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Tartuffe

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“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.

A Modest Proposal

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In the last few years there is a growing concern on the divide between the rich and the poor, the lack of understanding and compassion they show and even when they do show some compassion they can’t really relate to the poor because they are not in the same circumstances as the poor. In the essay “ A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, he proposes a solution to the problem that there are too many incompetent poor mothers and child beggars, how much they cost for the Irish kingdom and how they can lower the number of the poor or make them useful to the kingdom.

In his argument Swift uses some advantages that he thinks this proposal will add and solve. “it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children” (315). While reading this, I thought that the author would suggest some new phenomenon on how to keep the kids alive and render them useful; instead he proposes just the opposite. Using the element of surprise to capture the reader’s attention is great, however I got the feeling the author is pro life.

Swift proposes to kill two birds with one shot, lets make the babies of the poor a commodity, this will eliminate some beggars and help the poor earn some money. Either have mother’s sell their children on the market for the rich so the poor can earn some money, or since the baby has value it can be taken away from the mother as collateral for a debt they owe. However he isn’t suggesting to have them sold for labor, no, he wants the kids to be sold for food to the rich. As Swift writes in his essay, “I believe no gentlemen would repine to give ten shilling for the carcass of a good fat child… as I have said will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat” (317) the author justifies cannibalism by quoting one of his friends that stated that in other places they sell the dead bodies of those who are killed for committing crimes.

The author is contradicting himself, in the beginning it bothers him that kids are being aborted, but in his proposal he suggest killing the kids for food. the biggest problem is that his proposal doesn’t affect him as he writes in the end of the essay that “ I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child bearing.” (320). To convince the reader that he has nothing to gain from this proposal. He also states that, ask any adult person, if they thinks that they would want to be sold for flesh when they were young, so they don’t have to suffer living poor. Even though the author thinks this is a modest proposal, this shows how far apart the mind of a well off person is from the poor.