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Religion hypocrisy in TARTUFFE play
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Tartuffe “the Hypocrite”, is one of the most popular comedic plays and was written by Moliere. Throughout the historic play, several different themes are depicted and interpreted through a variety of characters. One of these themes is foolishness. Foolishness is depicted mainly by the character Orgon by his ignorant and gullible characteristics. Another theme interpreted through the characters is religion. The theme of religion plays a crucial part in the play and is especially important in its relationship to the time period of the production of the play. Moliere’s interpretation of his use of religion in the play, by the public and the church was highly controversial, during a time in which, the church was highly corrupt and held significant power. A third theme used in the …show more content…
In the beginning of the play, Orgon seems to be a sane man who is respected by his family and friends. As the play goes on, however, it becomes clearer how easily it is to deceive poor Orgon. Tartuffe particularly takes advantage of Orgon when he says, “Dear Son, do treat me as perfidious / Infamous, lost, a murderer, a thief, / Speak on, because my sins, beyond belief, / Can bring this shameful sinner to his knees, / In humble, paltry effort to appease.” In this quote, Tartuffe neither confirms nor denies that he attempted to seduce Orgon’s wife. By doing this, he sends Orgon’s focus on other matters and deceives him. Orgon’s foolishness is ultimately exposed in the play when Dorine says, “Her son is worse deceived; His folly must be seen to believe” (1.2.3-4), when talking about Orgon. Orgon’s characteristic of easily being fooled and taken advantage of, eventually led to Tartuffe’s progression towards gaining control of Orgon’s possessions because it allowed Tartuffe to manipulate Orgon’s mind and attention from the hypocrite attempting to steal from him, right before his
In the text, it states “Orgon: Has everyone been well? Dorine: Not quite. There was that headache Madame had the day you left. Well, it got really bad. She had a fever- … Orgon: And Tartuffe? He sat in her sight, not holding back, he ate with great delight, a brace of partridge, and a leg of mutton. In fact, he ate so much, he popped a button. Orgon: Poor man!” (21). This piece of the text serves as an example of Orgon’s appreciation for Tartuffe; the idea of which is unctuous as Orgon states later in the text that Tartuffe has taught him to love no one. This piece of the text also introduces two more seven deadly which are gluttony and sloth. In regards to gluttony, Dorine specifically mentions all of the actions that Tartuffe makes, most of which include eating, in which Orgon responds by stating how sorrowful he feels for Tartuffe when hearing this. Gluttony as a sin is described as “excessive ongoing consumption for food or drink” which evidently describes Tartuffe in this situation. While Madame Pernelle has both a headache and fever Tartuffe continues to enjoy the meal that he didn’t even obtain off his own merit. In a way, this can be seen as hypocritical as someone who preaches the word of the Lord would pray for someone to get better but instead of doing that Tartuffe simply watches her and eats. In regards to sloth in the same part of the
Tartuffe is a play filled with humor, comedy, and satire written by Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliere. Tartuffe focuses around a religious hypocrite by the name of Tartuffe, who tries to manipulate a friend for his estate. Moliere demonstrates how misrepresentation of religion can have unwanted repercussion. Madame Pernelle, Orgon’s mother, defends Tartuffe and leaves Orgon’s house after being aggravated and frustrated with the behavior and allegations of everyone there. Tartuffe is viewed by members of Orgon’s house as an imposter, a bigot, and a manipulator. Orgon is a wealthy yet gullible man who defending Tartuffe and is put in an awkward situation between him and his family. Cleante, Orgon’s brother-in-law, tries to keep the structure and
The first example of disorder, found in Act 1. Scene 4. Orgon returns home from a trip and asks his daughter’s maid how the house, and most importantly, his guest Tartuffe, has fared since his departure. He makes a fool of himself, only focusing on Tartuffe’s well-being, without giving any care to the fact that his wife was terribly ill during his absence. Another example in Act 2.
“Tartuffe” was written by Moliere and was successfully performed for the first time in 1664. “Tartuffe is said to stand for so many contradictory things” (Bold). With the passing of nearly six centuries, this play has demonstrated the idea of authority, given examples of how authority can be manipulated, and “is said to be a mere fact of history” (Cardullo). With respect to the modern denotation of the words authority and hypocrisy and key examples given from the text, it could be argued that the play presents specific examples of authoritative manipulation that could be considered a foreshadow to futuristic occurrences such as: producing a counterfeit reputation by using religion
This was the age of reason. People at this time began to apply rational thoughts to figure out and understand nature and to guide their human existence. In Moliere’s Tartuffe, this ideal is expressed through the character of the king. In the end, Tartuffe has brought an officer of the king back to take Orgon away. However, in Tartuffe’s attempt to get Orgon arrested, the king saw through him and reasoned that Tartuffe was the one to be accused and put to trial.
