An Essay on Religion

Though the original plot of the play, when Moliere wrote it was to recognize the hypocrisy in a religious man. Watching and reading the play, unveiled another trait in the story; which is the love and trust a family has together to not only try to come together to explain to Orgon who is their head of household over the family’s decision and estate their deep mistrust for the religious beggar Tartuffe despite his simple thinking, they were keen to show him and prove to him that you shouldn’t trust an outsider so easily. In “Tartuffe” Orgon’s family try to open his eyes to the truth of a man who claims to be religious but, is nothing more but an evil man who is trying to con him out of his family’s fortune and estate.

Jean-Baptiste Moliere, who was originally named Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, was one of the greatest and well-known comic dramatists. He was known as one of the greatest and famous comic writers mainly because his works challenged the imprudence of trusting reason for different life events. One of Moliere’s most famous works includes Tartuffe primarily for the amount of controversy it sparked related to satire. Tartuffe is a play that tells about a man named Orgon, who is a wealthy family man, who takes a stranger into his home named Tartuffe. He later indeed is discovered to be a religious hypocrite. He doesn't have any morals or indeed values religion. Tartuffe simply used religion as a disguise to manipulate people and do his crimes. He pretends to be extremely religious, but from his actions and behavior, it goes entirely against the morals of religion. For example, when Tartuffe sees Dorine in Act 3, Scene 2, he tells her:

During life there are people in this world that are looking at one face instead of the other. In Moliere’s play "Tartuffe" shows that people will look at one face and ignore the other face of that person. Tartuffe was a character of these things, Tartuffe was a two -faced person and Oregon was the character that was blinded by the first face that Tartuffe showed orgon. Tartuffe was taken by Orgon and was taken care by organ as well. Moliere’s plays Tartuffe showed a few aspects of hypocrisy, deception and obsession. As the plat was constantly banned, because the play appeal to be an attack on catholic religion.

One highly esteemed student at Susquehanna University describes Moliere 's Tartuffe as “an attack, not on religion, but on people who hide behind religion and exploit it” (Sodd 1). Aside from this central theme, Moliere develops the plot and characters of the play in a way that makes an even more significant social observation. His writings leaned on the ideas of reason and ordered structure of society from the Enlightenment period. “Writing during the Enlightenment, his plays satirized a great many aspects of society, from hypochondriacs to hypocrites (Lawall 11). Most importantly, Moliere’s Tartuffe gives readers a taste of the

Molière’s juxtaposition of Tartuffe’s behavior in these two scenes enables the audience to clearly see the inconsistency between his words and actions. Tartuffe’s drastic change of behavior in the course of two scenes produces a comic effect that is intended to satirize the kind of religious hypocrisy embodied in Tartuffe.

Blinded by Tartuffe’s deception, Orgon only perceives a good intentioned man when in reality this man wants to lay claim to all that is Orgon’s, including his wealth, daughter and wife. Tartuffe, a “religiously self-appealing servant,” is able to help Orgon in his quest to get into heaven in the “after-life” before his time runs out. Orgon’s desire to find his way to G-d blinds his ability to see the truth and makes him highly vulnerable to all that Tartuffe asks of him. Orgon becomes so blinded by Tartuffe that he does not even believe his own son when he tells him that Tartuffe is trying to seduce his wife, Elmire. Orgon responds: “Oh you deceitful boy, how dare you try to stain his purity with so foul a lie?” He not only ignores the warnings of his family members, but he also kicks them out and disinherits them, leaving Tartuffe as the sole beneficiary of his inheritance. Furthermore, the author uses satire when describing Orgon’s response to being told the truth regarding the stranger he trusts more than his son. As Dorine says, “How a man like you who looks so wise and wears a mustache of such splendid size can be so foolish?” Dorine sarcastically makes fun of Orgon and says that while he appears to be a wise man, he remains a fool. Orgon has every appearance of a successful and intelligent man, yet he lacks the ability to see through Tartuffe’s act.

In Molière’s play Tartuffe, act V scene I, Orgon and Cléante get into an argument with each other and Cléante points out Orgon’s flaws with great acuity. Cléante berates Orgon for his widely varying stances toward holy men, explaining that he cannot accept that he was merely fooled by Tartuffe, and as a result he now discounts all who claim to be devoted to Christianity. By illuminating Orgon’s hubris, Molière demonstrates how many people, to some extent, refuse to recognize their shortcomings and blame their failures on others. This concept is pulled from the Enlightenment notion that reason is more important, and practical, than emotion which clouds a person’s better judgement. This scene also acts as a way to criticize particular religious hypocrites by conveying how one false action can ruin the reputation of an otherwise dependable establishment.

I’m sorry to have treated you so slyly, but circumstances forced me to be wily. (Moliere 4.7.1-14) This dialogue between Orgon, Tartuffe, and Elmire is significant because it shows Orgon’s transition from being an irrational thinker to a becoming rational thinker. In Act III, Orgon bases his decisions on pure emotion, but as the play unfolds, in Act IV, Orgon begins to make rational decisions based on the circumstances he witnesses. Moliere shows Orgon’s transition to represent the change during the Enlightenment Period.

