Comédies et Proverbes: Plays at Odds

Abstract

A recent major focus on happiness and well-being within the educational realm encompasses a wide range of educational settings and practices. Some of the plays in Comédies et Proverbes (1865), by Sophie Rostopchine, Comtesse de Ségur, connect to this topic by introducing children forced to handle social complexity to find their place in the world. Thus, we propose a close reading of the plays Les Caprices de Gisèle and Le Diner de Mademoiselle Justine in light of the psychological and cultural complexity of the concept of happiness, with a twenty-first-century young audience in mind.