Experiment or Ordeal?—Marivaux’s L’Épreuve

Marivaux’s short comedy, L’Épreuve , has long attracted interest because of the double signification of its title as both experiment and ordeal, two ideas profoundly important to the development of eighteenth-century sensationalism. An examination of the play as a quasi-scientific experiment yields new insight into the dilemmas of its characters, including the roles of both Maître Blaise and Frontin as control factors. As a specimen, Angélique becomes necessarily the subject of emotional manipulation that goes beyond Condillac’s system of analysis to prefigure the advent of sadism. As social and/or physical scientist, Lucidor prefigures modern researchers in refusing to confront fully the ethical issues posed by his desire to establish truth in a human context.