"The Middle-Class Gentleman" by Molière is a five-act comédie-ballet first performed in 1670 before the court of Louis XIV. The play satirizes social climbing through Monsieur Jourdain, a middle-aged merchant's son desperately trying to become an aristocrat. He hires teachers in fencing, dancing, and philosophy, making a fool of himself at every turn. When he refuses to let his daughter marry her middle-class beloved, insisting on a nobleman instead, a clever scheme unfolds involving an elaborate Turkish disguise that plays perfectly to his absurd ambitions. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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