« Le moelleux, la chaleur, ce sont les femmes ! » : figures de femme dans Il pleut dans ma maison et Off et la lune de Paul Willems

Abstract

“The softness, the warmth, these are the women!”: female figures in Il pleut dans ma maison and Off et la lune by Paul Willems Paul Willems, 20th-century Belgian playwright, did not shy away from showing many female figures in his plays, and he did so with great attention to detail. Through a thorough analysis, of the following plays : Il pleut dans ma maison and Off et la lune, it is possible to draw analogies between the heroines he created, which might allow to identify the topoi most often used by the Belgian playwright. We used the historical method, notably the selection, fusion, interpretation and ordering of facts. In addition, the method of literature analysis with particular emphasis on the analysis of source texts and the comparative method were used. Based on the analysis carried out, we established that the following topoi of women appear in the two Willems’ plays selected for analysis: a woman as an incomprehensible being, a romantic woman, a traditional woman and a liberated woman.