SOURCE: Carlin, Claire. “The Woman as Heavy: Female Villains in the Theater of Pierre Corneille.” French Review 59, no. 3 (February 1986): 389-98.

In the following essay, Carlin discusses the innovative role of women in Corneille's comedies.

In the archetypal comic schema proposed by Northrop Frye,¹ a blocking character, usually a “heavy father” figure, tries to prevent the union of a pair of young lovers. The inappropriate desire of the older and often powerful man to possess the young woman for his own poses a potential threat to society as a whole, because societal renewal depends on the triumph of health and youth as represented by the young couple. Since the interests of the monomaniacal blocking character are directly opposed to those of society, the audience tends to punish the lustful elder with its laughter. If the monomaniac refuses to change his world view, he will be driven from the community...