Aube 1
Sebastien Aube
LITR 221-D91
Prof. J. Owens
04/19/11
Research Paper
Explore the use of satire/irony in Moliere’s plays
Moliere’s Tartuffe is a 17th century comedy. The plot of Tartuffe focuses on Orgon’s
desire to keep the control over his family. He portrays Tartuffe as a religious moral man. The rest
of Orgon’s family sees through Tartuffe, and knows that he is a hypocrite and self oriented man.
Orgon listens to Tartuffe’s advice and announces that he will marry Tartuffe to his daughter,
Mariane. Mariane is already engaged to Valere, she does not want to marry him, so she attempts
to trap Tartuffe into confessing to another woman, Elmire, his desire for her, and this leads to
many tragic and comic events. Satire and irony are major themes in Moliere’s plays. Moliere
expresses men’s problems, using satire to ridicule them and expose them to the public opinion.
Tartuffe has many themes that appear many times throughout the play. The time period which
this piece was written, was The Age Of Reason. One of the main ideas and attitudes during this
period was, reason must always control passion. In Moliere’s Tartuffe satire and irony are the
main themes and play a critical part in showing the true personality of the characters.
There are many themes and ideas in this play but hypocrisy is truly shows what kind of
character Tartuffe is. To Orgon Tartuffe is a generous religious man that gives good advices and
is willing to help anyone. Tartuffe is a hypocrite because he creates a different appearance of
holiness and religious care while secretly leading a life of crime and immoral behavior.
Throughout the play, many characters refer to Tartuffe as a hypocrite and can see clearly that he
does not act in the way that he preaches. For example, Tartuffe tells his servant to tell anyone
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who asks that he is busy giving out charity to the poor and depressed, but he is actually busy
trying to seduce the wife of his friend, Orgon. Tartuffe also displays an obvious show for religion
by acting like a moral figure and telling everyone else in the household how to behave. Orgon is
the master of the household but he has given authority to Tartuffe so that the servants and his
family will obey Tartuffe’s supposedly good teachings. Tartuffe gives an advice to Orgon and
says: “How can you know what I might do, or be? Is it on my good actions that you base Your
favor? Do you trust my pious face? Ah, no, don't be deceived by hollow shows; I'm far, alas,
from being what men suppose.” (Moliere 3.6.6-9). Tartuffe is telling Orgon that he is a good
person and that he would know if he is a hypocrite and that he always tells the truth, especially to
Orgon. Tartuffe is constantly taking advantage of Orgon for example at the end of the play
Tartuffe has forced Orgon into giving him his house.
Moliere’s Tartuffe is a truly good comedy that makes us think while we laugh. Satire is
the use of irony, sarcasm, and ridicule to correct social errors or injustices. Moliere attempts to
modify and improve his fellow man by laughing the foolish into society. Orgon is great example
of a man acting foolish in the society, and still proving his point. For example Orgon banishes
his own son, Damis, from his house because he accused Tartuffe of being a hypocrite and a two
face cheater. Orgon tells Damis, “So! You insult him, and defy your father!...Out of my house
this minute! Be off with you, And never dare set foot in it again…I disinherit you; an empty
purse is all you get from me- except my curse!” (Moliere 3.6.61-68). This is an example of satire
because Orgon is banishing his son that is telling the truth about Tartuffe personality. Orgon
makes a fool out of himself, Tartuffe made a fool out of Orgon, but Orgon still proved his point
and his authority as the man of the house. Another good example of satire is when Dorine makes
fun of Orgon for looking like a wise man even thought he is a fool. Dorine says this quote in a
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sarcastic way, but she still said what she meant about Orgon without making Orgon angry.
Dorine says; “All right, then: we believe you, sad to say. But how a man like you, who look so
wise And wears a mustache of such splendid size, Can be so foolish.” (Moliere 2.2.14-16).
Dorine here is telling that he is a foolish man but he looks like a wise, powerful man. Orgon is a
powerful man, he is wealthy and has control of his family, but he thinks that Tartuffe is a genius
and listens to any advise he is given. This makes Orgon looks like a fool.
