“Betrayed and wronged in everything, I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king, And seek some spot unpeopled and apart Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart.”
Alceste is a rather passionate and intolerant character, he treats everything around him negatively, and surely he has his reasons. His dream is to flee away from the world in which vanity and deceitfulness dominate, he wants to be away from people, and his tragedy is that he does not want a company at all, as he considers every single person not worthy of being respected. The hatred has so much overfilled Alceste that he cannot see those nice things in people around him, he wants to have “an honest heart”, but what he does not understand that there must be someone he could be honest with and who could be honest with him.
“The world will not alter for all your meddling.”
Philinte differs from his friend, he does not consider hatred and wish to change everything worthy of disturbing one’s mind, which is of more use when staying in peace. Philinte very often asks his friend to calm down and try to perceive the world and people as they are, with all the flaws and merits, as nothing is going to change. The world has existed for so long with its own rules and laws that nobody’s interference could alter it in any way.
