Character Analysis
La Flèche is Cléante's valet. For the most part, he's a pretty cool customer. He's a young man who doesn't really wish anyone ill. But when Harpagon yells at him for no good reason and boots him to the curb, La Flèche decides that he'd like to rob the old man purely out of spite. He tells Cléante, "I'm bound to say, the way he carries on almost makes me want to rob him rotten. If I did rob him, I'd even believe I'd done something creditable" (2.1.40). And that's pretty much La Flèche's entire role in this play.
Good to his word, La Flèche ends up stealing Harpagon's money box and setting off all the events that lead to the play's happy ending. It's not like La Flèche wants to keep the money, though, since he immediately hands the box over to Cléante once he has it. In the end, La Flèche seems mostly interested in teaching Harpagon a lesson.
La Flèche's Timeline