Describe one aspect of the play that seems very modern to you and one that seems very dated or old-fashioned.
One aspect of the play that seems very modern is how humans are still vulnerable to be deceived and how challenging it is for them to foresee the consequences from this problem. In the play, Orgon is the head of his household and is presented as a man of power and wisdom. However, despite of his authoritative status, he still fell into the hands of Tartuffe’s corrupt intentions. Similarly to this scenario, in the modern times, people are still vulnerable to manipulation and deception by others regardless of what status or level of education they have. For example, millions of people today spend a lot of their time using social media. Although social media seems ‘social’ and entertaining, the manipulation comes in when big companies intentionally make infinite scrolling pages so that we use these platforms as long as possible while they make more money. Instead living our own life, spectating someone else’s life is becoming part of our routine. The consequences from this routine are not analyzed enough in our society. Some examples of consequences are that the number of people wearing glasses is increasing, cyber bullying is born, and we are not as ‘social’ as we used to be. Thus, being vulnerable to manipulation is a part of a human weakness that seems very modern and the play is successful in depicting this weakness.
One aspect of the play that seems very dated or old-fashioned is the system of having an absolute monarchy as well as the idea of having a divine right to rule. Absolute monarchy is an old fashioned political system because the king and queen rule over the society without giving their people a voice. Another reason is because with absolute monarchy, separating the church and state is very difficult. The idea of divine right states that the king and queen have their power from god, therefore, these rulers stay as close to the church as possible. Today, however, people in many countries vote for their political representation and there are only a few countries with theocratic governments that include religion in their political system.
