The Imaginary Invalid

Through the lens of a 21st-century perspective, the practice of medicine stands between humanity and preventable death. The medical system has flaws, and its practitioners can be negligent or imperfect, even sometimes harmfully so. But for the layperson, much of medical knowledge is incomprehensible, and the doctors who speak the language of medicine are the only hope of many ill or seriously injured people. In the 21st century, there are laws, professional guidelines, review boards, and attempts at accountability that guide medical procedures and ethics. A patient can reasonably trust that their doctor is beholden to the Hippocratic Oath and will do their best to help. But the doctors in the play represent a very different ethos of medical practice. For the person with a 21st-century view of medicine, the harsh criticism and outright rejection of the field that Béralde articulates seems foolish and even dangerous. However, medical practitioners in Molière’s time, as well as in the world of the play, have very little real medical knowledge at their fingertips. Their primary function is to pompously speak Latin and Greek and order enemas, purgatives, herbal treatments, and bloodletting in a trial-and-error fashion that may kill the patient, make them well, or do absolutely nothing.