study of the commedia dell'arte, [La Commedia dell'arte, 1982], disguise is one of the principal devices employed in the scenarios of the form. Mel Gordon, in his study of lazzi, [Lazzi: The Comic Routines of the 'Commedia dell'Arte, ' 1983], draws attention to a more specific use of disguise, one which involves not...
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