The setting of Tartuffe is in Orgon’s home. Madame Pernelle, Orgon’s mother, Madame Pernelle feels as though Orgaon’s family and the servants in the home no longer appreciate Tartuffe. Tartuffe who was once facing financial difficulty was taken in by Orgon. The family begin to feel that Tartuffe is not as sincere and genuinely holy as Tartuffe is letting on to be,

Orgon has come to believe his family is in need of divine salvation. Tartuffe has earned Orgon’s trust by presenting himself as a holy man, someone who can save his family from the fiery depths of hell. Like the original Pharisees in the Bible, Tartuffe feigns holiness by his grandiose acts of piousness. This impressed Orgon so much that he invited Tartuffe home and supposedly his home became one “free of sin, / Tartuffe’s on watch—he won’t let any in” (Molière 152). Once he got his claws hooked into him, Tartuffe was able to distance Orgon from his family, even going so far as getting him to doubt his own wife. Even when this holy man shows improper interest in his wife, Orgon believes he is looking out for him when he says, “His interest

Moliere’s Tartuffe: Society’s portrait of the Enlightenment Era Moliere's satirical acumen, humor, and ironic vein made of his work a unique masterpiece of the art of ridicule by reinventing a dramatic style in which fiction and reality merge, creating a powerful play, both alarming and entertaining. Tartuffe, clever impostor, pretending religious devotion and friendship, enters into the good graces of Orgon, a foolish wealthy bourgeois, and his mother Pernelle, eager to reestablish their family moral rigor against the widespread corruption of morals. Neither his wife Elmire or other family members, including his brother in law Cléante and the maid Dorine, managed to convince Orgon regarding the hypocritical nature of Tartuffe. In fact, Orgon

Throughout time people and scientists started to have thoughts on how things come to be. They brought there theory to light to be heard by everyone but not everyone agreed to it and thought that it was a monstrous thought which started the scientific Revolution. Moliere's play Tartuffe demonstrates religious vigor that denies reason and leads to stupidity. “Rather than listening to the reason objections of others in his household, the wealthy Orgon invites Tartuffe into his home where he is tricked by this impostor believing him a humble and holy man when, in truth, Tartuffe is corrupt and greedy. He is so fooled that Orgon succumbs to the oppressive force of Tartuffe by arranging for his daughter to marry this hypocrite and by even giving Tartuffe his fortune” (Simon). Moliere wrote Tartuffe to show how he felt about the Enlightenment. Moliere presents the stupidity of intolerance in one's thinking and religious passion as the hypocrite Tartuffe attempts to steal Orgon's daughter and his property. It is not until reason and proof that those traits of the thinkers of the Enlightenment are used and that Orgon comes to realize the true nature of the impostor. The entire play of Tartuffe is basically showing how Moliere feels about the Catholic Church and The

The topics of religion and hypocrisy are the major themes of Tartuffe. The play is centered around a man called Tartuffe, who claims to be a pious and holy man whose every action is based to please God and follow religion tirelessly. “There has been no loftier soul since time began” claimed Orgon (Molière, 2016). We then realize this man does quite the opposite and “[Tartuffe] has proved his warm and grateful feelings toward [Orgon], it’s with horns he would reward [Orgon]” (Molière, 2016). He uses the mask of being religious to weasel his way into gullible people’s lives such as Orgon, then take full advantage of them and call it holy. This action is by definition

In his most notorious play Tartuffe, Molière relates the story of an attempt, by a manipulative hypocrite, to destroy the domestic happiness of a citizen who, charmed by his seeming piety, has taken him into his home as a respectable guest. The play was disallowed after its first performance because it was deemed anti-religion. However this ruling was made unfairly since true religion is never confounded with hypocrisy, but is upheld with warmth, which shows his characteristic hatred of imposture in any shape.

In Act, I scene I Madame Parnelle is irritated and irked by the servants in his son's house because they are paying the deserved attention to her even though she is not in need of any service. Her aristocracy upbringing demands that servants so are available to her beck and call and they should be nearby if a need arises. The boiling point of her anger is exemplified when Dorine who is a housemaid at Orgon’s house makes a remark against the guest Tartuffe “you may see him as a saint, but Im far less awed because I see right through him for the frauds that he is” (Moliere, p.9). This statement works to be true in the end because Tartuffe is exposed as a conniving fraud and Madame Parnelle words which had elevated Tartuffe proved to be false. In her defense of Tartuffe, Madame Parnelle had called Tartuffe “ a saint as we will ever find on this side of heaven”( Moliere, p.8). This is because Tartuffe is always quoting the bible in his conversations which make him seem pious in the eyes of the aristocrats which subscribed to religion a lot during the neo-classical period.