Musset's Les Caprices de Marianne: A Romantic Adaptation of a Traditional Comic Structure

Les Caprices adapts a structure that situates it in a long comedy tradition: a young man attempts to overcome obstacles to success in his love for a young woman, obstacles raised by an older man who has some control over the woman. Frequently the young man enlists the aid of a wily servant or a friend in his amorous campaign. Coelio thus engages his friend Octave to help him to gain access to Marianne, the wife of middle-aged Claudio. But rather than having his play end as a traditional comedy, with the oldster outdone, Musset turns the action to tragedy. Why? One reason may be that he knows the comic dénouement – and the happily reformed world it announces – usually depends upon a change of heart in some of the characters, from egoism to unselfish love. Such is the case in Shakespeare's As You Like It. Musset may be saying that, because his characters will not abandon their egoism, his dramatic action cannot end in comedy. (AS)