Tartuffe, << tahr TOOF, >> is the name of a famous satirical comedy by the French playwright Molière. The full name of the play is Tartuffe, or The Imposter.
The play satirizes religious hypocrisy, and it created enormous controversy when it was first staged at the French court in 1664. The play aroused opposition from religious leaders in France, who felt that it attacked the morality of the French clergy. Tartuffe was banned until King Louis XIV allowed its first public performance in 1669. The play was a huge success and has since become a classic of satirical comedy.
Tartuffe, the title character, is a man who claims to be a pious man of God but really is a villain. As the play opens, Tartuffe’s false piety has won him the favor of a wealthy religious fanatic named Orgon. Members of Orgon’s household warn him that Tartuffe is a fraud. However, Orgon refuses to believe the man is anything but a righteous man and accepts him as his spiritual adviser. Orgon offers Tartuffe the hospitality of his home and eventually gives Tartuffe the deed to his house.
Tartuffe reveals his real personality by trying to seduce Orgon’s wife while Orgon hides under a table in the room. Orgon angrily orders Tartuffe out of his house, but Tartuffe tells him that he now owns the deed to the house and to all of Orgon’s possessions. Tartuffe also betrays Orgon by giving documents to the government that make Orgon look like a traitor. Just when Tartuffe seems triumphant and Orgon and his family ruined, the agents of the king of France arrive and arrest Tartuffe, who has a criminal past. Tartuffe is taken away to prison, and Orgon’s house and fortune are returned to him through the generosity of the king.
The play is known for its wit and its many entertaining characters, including Orgon; his wife, Elmire; his son, Damis; his daughter, Mariane; and the household’s maid, Dorine. Molière builds the audience’s curiosity about Tartuffe by waiting until the third of the play’s five acts to bring him on stage. Until that time, the other characters passionately discuss the man. Orgon and Orgon’s mother blindly support Tartuffe, but the rest of the household rightly attack him as a hypocrite.
See also Molière.
