Tartuffe is the best known of Molière's comedies, dealing with topics as hypocrisy and religion, as well as tyranny,
selfishness and what is now called sexism. In the play, the most religious persons are also the most naive. But anyone who follows the news will know that criticism of the hypocrisy of smug religious leaders (or weird sects, of which the world is also full) is still highly relevant.
Orgon is a family father who has fallen into blind veneration for Tartuffe, a religious fanatic he picked up from the gutter. His naivete and obsession makes him the central comic figure of the play. But he is also a dictator in the way he treats his children, including the threat of a forced marriage. Tartuffe is a hypocrite who creates an outward appearance of extreme piety and religious devotion while secretly leading a life of immoral behavior - in fact, he seems more interested in bedding the lady of the house than obtaining a place in Heaven. The play begins by showing us the chaos that Tartuffe has created in the family of Orgon.
Despite warnings from his brother-in-law Cléante (a freethinker with a cool head) and the sharp maidservant Dorine, the gullible and clumsy Orgon falls for Tartuffe's manipulations, ending up under the complete control of the religious imposter. Although Orgon offers him the hand of his daughter Mariane - ignoring the fact that she is already engaged to someone else -, Tartuffe tries to seduce Orgon's wife Elmire. When the son, Damis, warns his father, he is disinherited and evicted.
It is only when Orgon's wife sets a trap for Tartuffe that she is able to convince her deluded husband that his blind faith is being abused - she has Orgon listen under the table while Tartuffe tries to seduce her. Now the scales fall from Orgon's eyes and he kicks the imposter out of his house. But by then it is actually too late. Tartuffe has received papers from Orgon that make him the owner of Orgon's house and all his goods, and he has also obtained compromising letters that may land Orgon in prison. Happily, when Tartuffe goes to the king to assert his rights, the king remains loyal to those who have always faithfully served him. He forgives Orgon for his transgression and has Tartuffe arrested. This "deus ex machina" finale coupled with praise of the monarch is a bit of a let-down, but Molière was forced to do so - it was the only way to have the play performed, which three years earlier, in a different version, had been banned because it was seen as a general satire of religion.
[Portrait of Molière by Pierre Mignard (c. 1658)]
Although this play is a comedy, it deals with topics that are hardly amusing in themselves: obsession, hypocrisy, and tyranny - something which is more often the case in Molière's work, such as The Misanthrope. In other words, Molière wrote serious plays, not just farces, in the form of the comedy.
The fact that the play questions religion as something which can easily develop into a dictatorship remains revolutionary. Along with Dom Juan, Tartuffe is one of Molière's plays that generated the most resistance in religious circles in 17th c. France.
Molière (1622-1673) is regarded as one of the greatest French writers of all time, and with his 31 plays, he was the creator of the modern French comedy. Many words or phrases used in Molière's plays are still used in current French, not in the last place "tartuffe" itself, which has assumed the meaning of "a hypocrite displaying affected morality or religious piety."
Though his work was criticized by religious leaders and other figures whose authority he attacked, that did not diminish Molière's widespread success with the public. Other playwrights emulated his dramatic style, and admired the unconventional individualism portrayed in his plays.
I have read Tartuffe in the translation by John Wood and David Coward in Penguin Classics (The Misanthrope and Other Plays).
Online translation by Curtis Hidden Page (1908) at Wikisource.
Illustrations from Wikimedia Commons
Greatest Plays of All Time