The Would-Be Noble

The Would-Be Noble aims at the set ways of the rich middle class, which yearns for nobility, but has not been born or bred for it. The play takes place at Mr. Jourdain's house in Paris. Mr. Jourdain is a rich "bourgeois" whose father was a merchant who made money. He would like to be a nobleman (which by definition and by birth is impossible), and to this aim, he hires all kinds of people to dress him, to teach him talk, fence, dance like a nobleman. In the process, he makes himself ridiculous, who is obvious to many around him. This also reflects the view that for him (and he certainly was not unique) mimicking behavior meant the real thing.