The play takes place at Mr. Jourdain's house in Paris. Jourdain is a middle-aged 'bourgeois' whose father grew rich as a cloth merchant. The foolish Jourdain now has one aim in life, which is to rise above this middle-class background and be accepted as an aristocrat. To this end, he orders splendid new clothes and is very happy when the tailor's boy mockingly addresses him as 'my Lord'.

Moli re was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature. Among Moli re's best known works are The Misanthrope, The School for Wives, Tartuffe, The Miser, The Imaginary Invalid, and The Bourgeois Gentleman.