- What do you think of TV evangelists? Why do you think people send
money to them?
- Have you ever known someone you would describe as a hypocrite? How
would you define a hypocrite?
- How could an all-knowing, all-powerful, and loving God permit evil
in the world?
- Why do you think people write literature? Why do you read it?
The English (and French) word hypocrite comes from the Greek word
hypokrites, meaning "actor." For the original French audience the name
Tartuffe probably suggested the French word truffe, or "truffle,"
which is slang for "big nose" or "fool." The verb truffer means "to
stuff" or "to cram." Molière's play has been so popular over the years that
Tartuffe's name has entered the modern French language as the word tartufe,
which means "false devotion" or "hypocrisy."
- As you read, try to imagine what a staged version of Tartuffe
would look like. Where are the characters, what expressions are on their faces,
what do they look like, and how (with what tone of voice and what pauses
and emphases) do they deliver their lines?
- What does Molière say is the function of comedy in his Preface to Tartuffe?
Do you think comedy works this way? What do you think is the function
of comedy? Why did some people attack Molière's play? Do you think their attacks
justified in some measure?
- As you read the first scene, whose word do you trust and why? What
do you find out about each character?
- Why do you think Madame Pernelle is critical of others in the first
scene? Compare / contrast to other characters' (Orgon, Cléante, Dorine, and
Damis) reasons for being critical.
- Look for the following stock characters as you read Tartuffe:
the young lovers whose desires are thwarted by an unreasonable father, the
clever servant, the "reasoner," and the impostor or parasite. How are they
like or unlike types of characters found in TV sitcoms or soap operas?
- Try to pick a ruling passion for each major character in the play and
defend your choice. For example what passion do you think motivates Orgon
to trust Tartuffe?
- How effective is reason in stemming the passions of various characters
(especially Orgon) in the play? What (if anything) really works to
change people’s behavior, to make them see the error, extremity, and blindness
of their passions? What do you think Molière is saying about the relations
between reason, passion and authority?
- Who has power in the play and why?
- What do you think Molière thinks of religion? Could his critics have
been partially right—that his play might in some ways lessen religious devotion?
- Why do you think Molière included the argument between Mariane and
Valère? (Act II, scene 4). What do you think this argument is all about?
- What are some reasons why Mariane does not actively resist her father’s
plan to marry her to Tartuffe?
- As you read the play, ask yourself what Orgon’s state of mind is in
each scene. For example, what do you think he is thinking / feeling when he
tells Mariane that she will marry Tartuffe? Why do you think he refuses to
believe his own son when Damis tells him what he has heard Tartuffe saying
- What reasons could Molière have for mixing the language of love and
religion in Tartuffe’s speeches to Elmire (247-254; 286-290)?
- Why do you think Orgon is fooled so badly by Tartuffe? (See
introduction, pp. 160-61. Also, the name Orgon suggests the French word orgeuil,
- Do you think Tartuffe is really a hypocrite? Does he
think he's a hypocrite? What do you think motivates him? Support your answers
by referring to the text.
- When Tartuffe confesses his crimes (259-60), do you think he’s sincere?
(Does he really confess?) Why or why not? Why do you think this confession
works so well in convincing Orgon of his innocence? Do you think Tartuffe
really wants to leave (266)?
- Why do you think Orgon waits so long to come out of hiding in Act IV
- In Act V, scene 3, why do you think Mme. Pernelle won’t believe her
own son’s testimony about Tartuffe’s villainy? What point(s) do you suppose
Molière is making about how to make people blinded by passion see the light
- Do you think the deluded characters really learn to behave reasonably?
Does reason really triumph at the end?
- Name some of the ways in which passion destroys order in the play.
In what way is order restored? Does the resolution ("unknotting" or dénouement)
of the plot in Act V seem satisfying to you? Why or why not?
Additional Tartuffe Questions
1. In Act II, Scene 2, why do you think Dorine purposely goads
Orgon into losing his temper? What can she hope to achieve? Find other instances
in the play where characters lose control and are overcome by their passions.
2. Some say Orgon became infatuated with Tartuffe because he wanted greater
control over his family (or perhaps himself). What do you think of this view?
3. Who has control in the play and who loses it and why? What are some extremes
of loss of control depicted in the play? Relate control to the virtue of
moderation, the use and abuse of power, and the legitimate and illegitimate
exercise of authority (discuss specific scenes).
4. Give concrete examples of some of the contradictions in the play between
traditional religious values and the usual 17th century bourgeois existence
(e.g., pride vs. humility, money vs. poverty, humanity vs. "heaven"). Can
you find any evidence in the play that Moliere endorses traditional religious
values? If not, what sort of religion does he advocate in the play?
From Moliere's Preface to Tartuffe
Here is a comedy that has excited a good deal of discussion and that has
been under attack for a long time; and the persons who are mocked by it have
made it plain that they are more powerful in France than all whom my play
have satirized up to this time. Noblemen, ladies of fashion, cuckolds, and
doctors all kindly consented to their presentation, which they themselves
seemed to enjoy along with everyone else; but hypocrites do not understand
banter: they became angry at once, and found it strange that I was bold enough
to represent their actions and to care to describe a profession shared by
so many good men. This is a crime for which they cannot forgive me, and they
have taken up arms against my comedy in a terrible rage. They were careful
not to attack it at the point that had wounded them: they were too crafty
for that and too clever to reveal their true character. In keeping with their
lofty custom, they have used the cause of God to mask their private interests;
and Tartuffe, they say, is a play that offends piety: it is filled with abominations
from beginning to end, and nowhere is there a line that does not deserve
to be burned.
. . . .
Especially to the truly devout do I wish to vindicate my play, and I beg
them with all my heart not to condemn it before seeing it, to rid themselves
of preconceptions, and not aid the cause of men dishonored by their actions.
. . . .
If the function of comedy is to correct men's vices, I do not see why
any should be exempt. Such a condition in our society would be much more
dangerous than the thing itself; and we have seen that the theater is admirably
suited to provide correction. The most forceful lines of a serious moral
statement are usually less powerful than those of satire; and nothing will
reform most men better than the depiction of their faults. It is a vigorous
blow to vices to expose them to laughter. Criticism is taken lightly, but
men will not tolerate satire. They are quite willing to be mean, but they
never like to be ridiculed.
. . . .
I cannot deny that there were Church Fathers who condemned comedy; but neither
will it be denied me that there were some who looked on it somewhat more
favorably. Thus authority, on which censure is supposed to depend, is destroyed
by this disagreement; and the only conclusion that can be drawn from this
difference of opinion among men enlightened by the same wisdom is they viewed
comedy in different ways, and that some considered it in its purity, while
others regarded it in its corruption and confused it with those wretched
performances which have rightly been called performances of filth.
. . . .
. . . I wonder if it is not better to try to correct and moderate men's passions
than to try to suppress them altogether. I grant that there are places better
to visit than the theater; and if we want to condemn every single thing that
does not bear directly on God and our salvation, it is right that comedy
be included, and I should willingly grant that it be condemned along with
everything else. But if we admit, as is in fact true, that the exercise of
piety will permit interruptions, and that men need amusement, I maintain
that there is none more innocent than comedy.
Honors 215 / 216 Syllabus
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