Examples Of The Obstacles Of Tartuffe

Tartuffe creates most of the obstacles for himself, as opposed to Candide who runs into them parse. Tartuffe creates every obstacle he has for himself, from beginning to end. With that being said, he creates the obstacles for Elmire and Orgon and at the end of the play the obstacle creates itself for him from someone else and that’s where his optimism subsides. The obstacles that he doesn’t create at the beginning of the story are the characters who don’t believe him such as; Damis, Dorine, Elmire, and Cleante. They create a diversion for Tartuffe that ends up being useful in the long run. Tartuffe is more of a plan person, he creates plans and then uses them to get what he wants. That’s where his optimism subsides. He creates the plans in hopes of them succeeding. That’s what optimism is. That’s what Tartuffe’s optimism is. He chose the people who wanted to pick out and how he wanted to go about it and started from there. Tartuffe creating the obstacle of him admitting his feelings for Elmire, “I felt that I must hide from this temptation:/You. My feelings threatened my salvation” (41). This moment

was a moment that Tartuffe either planned really well or didn’t plan at all and accidentally started falling in love or fell in love with Elmire.

This obstacle was created by Tartuffe, but that is to say, Candide is gullible, yes; but, Tartuffe is too when he believes Elmire would reciprocate his feelings, “But now I’ve spoken, and I hope you see/My ardor that is there” (54). That’s where Tartuffe doesn’t create an obstacle, this one is created for him.
Candide, we see as someone who uses all his adventures as a reason for believing in good, no matter how bad they get. When he sees Pangloss again, like mentioned above, and Pangloss is in bad condition and even tells him Miss Cunegonde is dead, he still has a decent outlook on life—well, he tries to and it pierces through even though such bad things have happened. From the moment Candide is kicked out of the only place he knows, he tries and does the majority of the time to keep a positive outlook on life. I believe this is why Candide has a happier ending when it comes to when both of the stories end. Candide has a significantly better outcome for himself, he ended up finding a reason to keep going, getting back together with Miss Cunegonde (even though he realizes she isn’t attractive anymore) and starting his garden. Essentially, that is where Candide resides, starting his garden and cultivating that. That’s one of the strongest endings of a story that I have read thus far. Because, although, he does have to replant his garden, he still has such a bright outlook on cultivating it with his friends—or the ones he has left, considering all of his senseis have died previously. He has to be his own sensei.
When you think about the quote ‘we must cultivate our garden’ from Candide and how Tartuffe would use it in a petty state of mind. His version of cultivating his garden is getting what he can for himself from innocent others and then prospering on that until he gets caught. It’s a toxic version of the quote, coming from Candide who we see uses in such a bright and selfless manner. More than likely, what comes with optimism is the ability to be gullible, and Candide contains that, Tartuffe does not. He is doing it onto other people that are gullible as opposed to Candide’s situation. That is also where they falter. It could be because of how they grew up as well, one can assume that Tartuffe had possessed this quality since he was young or adapted them from someone throughout his lifetime. Candide grew up in a fairy tale land, where nothing bad ever happened and they lived a content and happy life. There’s a good reason he possesses the gullible personality trait and there’s a good reason Tartuffe does not.
That brings me to the self-righteousness of Tartuffe, he feels the need to show off the things he has like they matter, when they simply, in most cases, do not.

Tartuffe mentions the first time he shows up in the entire play, “Laurent, lock up my scourge and/hair shirt too” (39). He feels the need to even mention what he has while Dorine is around like it should matter to her or anyone. If he is going with this plan of being a priest, he shouldn’t have to scream what he has. With him being a priest, you see a sense of self-righteousness right off the bat. After Elmire pretends to admit she likes him back, he also gets some sort of

confidence:
And I know how to exercise those fears.
To sin is not as bad as it appears
If, and stay with me on this, one can think
That in some cases, heaven gives it a wink (55).
The confidence that you see that Tartuffe has taken on is out of nowhere, but once he thinks he’s got her, her starts to become conceited about it. Most of the relationships he has encountered or even made between Orgon are not real. He is out for himself and you see that when he ends up getting the deed, and almost the house. Orgon thinks this is honest and true friendship, but Tartuffe is merely just out for himself in the long run.
One thing that makes Tartuffe very successful…almost, is the fact that he’s so optimistic. He is so set on this goal, that he almost accomplishes it. That’s a fairly good trait to have when you’re doing something as what he is accomplishing. That is where I see Tartuffe and Candide are similar: they have a goal and they go for it in hopes to accomplish it and that’s optimism to me. Candide wants so badly to get to Miss Cunegonde and he does quite a few times, and then loses her and then gains her back again; but, ultimately, his goal is to be with her and he does. The difference is, Candide loves Miss Cunegonde and he is using his optimism for a selfless act. It’s a self-fulfilling objective he has coming for him, and along the way you see things such as when he met up Pangloss again and he “promptly led him into the Anabaptist’s stable, where he gave him a crust of bread” (105). Even when Candide is doing badly, he is willing to help others, even if it means less for him because he knows it’ll come back to him a positive way. Tartuffe knows the outcome is going to be more than likely bad, I believe, but he’s optimistic that after this last con, he will be able to live in lavish and won’t have to be worried.
Tartuffe ends the story in a bright way, but in a different sense of the word. He ends his story caught. For some, they may think that’s a bad ending for Tartuffe and for others that is the best way to end the story. It is a happy ending indeed, I’ll say! Tartuffe finally gets caught and it is said that he has been doing these said actions for a while “For every sin, but why squander the time/To list them or the aliases he used” (67). It was only a matter of time before Tartuffe was caught, he was going to leave a trace of his bad doings somewhere and the King just so happened to follow them. If Tartuffe didn’t use his abilities for bad then I believe the story would’ve ended differently; but, alas, he did not and that is why the story ended the way it did. Tartuffe and Candide are quite similar in their optimism, but one faltered where one gained and one could say, ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you’ and that’s one thing Candide never did.
These two characters teach us the different outlooks on optimism, there’s not only the definition version, but you can be optimistic about pessimistic ideals or even about illegal ideals as well. Optimism is not always associated with something good like Candide’s outlook. In the end, they do show us that not all optimism leads into a happy ending. In Tartuffe’s case, he slipped up and even though he was so close. His optimism got him far enough until he started to gloat and over step his boundaries. That is what was important in Tartuffe’s case. Once you over step your optimism in certain situations, it starts to seem unrealistic and you accidentally end up with the opposite. You have to be practical like Candide was. His optimism was about himself and others as well. You rarely see a moment where Candide isn’t practical or takes his luck, the little of it that he gets, for granted. He knows his limits and that’s important.