In Molière’s classic, The Imaginary Invalid, Argan--the eponymous hypochondriac--makes everyone in his life miserable with his melodramatic suffering and endless, unnecessary curative treatments. His doctor and apothecary are bleeding him dry--literally and figuratively. His duplicitous second wife schemes to inherit his whole estate. His daughter, Angélique, is in love with Cléante, but Argan engages her to an oafish medical student, so as to secure more physicians for himself. Argan’s foolish and unshakable devotion to medicine is out of control, and it is up to Toinette, the family’s faithful servant, to set the household to rights again.
The Imaginary Invalid guide sections
