Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Insight on the topic of deception
Theme Of Deception In Tartuffe By Moliere
Deception in modern society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Insight on the topic of deception
Moliere uses Tartuffe, Orgon, and Elmire to show varying degrees of deception. We are also exposed to numerous instances of deception in life today from religion, entertainment, and even government. To begin, Moliere uses the wife, Elmire, to demonstrate an example of deception. She has such a desire to prove to her husband that Tartuffe has feelings for her and isn’t as pure as he thinks. Taking matters into her own hands, Elmire sets up a plot to deceive Tartuffe and catch him red-handedly. She attempts to make him believe that she too has feelings for him, forcing her husband to hear the whole truth. In scene 4.5 of Tartuffe, Elmire says “Most important, I am completely free to show my ardor for you, finally”. This is textual evidence …show more content…
Even after Orgon’s wife, son, and daughter continuously tried telling him about the dangers of Tartuffe, Orgon still didn’t listen. Tartuffe himself even says “I’m wicked through and through, the most miserable of sinners”, explaining to Orgon that he is a dishonorable individual. After keeping up this façade for so long, the real Tartuffe is finally exposed, and after being confronted by Orgon he admits he is here to take his estates. He confesses that he is in love with his wife, and now he will have Orgon arrested and will take all he has. If you think about it, we deal with a lot of fake religious idols now days. If you switch the roles, some pastors will take you into their home as well, and once you’ve become vulnerable and under their arms, they’ll take you for what you have. Their ultimate aspiration for opening the church is their greed for money. They deceive us by telling us what sounds good so that the biblical meaning of “offering” will soon just benefit them. In today’s society, it has gotten to the point where some pastors provide ATMs, arrive in expensive cars, and preach in Nike jumpsuits. Just like the deception in Tartuffe, the person who is portrayed as a religious figure has an underlying plan of depriving you of your
Tartuffe, a con artist, knows that if he can give an answer to the ultimate question then he must be of great importance. Tartuffe uses the established hierarchy and ideology of Orgon’s faith to mold himself into an exemplified “holy” individual. Blinded by his own faith Orgon fails to see through the carefully crafted facade. Tartuffe’s holiness resigns Orgon to, “my heart…surrendered to him” (1.5.24) certifying Tartuffe’s influence over Orgon. When questioning Tartuffe, the other characters are questioning Orgon’s faith. Once established an authority figure’s power will be met with confirmation bias. Nothing will convince Orgon of the deception, rather he will rationalize anything he is told. Tartuffe uses Orgon’s faith to manipulate him into evicting Damis who accused Tartuffe of infidelity by a display of faith: “I beg you on bended knee, to pardon him.” (3.6.40-41) This reaffirms Tartuffe’s holiness to Orgon and through this
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere wrote Tartuffe during the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment. One of the main characteristics of the Age of Enlightenment was a push towards using reason over emotions to make decisions. The leaders of the enlightenment truly believed that the world could be made a better place if people did this. In Tartuffe, when the characters use their emotions to make their decisions they find themselves in undesirable situations. While those who let their emotions rule them find their lives spinning out of control, there are other characters in the play who try to approach them with reason and logic. Out of these characters the lady’s maid Dorine stands out as the voice of reason.
For many centuries, the art of deception has been a powerful tool for achieving goals, and it has spawned the ancient debate of the ends justifying the means. In the tragedy Philoctetes by Sophocles and in Hesiod's Theogony, there are many instances of deception, particularly on the part of men in the texts. For each of them, the deceit is justified as a means of building and maintaining a reputation or obtaining power. Ultimately, however, the use of deception results in putting the men in positions of further vulnerability.
Deception can involve being tricked by others, or tricking one's self. In Card's novel, trickery and false promises are parts of both games and deadly conflicts. Discuss the ways that deception is figured in the novel.
