Compare and Contrast of “Journey to The West” and “Tartuffe”

857 Words2 Pages

By comparing and contrasting the two stories, "The Journey to The West"

and "Tartuffe", this essay will attempt to compare and contrast the function of the

endings in these two works. "The Journey to The West" is a story contains one hundred chapters

explaining how a Tripitaka, a monk, with three disciplines travel to India to retrieve the holy

sculptures and seek for enlightenment, while "Tartuffe" is a short play about Orgon, head of a

family, being manipulate by Tartuffe, a religious hypocrite, and Orgon was enlightened at the

end. This essay will further show how both stories shared similar endings, while at the same time

highlighting their unique differences.

Enlightenment might be able to explain through text or words, but being able to

receive it or truly understand it, we must learn in it our own path. “The Journey to The West"

and "Tartuffe", were both created in two different time of period and different region, but yet

both stories shared similar ending and moral which is receiving enlightenment in first hand. "The

Journey to The West" was written around 1500 to 1582 in Asia, while "Tartuffe" was written

around 1622 to 1673 in Europe. In "The Journey to The West”, Tripitaka, and three of his

disciplines were send to India to retrieve the holy sculptures, and help them become Buddha

which known as enlightenment. Throughout their journey, they had experienced different

situations and supposedly each situation was supposed to help them become better, which

in the end they were all enlightened. In "Tartuffe", Orgon was manipulated by Tartuffe, a

religious hypocrite, which Orgon had offered all his belongings to Tartuffe. Elmire, wife of

Orgon, had seduced herself to Tartuffe in order ...

... middle of paper ...

...h the stories, in these ways, share endings and morals, religious purposes, they

are distinct and individual: "The Journey to The West" and "Tartuffe", were both created in two

different time of period and different region, but yet both stories shared similar endings and

morals which is receiving enlightenment in first hand. But they had different ways of delivery

their messages, and also different intention of writing their stories. Both stories concluded on

powerfully emotional although different notes. Wu Cheng'en used third person view to give a

general idea of each situation in the story, and yet Moliere used prosody technique to control the

words so that the sound of the play complements its expression of emotions and ideas. This essay

had shown the similarity and difference of the endings in these two masterpieces, and how they

shared morals.

Open Document