L’Avare, five-act comedy by Molière, first performed in 1668 and published in 1669. The plot concerns the classic conflict of love and money. The miser Harpagon wishes his daughter Elise to marry a wealthy old man, Anselme, who will accept her without a dowry, but she loves the penniless Valère. Harpagon himself has set his eye on young, impoverished Mariane, whom his son Cléante also loves... Only a ludicrously lucky set of circumstances can, in the final scene, save the hapless children from their father’s heartless stinginess. Although L’Avare is usually considered to be a comedy, its tone is one of absurdity and incongruity rather than of gaiety.