Irony is another important theme in Tartuffe. Irony is that sometimes it takes an act of
god to save a fool from his own foolishness. What this means is that sometimes a person acts in a
way that ridicules someone, but later the same action is done to that person who ridiculed the
other. Act 4 and act 5, have the best example of irony. Tartuffe is finally caught by Orgon, and
he learns about the true personality of Tartuffe. For example in act four, Elmire hides Orgon
under the table so that he can hear Tartuffe’s advances toward Elmire. Tartuffe attempts to make
love to Elmire, even though he is in a relationship with Orgon’s daughter, Mariane, so Orgon
finally realizes that Tartuffe is a hypocrite. Orgon says to Tartuffe:
“Well, so you taught you’d fool me, my dear saint! How soon you wearied of the saintly
life-Wedding my daughter, and converting my wife! I’ve long suspected you, and had a
feeling that soon I’d catch you at your double-dealing. Just now, you’ve given me
evidence galore; it’s quite enough; I have no wish for more… No more talk from you;
just leave this household, without more ado… That seems fairly spare me your
falsehoods and get out of here.” (Moliere 4.7.5-16).
This quote has example of both irony and satire. Orgon realizes that Tartuffe is a fraud, but he
says so in a way that he suspected him of being a fraud while he had no idea. Orgon has
completely ignored all the comments about Tartuffe from others, and now he made a fool out of
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himself. This is an example of irony because he did not listen to others and now the truth has just
hit him in the face, and made a fool of him. This quote is also an example of how Orgon is
portrayed as a wise man even though he is a fool, because he said that he already knew about
Tartuffe fooling him even though he had no idea.
Act five has a very good example of irony. This happens when Tartuffe wants to have
Orgon arrested, so he goes to Orgon with a police officer, and instead of Orgon being arrested,
Tartuffe is arrested by the officer that he brought along. This is a perfect example of irony
because the action that Tartuffe was trying to do completely backfired, and he ended up getting
arrested. This quote says:
“TARTUFFE. Gently, Sir, gently; stays right where you are. No need for haste… You’re
off to prison; by order of the prince…To do my duty toward the king is my only
thought…” OFFICER. “Thank you kindly… Come, you are off to join the other boarders
in the king’s prison, according to his orders.” TARTUFFE. “This can’t be true!” (Moliere
5.7.5-10, 33-40).
This here is an interesting quote, it shows irony towards Tartuffe. First Tartuffe is gets arrested
even thought, the officer he brought along was suppose to arrest Orgon. Another example in this
situation is when Tartuffe says that the king ordered him to arrest Orgon, but the officer told him
that he was sent by the king to arrest him. This is a direct example of irony, because Tartuffe has
been cheating and fooling many characters in the play but now he is the one being cheated on.
He taught that the king was on his side, but he tricked him into being arrested.
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Moliere’s Tartuffe has many great examples of irony, satire, and hypocrisy. Tartuffe is a
true hypocrite and tricks Orgon into many ways, but at the end he is the one that gets punished.
The end of the play is quite ironic because Tartuffe is gets arrested when he was going to get
Orgon arrested. Satire is also used many times, Orgon is a great example because he is constantly
fooled by Tartuffe and later claims that he knew what was going on all along. This play
revolutionized play writing and literature during the 17th century and inspired writers to explore
new ideas in literature.
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Work Cited
Poquelin, Jean Baptiste. "Tartuffe Or the Hypocrite." VU Libraries. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.
<http://www.netlibrary.com.dbprox.vinu.edu/Reader/>.
Barker, Lyam. "English 233: Moliere's TARTUFFE as a Satire on Religious Fanaticism." Personal Web
Pages. 7 Dec. 1996. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://wwwpersonal.ksu.edu/~lyman/english233/Tartuffe-religion.htm>.
McMillan, Eric. "The Greatest Literature of All Time - Tartuffe." Editor Eric: The Greatest Literature
of All Time. 2004. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.
<http://www.editoreric.com/greatlit/books/Tartuffe.html>.
Phelps-McDaniel, Courtney. "Moliere's Tartuffe: Social Order Vs Inherent Order." Associated Content
from Yahoo! - Associatedcontent.com. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.
<http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2495717/molieres_tartuffe_social_order_vs_inherent.
html>.
Wilkie, Brian, and James Hurt. "Tartuffe." Literature of the Western World. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall, 2001. 38-87. Print.