In the small but culturally significant world of Parisian theatre, the play created a sensation. Comedy had been looked down on by the intellectual élite as a minor genre, lacking dignity and solidity, until Molière replaced its fantastical characters and plots with individuals and situations close to real life. Talking of the stage, he said:
- You've achieved nothing if you don't get people of today to recognise themselves.
While his characters may have the dramatic necessity of one overriding trait, the more important ones have added complexity and even ambiguity. Supreme perhaps is the tantalising opacity of Agnès, who herself says very little in the play but has left readers and viewers intrigued ever since over how innocent she really is.[2]
