He is constantly preoccupied with imaginary illnesses and minor ailments, terrorizing everyone around him. Only his maid, Toinette, asks him bluntly time and again, “What’s actually wrong with you?” She points out to him that doctors and pharmacists are making a fortune off of him. But that doesn’t bother the wealthy Argan.
Being sick is his whole reason for living. Since he always wants to have a doctor around, he insists that his daughter Angélique marry a doctor. But she refuses to agree to this because she is secretly in love with Cléante.

The situation comes to a head when Argan’s second wife, Béline—who married him solely for his money—enters the picture and tries to get Argan to sign a will in her favor, secretly plotting to achieve this. After numerous twists and turns, the story finally ends happily: Béline’s deception is exposed, and Angélique can finally marry her Cléante.

The tragedy of the story is that Molière, who himself played Argan in the premiere of *The Imaginary Invalid*, was seriously ill. During the fourth performance on February 17, 1673, he suffered a hemorrhage at the end of the show and died shortly afterward while still in costume. Thus, this comedy remained his last play, and it became one of his most successful.
To this day, the wonderfully eccentric characters are an integral part of theater stages around the world!