What is the plot of Tartuffe?
Blinded by admiration, Orgon, a property-owning French man, brings the poor and insincere Tartuffe into his home and arranges for his daughter to marry him. Various members of the family attempt to have Tartuffe thrown out. Orgon is a man of property duped by the false piety of the penniless Tartuffe.
What are the themes in Tartuffe?
What is the main theme of Tartuffe? The main theme of “Tartuffe” is hypocrisy. Tartuffe is a pretentious person who is nothing like the devout, holy man he tries to convince everyone that he is. He is, in fact, a dishonest, hypocritical, swindler.
What is the setting of Tartuffe?
Written in 1664, “Tartuffe” is set in the house of Orgon, a wealthy Parisian who befriends the titular character, a corrupt and hypocritical “holy man.” Though Orgon’s family — wife, Elmire; son, Damis; and daughter, Mariane — are not impressed by Tartuffe’s pious charades, Orgon trusts the man absolutely and orders …
What controversial issue was Molière suggesting in the play Tartuffe?
Because the play focuses on the issue of religious hypocrisy, it was highly controversial at the time it was written and was banned from public performance for five years. A translation of Tartuffe in verse form by Donald F. Frame is published by Signet Classic in Tartuffe and Other Plays by Molière (1967).
What happens at the end of Molière?
The ending, however, is bittersweet. Tirard frames the story with the reappearance 13 years later of Elmire, now dying of consumption. Although she has stayed with Jourdain in the meantime, she has retained her love for Moliere.
What does Molière criticize in Tartuffe?
From our present point of view, the violent opposition that Tartuffe engendered seems surprising. Critics insisted that the play was an attack upon religion, but Molière quite rightly maintained that he was attacking hypocrisy, not religion.
When did Molière write Tartuffe?
1664
Tartuffe, comedy in five acts by Molière, produced in 1664 and published in French in 1669 as Le Tartuffe; ou, l’imposteur (“Tartuffe; or, The Imposter”). It was also published in English as The Imposter.
What year does Tartuffe take place?
1939
Tartuffe is set in 1939.
Why is Molière’s Tartuffe so controversial?
That Molière would comically treat such a subject in a religiously sensitive age that still dealt with heresy at the stake was daring in the extreme, if not foolhardy. That his critics misperceived the play’s exposure of false piety and religious hypocrisy as an attack on religion itself suggests that Tartuffe hit a sensitive nerve.
Why is Tartuffe a comedy?
A Short Analysis of Moliere’s Tartuffe An introduction to a classic French play Tartuffe is one of Molière’s masterpieces. The play was first performed as a three-act comedy in May 1664, and was immediately denounced for supposedly ‘attacking’ religion through its portrayal of the pious titular hypocrite, Tartuffe.
What are the characteristics of Tartuffe?
The parasite, the tyrannical father, young put-upon lovers, and scheming servants recall the cast in Roman comedies. Tartuffe, the unctuous faux dévot, resembles the seductive Vice in the medieval morality plays.
Was Tartuffe an attack on religion?
That his critics misperceived the play’s exposure of false piety and religious hypocrisy as an attack on religion itself suggests that Tartuffe hit a sensitive nerve. It is easy to condemn the bias and blindness of Molière’s clerical contemporaries at the time of his death, still smarting from the stings of Tartuffe.