Gullibility In Marcel Gutwirth's Tartuffe

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The name of Tartuffe adds fear within people’s hearts, Marcel Gutwirth points out how Tartuffe “appears one day in church and soon draws upon himself the attention of all by the strenuousness of his piety...” (33). Tartuffe introduces the deus ex machina in act five by adding the conspicuous piety and conspicuous gullibility. The fact is Tartuffe claims Orgon’s mindset by portraying his religious side, which is devastating because the bond of Tartuffe and Orgon is disastrous. Tartuffe gets Orgon to promise him Orgon’s daughter’s hand in marriage, destroys the bond of Damis and Orgon, hits on Elmire, and sweet talks Madame Pernelle without Orgon questioning his motives. By Tartuffe portraying a holy man, Tartuffe lies his way into a wealthy man’s home, and Gutwirth comments, “…the religious hypocrite or the professional confidence man, the professed nobleman from the provinces or the penniless impostor make for a range that takes in some mutually exclusive possibilities” (35). …show more content…

Moliere allows Tartuffe to live in a lie for the idea of religion and heart of civilized existence. “Religion is the most solemn name of the truth men live by, in an age when that truth is not merely acknowledged...” (35) because every man wants to be seen religious to the public’s eye to keep their secret reputation a secret. The real question is how far would Tartuffe go to keep his past in the past and reputation a closed book? The answer is Tartuffe cannot even save himself from his destructive behavior or stop himself from making the same mistakes over and