Reviews - Tartuffe | The StoryGraph

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Tartuffe continues to prove my rule that anything that the Church didn’t like is generally something that I like. (This play was twice suppressed by the Church for its portrayal of religious hypocrisy!) Like Doubt, this play is a good example of how it’s easier to believe what you want to believe right up until you face the truth and its consequences. Moliere is humorous and his characters are delightfully comedic. (Why are so many people hiding in closets though? Moliere really loved that trope, I guess.)

Orgon is taken by Tartuffe, a poor, but loudly pious man. He takes him into his household, promises him to his already-promised-to-another daughter, where Tartuffe promptly falls for Orgon’s wife. Tartuffe takes Orgon’s fortune (and his wits), convincing Orgon that he is a simply devout martyr. (Tartuffe, loudly: Laurence, lock up my hair-cloth and scourge, and beg of Heaven ever to enlighten you with grace. If anybody comes to see me, I am gone to the prisons to distribute my alms (III, ii, 24).)

Perhaps we can see why the Church was not fond of this play.

Even when his wife, children, and servants come to Orgon to tell the truth of Tartuffe, he buckles down, saying; “But the more they strive to get him out, the greater care will I to keep him in” (III, vii, 30).

Orgon has a hard time with his views in general, being swayed by emotion rather than facts. When he is finally convinced of Tartuffe’s con, he renounces faith altogether. “’Tis over, I renounce all pious folks. I shall henceforth have an utter abhorrence of them, and shall become, for their sakes, worse than a devil” (V, i, 44). Cleante and Dorine provide the much-needed logical balance.

All in all, it’s a short, witty play about the hypocrisy of religion and its pretenses, as well as a warning on being conned by false appearances.