They becomes smitten by Tartuffe, who exhibits himself as a holy man and appears to be more pious than any other person they have seen before. However, the rest of his family, see through Tartuffe’s façade and realize that he is using Orgon for his wealth. “Yes, but her son is even worse deceived; His folly must be seen to be believed.” (Act 1, scene 2, line 10). Using rational thought, they attempt to persuade Orgon that Tartuffe is deceitful. Yet, Orgon has to witness first hand Tartuffe pursuing his wife before he accepts the truth that Tartuffe is not the holy man as he once perceived. Moliere uses this example to show how using logical thought and reasoning is more sensible than following blind faith. It provides that individual thought triumphs over the contemporary ways before
The role of religion played a major part in Tartuffe and Candide. In both of the stories, they have two different roles. In Tartuffe, the play exposes religious hypocrisy and in Candide, Voltaire uses religious satire to describe the role of religion. In the late seventeenth century, during the Age of Enlightenment period, was a period for great turmoil. The Enlightenment led many thinkers to the conclusion that kings and queens were subjected to death. It was a revolutionary change for political, social and religious thoughts. The Enlightenment incorporated many ideas on the center of reason. It eventually advanced ideals of liberty, tolerance and the acceptance of being able to separate from the church and the state. Before the eighteenth
Through its contrasting scenes, Moliere’s “Tartuffe” illustrates the flaws in human nature with regard to the foundation of morals. Religious hypocrisy plays a major role in each of the characters’ lives. One character, Orgon, in particular falls subject to the deception of Tartuffe, who pretends to be a devout, pious, and humble man. Orgon is a firm believer that morals are derived from religion and that a strong religious conviction is the foundation for morality. He is so convinced that a religious person can do no wrong that he would sacrifice those he loves, as well as his worldly possessions as he is duped throughout most of the play. Most of the characters in the play do not agree with Orgon’s view and believe Tartuffe to be a fake
Although most people in the play think that Tartuffe is a bad person, Mme. Pernelle and Orgon both think he is good. Mme. Pernelle says, “he is a good man” and he “leads the way to heaven” (250). Tartuffe is so deceptive that he fools Mme. Pernelle, a
In humble paltry effort to appease.” Tartuffe tries to drag Orgon’s attention away from the accusations made by apologizing for unspecified sins. He acts as if he is trying to repent for all of his sins he has ever committed and he feels like Orgon should treat him as if he was a naive and lost criminal with no guidance. This provides evidence that Tartuffe manipulated how people saw him in order to become socially accepted and get some sort of selfish benefits. It can be assumed that Tartuffe thought it was necessary to perform with a competitive incentive in order to be successful in his life and have certain connections.
Norman of the University of Chicago Press and Gerturd Mander of the Ungar Press weighed in on the sendup of humor of Moliere’s play. Norman follows Moliere’s Tartuffe into a more religious aspect. Generally, Moliere appears to lecture a sort of individual Christianity that shuns outward shows of devotion intended to awe others and gain riches or influence. The Roman Catholic pastors of Moliere's day may have thought the writer was a nonbeliever, or if nothing else a careless Catholic.
Moliere sets up the exposition of the play in Act I by the apothecary bills Argon is reading aloud. After Toinette, the maid, then enters the scene she sarcastically makes a comment about all of the bills lying on the table. Toinette lets the audience know that Argon is a hypochondriac by rebutting everything he says about his doctors and illnesses with sarcastic comments. For instance, when Argon says, “You leave my insides alone.” She comes back with, “I wish you would. You’d be a different man.” She also lets the audience know by saying, “Why, if it wasn’t for him you wouldn’t even know you were ill,” speaking of the apothecary. The main conflict of the play is Argon’s unwillingness to accept that he is not ill and he is, in fact, a very healthy man. This “illness” leads to the selfishness that he shows his family, especially his daughter Angelica. Later in Act I his “illnesses” prove to have relevance to the conflict when she speaks of Cleante, the man she loves. Cleante is not a doctor; therefore, Argon will not give his blessings for Angelica to marry him.
In Moliere's comedy, Tartuffe, the main focus of the play is not of Tartuffe, but of Orgon's blind infatuation with Tartuffe. It just so happens that the title character is the villain, rather than the hero. Orgon is Moliere's representation of how a man can be so blind in his devotion to a belief that he cannot make accurate judgment as to the sincerity of others who would use that belief to deceive him. Tartuffe easily achieves total power over Orgon's actions because of his gullibility. However, as the play progresses, Orgon's view of Tartuffe changes and results in Tartuffe's removal.
Tartuffe is a satirical comedic play written by Molière in 1664. It is focused around the family of Orgon and the character of Tartuffe, who has become Orgon’s personal holy man. Before being brought into Orgon’s home, Tartuffe was nothing more than a common beggar who learned how to act pious. Throughout this play, we see Orgon give everything he owns to Tartuffe: his love, his money, his daughter, and even the deed to his house. While everyone else in the household sees Tartuffe for who he really is, Orgon remains blind to it throughout most of the play. Orgon is warned many times by different members of the household, including his own son, yet he only chooses to lash out against those speaking. From early on in the play we as readers are able to recognize that Tartuffe is no more than a hypocrite and Orgon is a blind fool. In the play Tartuffe by Molière there are several different important themes that impact this work,
Molière also uses Cléante to teach the importance of moderation. Cléante calls to Orgon’s attention the foolishness of his extreme actions by telling him to “Listen to yourself! You’re over the top, / Getting carried away again. Just stop. / “Moderation.” Is that a word you know? / I think you’ve learned it, but then off you go.” ( ) Orgon has not only gone to the extreme of believing in Tartuffe but after learning the truth he flipped to the extreme of believing in no one. Cléante responds to Orgon’s reaction of religion being the cause of all his troubles by questioning, “…Rather than change your ways, you turned / Like that. [Snaps fingers] Attacking holy men who’ve earned / the right to stand among the true believers. / So now all holy men are base deceivers?” Molière demonstrates with these lines that one should recognize there are truly devout religious men in the world, even though there are men like Tartuffe, who are religious impostors and take advantage of faith to deceive others. Tartuffe’s character is a representation of how Satan deludes people. In the Bible, Jesus tells his followers that Satan is out to deceive and turn people away from him. Consequently, Tartuffe’s purpose was to deceive Orgon and take everything from him, resulting in his turning against religion completely. There are people who pretend to be righteous, but this is not a reason to classify all righteous people as imposters since overreactions can lead to the wrong conclusion and disastrous results. Molière’s intent is to show that moderation is important in all areas of