“And yet you see no problem in the notion of hypocrisy as deep devotion.” (Moliere, 153) The comment from Cleante is the exact definition of Tartuffe. Tartuffe pretends to be nice and a saint, in fact he is a cruel-hearted person. Also, he is very sly and sophistic. He satisfies his desire for wealth and lust through his sanctimony.

He seems to be very loyal to Heaven, but after he gets others’ trust or faces his dirty desires, for example, lust; He totally forgets Heaven. “There’ll be no sins for which we must atone, cause evil exists only when it’s known. Adam and Eve were public in their fall to sin in private is not to sin at all.” (Moliere, 186) This statement shows that Tartuffe is not a true believer. A true believer should always do good deeds no matter in public or in private because God is everywhere and knows everything. People cannot hide from Him. Tartuffe is not a true believer because he does not even know the basic Bible content. Also, compared with the prior scene when Tartuffe public took out his handkerchief and let Dorine cover her bust before speaking, in privacy, he attempts to sleep with a married woman. These contradiction symbolizes the hypocrisy in French society under their mask of sanctimony. He even prevents himself from seeing women’s bust, so innocent people may believe he is an ascetic. The two entirely different behaviors in public and in privacy shows his hypocrisy.

In addition to his hypocrisy about modesty, Tartuffe is also hypocritical about wealth. The most abominable part of Tartuffe is not only his laziness and greed but also his hypocrisy. In fact, the only use of religion for him is to enslave others. He uses tricks to force Damis move out of his own home and to get his wealth. Heaven is the excuse for why he commits this sin. However, as Cleante says, “Heaven’s business is in your dominion, judging who is guilty and who is not?” By saying this, Cleante questions Tartuffe how can he make the decision of punishing for Heaven? Similarly, with the religion mask, Tartuffe gets revenges on a teenager because he exposes Tartuffe’s lust to his stepmother, and Tartuffe wants to get Damis’ inheritance from his father. The wealth is just for his own interests but not for the glory of Heaven.

Last but not least, I want to ask a question: is Orgon an innocent person who is just deceived by Tartuffe?  Orgon is the reason why some people like Tartuffe become a sanctimonions cheater. Orgon represents the bourgeoisie in that society who are very vainglorious, stubborn and arbitrary. As a result, some poor people noticed the vainglorious mentality of the bourgeoisie and became hypocrites. Orgon decides to marry his daughter to Tartuffe, not for his daughter’s happiness but for his own reputation. In the end, Orgon nearly gets the punishment he deserves. That’s why I think Tartuffe has a few tragic elements, already showing the entire bad ending to readers. Through this comedy, Moliere exposes the darkness of the hypocrites and bourgeoisie in French society at that time and people could only expect the King to solve these problems.