The term deceit is defined as an inclination or practice of misleading other people through lies or trickery. The word deceit has garnered a negative connotation in many people’s minds as it is commonly associated with ill intention and reserved for the antagonists of the story. However, the theme of deceit can take on a positive connotation because the authors can use deceit as a way to convey a critique of society during their time period. The author Molière, regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language, published a comedy stage play titled Tartuffe in 1664 during the reign of Louis XIV. Tartuffe was a significant work because it criticized religious fanaticism in French society by using a form of deceit called hypocrisy,
	The first example of deception we see is with the characters of Beatrice and Benedick. These two characters provide the humor throughout Shakespeare's comedy; their repartees and soliloquies tend to leave the reader smiling and anxious for more dialogue between them. Beatrice and Benedick have had a relationship prior to their battles of wit to which she alludes to in Act 2: "Marry, once before he won it for me with false dice; / Therefore your grace may well say I have lost it’ (2.1.265-7). We see that at one time in the past they had a relationship that somewhere went wrong. The deception of Beatrice and Benedick comes courtesy of Don Pedro in Act 2. In this scene, Don Pedro, out of pure amusement, asks Leonato, the governor of Messina, and Claudio, a lord attending on Don Pedro, for help to bring these two together: "If we can do this, Cupid is no / longer an archer; his glory shall be ours…" (2.1.363-4). In Act 2.3, Claudio, Pedro, and Leonato, see Benedick in the garden and decide that that is the right moment for them to try and trick Be...
The first instance of trickery and deception is when Don Pedro tells Claudio that he will woo Hero for Claudio to marry her in Act I Scene I. Tricking her to believe that Don Pedro himself has feelings for Hero:
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.
The female characters in Molière’s Tartuffe display feminist behaviors years before the feminist movement emerged historically. Many of their actions, words and behaviors are completely out of character for women of their time. Moliere makes a strong statement with this play by presenting female characters that go against convention. The gender inequality when the Enlightenment began was extreme. The women in this play try to fight against this inequality and in the end it is the patriarch of the family that is fooled by Tartuffe yet most of the female characters remain un-fooled throughout the play. Two of the female characters in this play, Doreen and Elmire play significantly different roles in the home. They have different personalities, different household duties and drastically different social standing. As different as these women are, they both show signs of early feminism. To various degrees they fight for want they believe is right. Dorine speaks her mind openly and does not hold anything back. Elmire is sneakier and uses her sexuality to get what she wants.
Moliere rocked the 17th century French world with his comedy "Tartuffe" in 1664. Although, religious factions kept the play banned from theatres from 1664-1669, "Tartuffe" emerged from the controversy as one of the all-time great comedies. Tartuffe is a convincing religious hypocrite. He is a parasite who is sucking Orgon, the rich trusting father, for all he is worth. Orgon does not realize that Tartuffe is a phony, and caters to his every whim. For instance, he reneges on his promise to let his daughter Mariane, marry Valere. Instead he demands that she wed Tartuffe, whom she despises. He also banishes his own son, Damis, from his house for speaking out against Tartuffe and all of his son's inheritance is promised to Tartuffe.
Molière’s play “Tartuffe and Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” both demonstrate a comical portrait of hypocrisy. In “Tartuffe”, the main character Tartuffe is seen as a religious hypocrite who takes advantage of Orgon’s wealth and agrees to marry his daughter, Mariane against her wishes. In “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Jack and Algernon both lie about their identity to get the woman of their dreams. The authors use the concept of double personalities in the play to reveal the deceit and lies to represent the theme of hypocrisy. In fact, hypocrisy is not only displayed in the characters but in the play as a whole. Additionally, the plays are both hypocrital in ways that they do not follow the structure of comedy.
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.
There are several different types of deception such as a the myth’s we grow up believing in, a little white lie, trickery, pranks, manipulation, and lying. Each one has been classified as a degree of deceit, but we must take into account all of the reasons behind each one. Some of the deceptions are meant to keep our imagination and dreams alive; others are meant to save someone’s feelings; and a majority of them are lies that are meant to save ourselves or manipulate someone into doing us a favor.
The passage below is found in the opening act of one of Shakespeare's most illusive plays of control and manipulation. The word "deception" is defined as "the act of misleading" or "to trick, cheat, lie, and mislead". From this definition, it is obvious that deception is normally perceived to be evil and results in the harm of others mentally and physically. It leads to broken hearts, untold truths, or even unpunished murder. However, in Shakespeare's The Tempest, deception is used as a virtuous art to manipulate an unjust situation and rectify it.
Imagine the Paris home of Orgon, who meets Tartuffe at church and is completely taken in by him...so much so, that he foolishly not only invites this relative stranger, Tartuffe, to live in his home, but also promises his daughter (Mariane) in marriage to the man, though she has promised her heart to Valère.