Contrasting Moliere 's "Tartuffe" and Voltaire 's "Candide" , each author took a different approach in expressing their true opinions of institutional religion. In "Tartuffe", the main idea of the poem comes from hypocrisy of moderation and religion. In the beginning, we find Madame Pernelle criticizing Orgon 's family and fellow associates about their way of thinking and living. She talks about how they are not living as Tartuffe is and how they are fools to do other wise. In reality, Tartuffe is an ungodly hypocrite who uses his priest identity to mask his crimes and true identity.
Throughout the novel Moliere demands rationality from the audience as Tartuffe, the novel’s religious figurehead, deceives Orgon. Moliere represents 17th century French aristocracy through the character Tartuffe, who uses religious acts in order to disguise himself as a saint. Moliere does not believe this to be true piety in that true devotees, according to Moliere, do not need outward demonstrations. Moliere disagrees with several aspects including structure. Elmire -- a women-- is the only one who effectively found a way to awaken Orgon.
As well as, this recognition of Tartuffe's false nature reveals the severity of Orgon’s arrogance. Moliere highlights within the second half of the play, the extremes of pride and how mankind struggles to face it. The theme of pride is accentuated by Orgon’s nature, especially, during
Russell Aiuto, in his article “Sacco and Vanzetti,” describes the events that led to and followed the executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. On April 15, 1920, two men shot and killed a paymaster and guard in Braintree, Massachusetts. The two men escaped with three accomplices, successfully nabbing nearly 16,000 dollars. Although five men were involved, only two, Sacco and Vanzetti, were ever arrested, tried, and convicted for the crime. The trial against Sacco and Vanzetti was poorly conducted.
Throughout Molière’s ‘Tartuffe” the true intentions of multiple characters are consistently questioned. Different characters involve themselves in self-made delusions for specific reasons, causing the label of ‘hypocrite’ to become a significantly used word. This use of the word ‘hypocrite’ throws everything off balance, forcing the audience to question every statement/event deciding whether or not they are truly sincere. Moliere’s use of hypocrisy when describing Tartuffe brings immediate awareness to the text involving central theme of reason verses emotion, deciding whether or not a characters actions were based on their pure heart or their greed.
Zophy writes of women, “for the most part, did not have much of a “renaissance” ” (Zophy 3). In “The Family”, Alessandria, a woman attempts to connect her exiled soon with a prospective bride with the help of a man, only to fall short in her attempts. This reveals the power dynamics between men and women. Regardless of the gender, both men and women were married to each other with the parentings arranging the ordeal.
While reading Tartuffe, I was constantly dumbfounded by the prevalence in the world today of Moliere’s, comedically portrayed, accusations regarding ignorance in arranged marriage, social class dynamics and religious hypocrisy. Moliere created the characters to the complete contrast to what society saw them as, which was intriguing and comedic. He also displayed the average practices, such as planned marriage, to be disgraceful and shameful. Lastly, but most prevalently, Moliere saturated the hypocrisy of religion by later in the story revealing the religious character’s deceitful and malign nature. In this essay, I will be using historic and literary theory to examine Moliere’s interesting views of such practices and the satire involved.
A mythological allusion is being used. The goddess Moira was the goddess of Fate. She controlled the thread of life and she has the authority over the destinies of people. The goddess of Fate is able to cut the thread when it is time to end a man’s life. The slim woman is described as sleepwalking since she is so absorbed in her knitting and is barely conscious of her surroundings.
In fact, the text before the actual story explains that Molière uses satire and humor to “comment on his own immediate social scene, imagining how universal patterns play themselves out in a specific historical context” (Molière). Because of this, the king of France was made by the Catholic Church to have Tartuffe banned. He is seen, at first, by some of the household members, specifically Orgon and his mother, Madame Pernelle, as this pure, kind-hearted man. As the story progresses, it slowly becomes apparent that Tartuffe is not the person some characters have made him out to be. For example, the first time we get a feel for the idea is in scene 1.4 where Dorine begins to list off Tartuffe’s action as Orgon asks, “Ah, and Tartuffe?”
While unique characters are very valuable in various forms of literature, authors can successfully utilize stereotyped characters to achieve author’s purpose. The character of Mariane in Tartuffe by Molière is a stereotypical “damsel in distress”, as the other characters must help her while they combat the hypocrisy of Tartuffe. When Orgon, blinded by his reverence for Tartuffe, announces that Mariane is to marry Tartuffe, it causes conflict between characters. Mariane has to express her opinion and defy her father, so that she will not marry a hypocrite and liar, despite being a generally submissive person. In Molière’s Tartuffe, the author successfully employs a conventional character through Mariane, to demonstrate the strife that fanaticism and
For Shakespeare’s plays to contain enduring ideas, it must illustrate concepts that still remain relevant today, in modern society. Shakespeare utilises his tragic play Othello, to make an important social commentary on the common gender stereotypes. During early modern England, Shakespeare had to comply to the strict social expectations where women were viewed as tools, platonic and mellow, and where men were displayed as masculine, powerful, tempered, violent and manipulative. As distinct as this context is to the 21st century, the play exposes how women were victimised by the men who hold primary power in the community in which they compelled women to conform to the ideal world of a perfect wife or confront an appalling destiny for challenging the system. Moreover, Shakespeare utilises the main antagonist, Iago, to portray how men are desperate to achieve what they want and to indirectly fulfil the stereotype of masculinity and power through manipulation.
Orgon is blind not in vision, but he is blind to the two faced ways of Tartuffe. He is blinded by the religious and zeal appearance Tartuffe displays in front of him. Moliere shows his hypocritical ways through the use of Irony. The rest of the family can see through his acting, but Orgon fails to see it. The use of irony throughout the play is shown drastically towards the end when Orgon praises Tartuffe, but simply cannot see that he is an imposter when he shows his real colors.
Orgon is blinded by his admiration of Tartuffe. Without Orgon seeing for himself, he would never believe that Tartuffe could have deceived him. Moliere makes Tartuffe betrays others by his remarkable gestures of humiliation and aid. Moliere uses satire to emphasize the truth about Tartuffe’s lust for Elmire.
Originating in France, ‘The Necklace’ is a short story written by French writer Guy de Maupassant in the late nineteenth century, the period where literary movements realism and naturalism dominated French fiction. Maupassant played an important role in both the realist movement and the naturalist movement through his depiction of the setting as well as the character’s decision. The short story reflects upon the rigid patriarchal society during the late nineteenth century, demonstrating how the wealth of a person can lead to their generosity and greed; thus affecting their lifestyles. Through ‘The Necklace’, Maupassant aims to depict the conflicts between the upper-class and the lower class, how their inner desires vary. This essay will analyze ‘The Necklace’ and how Maupassant uses the social context, characters and literary devices in the short story to illustrate his misogynistic viewpoints towards women.
In his play “Othello,” Shakespeare is very compassionate towards the women of his era. He treats Desdemona with special sympathy. She is the victim of two crossed male aspirations — the devilry of villain Iago and the jealousy of her husband. The main cause of Desdemona’s tragedy is the total absence of women’s personal liberty. The lack of self-development without restrictions of society and family constricts the mind.
