The Miser

Harpagon is a miser who has been widowed formany years. His two adult children, Elise and Cléante, suffer from their father’s parsimony: To buy clothes, they either have to gamble for money or borrow some. Both siblings are in love: Elise adores Valère, who works for her father, and Cléante is smitten by neighbour Marianne. The couples need money to pay for their weddings and to start their lives together. Elise and Cléante tentatively approach their father to ask for his support. However, Harpagon has other concerns: he has buried a cash box in the garden and is now worried that it might be stolen. At the same time, he has plans of his own, figuring that if Elise married the rich, albeit old merchant Anselme and Cléante a wealthy widow, Harpagon would be able to marry the penniless Marianne. Elise and Cléante decide to resist their tyrannical father for the first time in their lives and begin to plot, coming up with ever more complicated and convoluted intrigues.