The Imaginary Invalid

“Some dummies believe all your rot, they’re born every minute. But the dimmest, the worst of the lot is on stage now. It’s our play, and he’s in it.”

In the play’s Alternate Prologue, described in the text as the “shepherdess’s lament” (6), the poetic structure of her song is undermined by her ridiculing words. The audience isn’t asked to view Argan impartially and decide if he’s right. Rather, the shepherdess states up front that he is the biggest “fool” of all the “fools.”

“These two…medicos, Florid and Purgeon, are having a high old time with you. They’re making mincemeat out of you. I’d like to know exactly what sort of illness it is that needs so many medications.”

Toinette doesn’t have any more deference or respect for Argan than the shepherdess, and when she shows it, she is pretending. But Toinette voices early in the play the question that Argan avoids answering because he has no answer. The doctors inundate him with invasive and even harmful treatments, but they cannot name his ailment. This is both because Argan has no ailment and because a diagnosis would require treating for a cure. A cure would mean ending their stream of easy income.

“Ah, yes, well, these things aren’t always what they seem. With some people, real love and make-believe look the same. I’ve certainly seen some dab-hands in my time.”

Angélique has made the mistake of asking Toinette whether she thinks Cléante truly loves her, and Toinette gives her a realistic answer instead of indulging her romantic fantasies. This scene subverts the common trope in romantic plotlines in which the young ingénue confides in her maid that she has fallen in love with a man her parents won’t allow her to marry.