La Bruyère Théodecte analysis

Notable comments added in the fifth edition:

it is a portrait.

La Bruyère makes it clear in his preface, under the guise of humility, that he does not use

handle Theophrastus, iterating from character to character:

from a definition of Vice to

handle and then enumerate the behavior that manifests it. It will be called back that the public

socialite enjoyed the salon portrait game:

we can read famous scene from

Misanthrope (II, 4) or Célimène outlines and executes several courtiers in a few sentences

his knowledge. Therefore, a writer who specializes in creating portraits must attract interest

of an informed public.

Theodect's portrait is presented as an anecdote experienced by an "I" (cf. the

start and end:

" I hear " ; "I give in and I disappear") and a "comedy minute" follow

expression of L. Van Delft. Comments, delimited by entering a character and exit

other, composed like a theater scene, in which the author shows and

listen to Theodect:

reader-viewer to determine the moral origin of

behavior.

The story of the arrival of Theodectus', in a single sentence in cut style

(paratax, punctuation, accumulation of action verbs, classification ...) is special

yummy :

the sound "zoom" effect comes with its discontinuity on the fantasy stage,

from the backstage (“lobby”) to the spotlight (reception hall),

enough to install character physics in space and visualization in

reader's imagination. Its volume is not an effect of spatial proximity but

of an intent:

he “raises”, “laughs”, “screams”, “booms”. A humorous comic series was born

the hierarchy of verbs, the outrageous gestures they suggest, and the exaggeration

finale ("we cover our ears, it's thunder"). The analogy with the scene appearance of a

The actor alone constitutes a moral analysis and judgment:

if Theodect put himself in

the scene is that he's a fool; if he seeks to impose himself on people, it is through frenzied centralism.

The rest of the text develops what the first sentence already contains. Theodect is a

histrion that the moralist's views deflate like a balloon. Eligible to

"wow" by irony,

...