Molière's The School for Wives was performed in the early 1660s and became the centre of fierce controversy. Critics attacked its morality, realism and treatment of marriage. The quarrel confirmed Molière's power to expose hypocrisy through comic theatre.

The controversy helped define French comedy as a serious literary force, not merely popular entertainment. Molière's verse drama sharpened comic dialogue, social satire and the theatrical analysis of gender and authority.