Authority In Moliere's Play Tartuffe

Moliere uses his play “Tartuffe” as a platform to openly call out the church of that day and expose them for the religious hypocrites they were. He uses an upper class family to depict each group in society, and how they can fall susceptible to the hypocrisy of the leaders, become bitter because of the misuse of power or learn to stand up and think for themselves. He uses the characters social status and gender in a way that would not conform to the social norm in that era. Women speak up and have more common sense, while the men are ignorant and their voice carries no weight within the family. Through others’ perceptions of an authority figure and the lack of people wanting to think for themselves, it was very easy for the clergy to take advantage of the common folk. Moliere suggests that authority brings out hypocritical tendencies, but he also conveys that authority can also be the answer to stopping hypocritical behavior. Throughout the first act Moliere begins to show the perceptions that each character has about Tartuffe. Though he is not introduced until the third act, there is already a perception in-stilled in the

Moliere plays with the authority that Orgon and Madame Pernelle are supposed to have but so easily give up in order to follow Tartuffe’s ideology. “Do you see? He’s showing you the way to heaven! Yes! So follow where he leads!” (1.1, 68-69) Madame Pernelle is claiming that Tartuffe has the power to lead them into heaven, and if they do not follow him they are condemned to hell. Kant speaks about this type of behavior, “The tutelage is self-incurred when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another.”(105) They were not willing to think for themselves which in turn would cause their demise when Tartuffe did not turn out to be the holy man they thought he