Tartuffe Blog Post
“I do not deny God, and in no way I want to hurt the believers”
When I started to read Tartuffe I thought that Moliere’s goal is to instruct the reader to think wisely, to teach not to get under influence of a bad type person. However, reading further I realized that Moliere’s true aim is to criticize Catholic Church.
The author revealed hypocrisy and criminality of the church ideology which claims to guide the spiritual life of people. Moliere has shown by the example of Tartuffe that Christian morality allows a person to be totally irresponsible for his actions. He showed how Church comes to our life, sets own rules and principles and deprive believers of their rights. If we take a closer look at Act I, Scene 5th, we see how Moliere shows us the way Tartuffe, read Church, used to gain the Orgon’s trust:
He’d draw the eyes of everybody there /
And when I rose to go, he’d run before, To offer me holy-water at the door /
“I don’t deserve it. The half Sir, would be sufficient.” /
He’d share half of it with the poor, right then and there /
All these Tartuffe’s acts compel attention and make the victim to believe in his good intentions. Furthermore, Tartuffe explained to the others that his moves are just the Lord’s will. This is usually how priests explain when their prayers do not help believers. Isn’t familiar? Further, when Orgon gives him his estates, Tartuffe says, “In all things, let the will of Heaven be done” (Act III, Scene 7, line 42). Priests’ commitment to religion is considered the better, the more their believers disavowal themselves. Tartuffe does the same; he is turning Orgon into a spiritual slave. Thus, Tartuffe becomes the master of the house. Even more, he is intruding into personal life of its habitants.
Thus, Moliere shows Tartuffe as embodiment of the Church. In the end, Tartuffe’s goal was to give to Orgon’s family two options: be evicted, read excommunicated, or serve and obey.
After reading Maxims post about Tartuffe, I ended up with a question, and the question is that those hypocrites, who basically makes religion a way to accomplish their unethical desires, are they backed by the religion ?
My own interpretation about this issue is that human faith about religion is way too sophisticated, at least for those who believe in it, and it has become easy for those frauds to stumble on their victims in the name of religion. Personally, I don’t know much about religions but with my limited knowledge, I would say it’s not the religion that we should blame. Perhaps, it’s the individual who could use religion to make his life peaceful or use it as a stairway to accomplish his unethical longing.At last my comment is absolutely my personal interpretation about Tartuff its not to prove any idea right or wrong.
Although I see Maxim’s point, I don’t necessarilly agree. It seems to me as if Moliere is critical of those who materialize religion, more specifically the Catholic church, rather than the church itself. At the end of the story, it is Tartuffe the “phony” who meets his downfall. Orgon was a fool for following Tartuffe, you might say, “blinded by his faith,” however at the end the king recognized this innocent faith and saved Orgon for it.
Absolutely!
I agree that it’s not the religion itself that we should blame but the Catholic Church of XVII century. From the history it is terribly obvious that the Church at that time was a power machine in hands of autocrats and tyrants. Not that they were on the very top of the Church but they held very solid positions, so they could remove unwanted people and declare heretics all who encroach on their power.
In my opinion, this is one of the most aspects de brûlure that Molière criticizes in his play.
Hadiat Adib Ullah
When I first read the play “Tartuffe,” I was quite naïve and did not understand the more sophisticated and probably the “core” idea that Moliere presented. I just took the play as a way to show that there are hypocrites that exist in this world who are very manipulative and deceiving. Tartuffe, to me, was just the epitome of a nasty man. The way he used religion and the church to gain the trust of Orgon and completely use him as a puppet was quite sickening. What I really understood from the play was that cliché of “never trust anyone.”
It opened my eyes on how low people would stoop to gain one’s trust and affection. Orgon might have been extremely gullible and blind but put yourself in his shoes, he only thought he was doing good, for his religion, his church and just being a good human being. Furthermore, what I understood from Moliere was that kindness is a sense of weakness, to an extent. Orgon’s kindness was so extreme that it was almost unbelievable. He even went against his own wife when Tartuffe was hitting on her and admitted to it. The overall moral I learned from Tartuffe was that there are people who can be extremely nasty and low and people who are extremely gullible and kind, in the end the nasty people will get their just desserts and the gullible will feel ashamed at how easily they have been tricked.
Now after reading what Maxim wrote about Tartuffe being the embodiment of the church as a whole completely changed my ideas. To take it one step further however, this can be applied today, not just to Christianity but to every major religion. I had to skim the play again and actually read with his perspective. It actually made a lot of sense. I completely am supportive of his theory that Moliere is writing to show that Tartuffe represents the church (any religious institution) and how the church manipulates people. The line – “In all things, let the will of Heaven be done” (Act III, Scene 7, line 42) written in Maxim’s blog especially made a connection with me because I am very familiar with this action. A religious institution will point out that if you donate or give now, you will be rewarded in the afterlife, which makes them the “Tartuffe” and us the “Orgon” in a sense because we have no proof that we will be rewarded, but just the faith we have.