Tartuffe And Feminism In The Enlightenment

In Tartuffe, Moliere's use's plot to defend and oppose characters that symbolize and ridicule habitual behavior's that was imposed during the neo-classical time period. His work, known as a comedy of manners, consists of flat characters, with few and similar traits and that always restore some kind of peace in the end. He down plays society as a whole by creating a microseism, where everyone in the family has to be obedient, respectful, and mindful of the head of the home, which is played by the father Orgon. Mariane shows her obedience when she replies "To please you, sir, is what delights me best." (Moliere 324,11) Shortly afterwards, Orgon commands Mariane to take Tartuffe as her husband even though she is not interested in him at all.

The play successfully conveys this message because Tartuffe is a first-class villain. He is as manipulative as Lady Macbeth, as greedy as Prince John, as underhanded as Modred, and as clever as Darth Vader. Through his every word and deed it becomes more apparent that he is thoroughly bad. More specifically, he not only wants to marry Orgon's daughter, but wants to defile his wife as well. He is not satisfied with living off of Orgon's wealth but wants to possess it. At no time in the play does Tartuffe resemble a truly pious man. The play never mocks God, but only those who use his name to prey on unsuspecting fools.

Orgon is the type of man that is easily impressed because he does not have a strong personality. Once Tartuffe gains his trust, Orgon seems to be willing to act under hypocrite’s guidance: “Under his tutelage my soul’s been freed/ From earthly loves, and every human tie;/ My mother, children, brother, and my wife could die,/ And I’d not feel a single moment’s pain” (Moliere 32).

The seventeenth century play Tartuffe, by French writer Molière, is essentially governed by the central theme of reason. Molière illustrates the importance of reason and logic by highlighting it in some of the main characters, and exaggerating lack thereof in others. Like many other French works from the seventeenth century, he emphasizes the significance of having the ability to reason, and in doing so brings attention to the religious hypocrisy associated with this period of enlightenment. Although he focuses on this theme through most of the characters in the play, I feel that Dorine and Clèante are the two characters that essentially serve to represent or personify the voice of reason.

In two different scenes, a character hides so he can listen in on a conversation of two other between two other individual. One instance is when Damis stands in a closet as Tartuffe expresses his yearning and passion for Orgon’s wife. Elmire tells him, “Your declaration is most gallant, Sir, but don’t you think it’s out of character? You’d have done better to restrain your passion and think before you spoke in such a fashion. It ill becomes a pious man like you…” (Lawall 338). Then Tartuffe comes back with, “I may be pious, but I’m human too… My keen concern for my good name insures the absolute security of yours; in short, I offer you, my dear Elmire, love without scandal, pleasure without fear” (Lawall 338). Damis is enraged and says, “Now I have my long-awaited chance to punish his deceit and arrogance, and give my father clear and shocking proof of the clack character of his dear Tartuffe” (Lawall 339). He then tells his father, “You’ve just now been repaid with interest for all your loving –kindness to our guest. He’s proved his warm and grateful feelings toward you; It’s with a pair of horns he would reward you. Yes, I surprised him with your wife, and heard his whole adulterous offer, every word” (Lawall 340). It seems that Moliere condemns the use of deception on Tartuffe’s part. Although, he seems to imply that, within the play,

Before Orgon is left to believe the statements about Tartuffe, it is the discussion between Orgon's wife, Elmire, and Tartuffe that begins to reveal the truth of the rumors of Tartuffe. As Elmire and Tartuffe talk about Orgon's proposal to marry Mariane, Tartuffe says that he would rather find happiness elsewhere. It is at this point in the play that Tartuffe begins to reveal his feelings towards Elmire.

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.

Tartuffe is the ultimate hypocrite in this play due to his immoral actions that go against the Catholic ethics, which he preaches. Though he asserts to be religious, righteous, generous, he is in fact, deceitful, avaricious, and immoral (Cashman 80). Tartuffe hypocrisy is contagious, dangerous, and has a negative impact to those surrounding him; it affects Orgon by destabilizing his entire family and making them believe him as a supposedly spiritual man. Furthermore, those who result in believing him grow into pretenders. For example, Madame Pernelle who preaches Christian kindness, assaults her house help, whereas, Orgon commits wickedness against his household. Notably, some characters, such as Elmire, Dorine, and Cleante are strongly against Tartuffe’s hypocrisy. Both Dorine and Cleante employ rhetoric linguistic to attempt to contradict Tartuffe, and although their opinions are coherent, it is hard to triumph against him. Elmire notes, “You see him as a saint. I’m far less awed…in fact, I see right through him. He is fraud” (1.1.23). This aims to expose Tartuffe for what he truly is, by exploiting his lust for her to attest his insincerity to his spouse Orgon.

