Tartuffe And Frankenstein Essay

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The Cause of Evil
Literature is often used to convey messages to their audience, through art, play or poetry. Whether it is intentional or not, an author can not help to include some aspect of the political events that happened during that time period. Two movements discussed in this essay are Enlightenment (17th – 18th Century) and Romanticism (18th – 19th Century) and through literature, we come to acknowledge the presence and representation of evil and how they shape society. Enlightenment thinkers value reason, rationality and moderation, whereas Romanticism encouraged imagination, emotion and individual sensibility. Tartuffe by Moliere demonstrates all of the Enlightenment values in his play, whereas Frankenstein by Mary Shelley emphasizes emotion, passion and the natural world. This essay will explore ways in which human reason and society can be evil and deceiving; although some individuals may think that evil is instilled in us from the day we were born.
Evil has been exemplified in both Tartuffe and Frankenstein. Throughout the essay we will understand how each of the movements relate to each literary work. Religion played a big role during the Enlightenment. Tartuffe, written during that time, casts a shadow on religious virtue and religious hypocrisy. Moliere introduces several characters that display a strong sense of reason to overcome irrationality and at the end of the story he presents the King, which signifies restoration to aristocracy. Most notably, Cleante (Orgon’s brother in law) who highly demonstrates both reason and religion while explaining to Orgon that men like Tartuffe are “not so rare” in their display of virtue and that there might be other motives. Cleante tells Orgon that peopl...

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...these laws (Chaffee, 60). He believed that it was the environment that molds the mind. As we see in Tartuffe, Orgon is somewhat responsible the outcome of Tartuffe, had he not let Tartuffe into his family, Tartuffe would not have been able to take advantage of the situation.
Another philosopher during the Enlightenment, Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that people have their own modes of feelings and thinking, and this is because they grow according to nature’s plan, which urges them to develop difference capacities and modalities at different stage (Chaffee, 80). Rousseau’s thought can be found in both Victor and the Creature. Victor was naturally a good human whose obsession was driven to achieve the impossible. The Creature wanted love and companion, but he was shunned by all that he encountered and therefore developed a sense of hatred and vengeance.

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