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.
There are many characteristics that classify Tartuffe as a comedy of manners including characters as types. It is clear that the characters in this play are
Orgon’s most obvious character trait is his foolishness. After witnessing Tartuffe’s exaggerated prayer at church, Orgon’s love for goodness makes his gullibility more prevalent. While Tartuffe goes on with his self-pity after Damis accuses him of going after Elmire, Orgon says, “... I’m going to drive them to despair / By making you [Tartuffe] my only son and heir” (3. 7. pp. 268).
In this play, Tartuffe is explained and described as a religious hypocrite or a “poor man” as stated several times in the fifth scene of act one. Tartuffe being the main character in the entirety of this excerpt, he is a man that is valued and favored by many. Tartuffe is discussed by Orgon, the husband of Elmire, he admires Tartuffe to the point of him being a religious factor in the lives of the people not only in the church, but at home as well. Orgon sees a man who has been ridiculed by many people but does not accept the fact that he is one of the few that highly favors him. “You just don’t see him in the way I do.”
Without a doubt, Tartuffe is one of the most ostentatious, hypocritical characters anyone can encounter in literature. He is a textbook definition of a hypocrite with his behaviors contradicting the morals he claims to hold. Furthermore, based on Tartuffe’s dialogue and decisions, he is an embodiment of irrationality, yet somehow Tartuffe justifies all his contradictions between what he says and what he does by presenting rational-like defenses. It is here where a distinction can be made about Tartuffe’s motivations. Is Tartuffe merely a hypocrite by deceiving others with a facade of piety?
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.
For example, within the family we recognize Madame Pernelle’s visit to her son whereby she criticizes all family members only aiming to praise Tartuffe. Tartuffe is a hypocrite, who appears to be what he is not and uses that particular trait to feign virtues in the presence of Orgon. Orgon is left with nothing but owe thus even forgetting his own family. It is easier to be persuaded by people than it actually seems.
In Moliere’s play Tartuffe the protagonist Orgon is being tricked by Tartuffe. Cleante, Orgon’s brother, offers Orgon sound advice through the entire play. Cleante is very level headed and calm about this whole ordeal. Making him one of the two voices of reason within the story. The second voice of reason is Dorine a servant.
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.
1. The character that best illustrates this concept would be Orgon by showing us what not to do. He was infatuated by Tartuffe because of his religious faith. When Orgon seen Tartuffe, he was kneeling down praying and kissing the ground and when Orgon was leaving Tartuffe ran to give him some holy water. Orgon was so impressed by this man Orgon says a voice in his head said “Just bring him home with you,” (1.5.57).
When Moliere wrote the play Tartuffe, he was clearly focused on religious themes. However it may seem, it is important to understand that Moliere’s work means to unmask the dangers of hypocrisy, not to ridicule religion itself. In the play Tartuffe, the man of a well to do family, named Orgon, is deceived by a self -proclaimed “holy man.” So much so that he neglects his entire family and ignores one major and perhaps obvious fact: that Tartuffe, whom the play is named after, is a complete fraud. Tartuffe represents everything wrong with religion and turns out to be a terrible influence on Orgon.
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.
Othello: A Close Reading This is an analysis of the lines 260-279 of the third scene of the third act of Shakespeare’s Othello. In an attempt to fulfill the incessant need for comfortable dichotomies, societies tend to be divided into two groups: the ‘in-crowd’ and the ‘others’. These strict dualities, constructed upon the inherent need for adversaries, are often as arbitrary as they are false and based on nothing but fear.
Uncontrolled Desire and Its Effects on Character’s Life Ayat Al Roumi Department of English, Faculty of Letters And Human Sciences, Lebanese University Abstract Sex drive is influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors. And if this desire isn’t controlled would lead to a destruction in all his forms.
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.