From this scene, there is clear evidence showing how Tartuffe is a hypocrite. Here, he preaches about the importance of chastity; however, in the scene that follows, he goes against this statement when he tries to pursue Elmire. Tartuffe tries to persuade Elmire to cheat on Orgon, but she comes up with a plan to expose Tartuffe's true personality to Orgon as well as to show him how Tartuffe was trying

In Tartuffe, Moliere's use's plot to defend and oppose characters that symbolize and ridicule habitual behavior's that was imposed during the neo-classical time period. His work, known as a comedy of manners, consists of flat characters, with few and similar traits, and that always restore some kind of peace in the end. He down plays society as a whole by creating a microseism, where everyone in the family has to be obedient, respectful, and mindful of the head of the home, which is played by the father Orgon. Mariane shows her obedience when she replies "To please you, sir, is what delights me best." (Moliere 324,11) Shortly afterwards, Orgon commands Mariane to take Tartuffe as her husband even though she is not interested in him at all. Orgon's command shows how men are dominate

Orgon's family and friends believed by now that there was no hope in helping him realize the deceit that was going on right under his nose. Orgon decided that giving his daughter to Tartuffe would be the ultimate gift, and hearing this Elmire decided that it best to try to reason with Tartuffe to make Orgon keep his promise to Valere with his daughters hand in marriage. Orgon's character is drawn as that of being naive and ignorant, and displays this when he refers to Tartuffe as blood and tells the story of Tartuffe when he first met him with him asking for money, and then saying he only needed a little not the large amount Orgon gave. " nd how austere he is! Why, he can detect a moral sin where you would least suspect."(Moliere 26). In Elmire and Tartuffe's meeting Damis hiding behind the curtains hears the foul confessions of the holy one's love for Elmire and decides to come our and catch him. Damis tells Orgon of Tartuffe's confessions and the manipulator that Tartuffe is convinces Orgon that is just a plot against him. Orgon as angry as he is makes a stupid mistake "This very day, I'll give to you alone Clear deed and title to everything I own"(Moliere 48). This mistake alone cost Orgon his son, and his family's support. Elmire's plan to call out Tartuffe one more time in front of Orgon to show there was a wolf among them worked, and Tartuffe showed his true colors for Elmire by asking for acts of true caring if her feelings were true for him made

But once Tartuffe is unmasked and his hypocrisy discovered, Orgon reverses himself and determines to hate and persecute all pious men. Orgon in the play seems to represent man's extravagant and uncontrollable nature, which never takes the right and rational direction, but instead, constantly shifts between absurd extremes.

At this moment, we see that Tartuffe is two-faced and he knows that Orgon will believe what he has to say considering he is a saint. Orgon confronts Tartuffe and in disbelief Tartuffe admits what he has said and continues to tell Orgon what a bad person he is. Orgon then is disappointed with Damis for telling a "lie" and questioning Tartuffe's purity. Orgon is too blind to see that Damis is telling the truth, because he is so sure that Tartuffe could not commit such a sin. As the play continues, in Act IV Scene III, Elmire offers for Orgon to hear for himself.

He is at the beginning of the play seen as a God like figure, particularly to Orgon and Madame Pernelle, by this he is strong and inspirational, however, when he does realises he has been found out for being in the wrong, his persona changes to guilty and even vulnerable. This is shown in Act III scene 6 when Damis accuses Tartuffe of trying to seduce Elmire, Tartuffe uses reverse psychology to win Orgon over by confessing the all things awful, to an extent in which Orgon begins to sympathise with him. It is clearly shown that Tartuffe goes to the absolute extreme when he apologises to Orgon;

Mme. Pernelle butts heads with Elmire, Orgon's wife. Elmire is the most sensible member of the household, and she is probably the strongest voice of reason in the entire work. Her head is firmly planted on her shoulders. She sees straight through Tartuffe's guise of piety and openly opposes him. She possesses a sharp cunning, setting a trap so that Orgon will see Tartuffe's sexual advances. Elmire is a woman who knows her place in society and does not wish to cause too much uproar about her actions. At first, she does not want to do