Marriage must be agreed upon by the female party

The rule that a marriage must have the woman’s consent is a governing principle of the play’s resolution. Although Arlequin initially announces that he has arranged Nisida’s marriage to the marquis d’Yrville, he immediately treats her own judgment as decisive: if the match does not suit her, her reasons will outweigh his. The rule therefore transforms paternal authority from a power to impose a match into a responsibility to hear, protect, and ultimately respect his daughter’s will.

The Proposed Marriage and Nisida’s Right to Refuse

Arlequin presents the marquis d’Yrville as a socially approved and personally suitable husband. He knows the marquis’s good reputation, recalls that Nisida has often praised his qualities, and has noticed that the young man seeks her company. On that basis, he believes he has correctly interpreted her feelings and announces that he has settled the marriage. Nisida, however, distinguishes esteem from love: she has never loved the marquis, although she has acknowledged his admirable qualities. Her response exposes the danger of treating a woman’s courtesy, praise, or embarrassed reserve as consent.

Arlequin’s reaction gives the rule its clearest formulation. He admits that he mistook Nisida’s behavior for love and promises to withdraw his word because her agreement was the marriage’s first condition. His willingness to cancel the arrangement is not presented as indifference to marriage or to the marquis’s status; it is a recognition that the daughter’s consent has priority over the father’s arrangement. The gesture, including his request for forgiveness and the tender exchange that follows, turns a potentially coercive decision into an acknowledgment of Nisida’s authority over her own marriage.

Consent Under Pressure

The principle is tested more severely when Nisida reveals that she loves Cléante. She refuses to disclose everything before witnesses and later asks Arlequin to postpone the proposed marriage and send her to a convent. Her request is both a declaration of emotional conflict and an attempt to preserve filial duty: she says that the less her father commands, the more determined she is to obey, yet she still needs time and distance to endure the consequences of her love.

Nisida’s position is not simple rebellion. She is prepared to sacrifice her passion for what she believes will secure her father’s happiness in old age. She begs Arlequin to separate her from Cléante, asks for time, and offers to marry the marquis d’Yrville. This proposed self-sacrifice shows how consent can be compromised even without an explicit command: a daughter may appear to agree because affection, gratitude, and fear of injuring her father make refusal morally painful. Arlequin therefore has to distinguish genuine choice from obedient resignation.

Paternal Authority and Moral Judgment

Arlequin responds to Nisida as both guardian and interpreter of her condition. He rejects the idea that she will simply marry the marquis and says that he must try to cure her, describing himself as her physician and promising to stop the remedies if they cause too much harm. His language remains paternal and controlling, since he proposes to manage her emotional life and remove her from Cléante, but it also acknowledges that the success of his plan depends on her welfare rather than on the completion of his arrangement.

The same tension reappears when Cléante’s hidden identity is exposed. Cléante confesses that he entered Arlequin’s household as a secretary because he had loved Nisida for more than a year and could not otherwise gain access to her. He had hoped to earn Arlequin’s esteem before revealing his poverty and his love. The disclosure makes the marriage question inseparable from class, property, and deception: Cléante has concealed his identity, while Nisida has concealed or restrained her feelings in order to protect her father.

Law, Inheritance, and the Final Choice

Cléante then identifies himself as the son of the comte de Valcourt, whose fortune was believed to have been left to a stranger after his death in Italy. Arlequin recognizes Cléante as the son of his benefactor and declares that the fortune belongs morally to him. He tells Nisida that they were rich that morning but will become poor because honesty requires the property to be returned.

Cléante initially argues that he has no legal claim because his father’s marriage was never declared, but Arlequin refuses to let the law settle the matter. He insists that his conscience cannot accept wealth while the son of his benefactor remains poor. His demand is qualified by a paternal concern: he asks Cléante to secure Nisida’s means of living, because he could not bear to leave his daughter destitute. Cléante accepts the fortune only in order to place it at Nisida’s feet and makes his return of love conditional not on wealth but on Arlequin’s consent to the union.

The final arrangement therefore joins the legal and emotional strands of the plot. Nisida is not married to the marquis d’Yrville against her wishes; Cléante does not use the recovered inheritance to bypass her father; and Arlequin’s moral restitution does not require him to abandon his daughter’s future. The resolution depends on the convergence of Nisida’s choice, Cléante’s declaration, and Arlequin’s recognition that paternal duty includes both respecting her will and protecting her material security.

Significance in the Play

The rule places female consent at the center of a conflict otherwise organized around fathers, suitors, inheritance, and social reputation. Arlequin’s authority remains substantial, but it is ethically legitimate only when it listens to Nisida and allows her refusal to change his decision. The play also distinguishes consent from obedience: Nisida’s willingness to sacrifice her love for her father may look dutiful, yet Arlequin must determine whether such compliance would destroy her happiness.

By the conclusion, marriage is presented as a choice that must be acceptable to the woman who enters it, not merely an arrangement negotiated by her father or justified by a man’s reputation. Arlequin’s final moral lesson links this principle to his broader ideal of the honest man and the good father: the greatest pleasure lies in performing that duty. Paternal goodness is thus measured not by securing an advantageous husband at any cost, but by refusing to purchase family comfort through a daughter’s coerced unhappiness.