Tartuffe Character Analysis Essay

Orgon’s most obvious character trait is his foolishness. After witnessing Tartuffe’s exaggerated prayer at church, Orgon’s love for goodness makes his gullibility more prevalent. While Tartuffe goes on with his self-pity after Damis accuses him of going after Elmire, Orgon says, “... I’m going to drive them to despair / By making you [Tartuffe] my only son and heir” (3. 7. pp. 268).

The role that King Louis XIV plays in Tartuffe, although not a character himself, affects the whole outcome of the play. King Louis XIV was an absolute monarch and was responsible for restoring order in society. The age of reason, 1660-1805, was a time to restore order while finding humor in those who stray away from order. King Louis was responsible for ensuring the safety and order of the country, and we come to learn that his power spreads much further than suspected. By divine right and being an offstage presence, King Louis XIV has the ability to control and assist everyone, whether it is warranted or not.

While reading Tartuffe, I was constantly dumbfounded by the prevalence in the world today of Moliere’s, comedically portrayed, accusations regarding ignorance in arranged marriage, social class dynamics and religious hypocrisy. Moliere created the characters to the complete contrast to what society saw them as, which was intriguing and comedic. He also displayed the average practices, such as planned marriage, to be disgraceful and shameful. Lastly, but most prevalently, Moliere saturated the hypocrisy of religion by later in the story revealing the religious character’s deceitful and malign nature. In this essay, I will be using historic and literary theory to examine Moliere’s interesting views of such practices and the satire involved.

The name of Tartuffe adds fear within people’s hearts, Marcel Gutwirth points out how Tartuffe “appears one day in church and soon draws upon himself the attention of all by the strenuousness of his piety...” (33). Tartuffe introduces the deus ex machina in act five by adding the conspicuous piety and conspicuous gullibility. The fact is Tartuffe claims Orgon’s mindset by portraying his religious side, which is devastating because the bond of Tartuffe and Orgon is disastrous. Tartuffe gets Orgon to promise him Orgon’s daughter’s hand in marriage, destroys the bond of Damis and Orgon, hits on Elmire, and sweet talks Madame Pernelle without Orgon questioning his motives.

As well as, this recognition of Tartuffe's false nature reveals the severity of Orgon’s arrogance. Moliere highlights within the second half of the play, the extremes of pride and how mankind struggles to face it. The theme of pride is accentuated by Orgon’s nature, especially, during

“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell is a story about a man, Sanger Rainsford, whose ideals and overall character change throughout the story, specifically about hunting, due to his encounter with General Zaroff. At the beginning of the story Rainsford is a stuck up man. He could not care less about any other living things other than humans. He believes all living wildlife are expendable and only there for his pleasure of hunting. During the story Rainsford has to make many quick and overall difficult decisions during his encounters with the ocean, General Zaroff, and the island wilderness to survive, that change how he thinks about animals.

Orgon, however does not see that Tartuffe is truly not who he says he is. It is not evident to him. Damis tries to tell him the truth of what he has just seen and heard, but Orgon is not having it. “Orgon's desire to retain Tartuffe is a function--a reaction and an invitation--of others' desire to be rid of him, of which Damis’ desire is the most strident, the most like the desire of his father in its imperious violence”(Mckenna). Andrew Mckenna illustrates how Orgon tries to protect Tartuffe from his family.

To be trapped in one's own mind may be the worst prison imaginable. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", the narrator of the story is constantly at battle with many different forces, such as John, her husband, the yellow wallpaper that covers the walls of her room, and ultimately herself. Throughout the story the narrator further detaches herself from her life and becomes fixated on the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her in her temporary home, slowly driving her mad. The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a major and dynamic character as she is the main character of the story, and throughout the story her personality and ways of thinking change drastically.

Throughout Molière’s ‘Tartuffe” the true intentions of multiple characters are consistently questioned. Different characters involve themselves in self-made delusions for specific reasons, causing the label of ‘hypocrite’ to become a significantly used word. This use of the word ‘hypocrite’ throws everything off balance, forcing the audience to question every statement/event deciding whether or not they are truly sincere. Moliere’s use of hypocrisy when describing Tartuffe brings immediate awareness to the text involving central theme of reason verses emotion, deciding whether or not a characters actions were based on their pure heart or their greed.

The main subject of Molière’s Tartuffe is the criticizing and making a mockery of religious men of God who displays hypocrisy in comparison to real faithful Christians. Tartuffe is presented as a fake man of God who presents himself as devout man of God but all he does is use the religion as a front for his corruptions and immorality. For example, Tartuffe makes sure that it is known to everyone that he is the one that is helping and devoting his time to the under privileged, but all the while he is coveting the life of his friend, Orgon, especially trying to seduce Elmire, Orgon’s wife. Tartuffe portrays to everyone that he is very religious and living his life according to the “Word”, therefore thinking he has the authority to tell everyone

The play, Antigone written by Sophocles, presents a tragedy that fits the classical definition, but it is the story of Creon, the king of the main character. Creon starts out as the king of Thebes , Creon’s tragic flaw is his pride and his arrogance which caused him reflecting upon his mistakes making him a broken man, recognizing what he did to his niece, he is a character within Antigone, even though he was portrayed as an antagonist he was the main character since he was. Creon’s tragic flaw, hubris, causes his downfall. Creon will not listen to anyone.

She uses Tartuffe’s lust for her as an advantage. Orgon refuses to believe anyone unless he has physical proof. Elmire uses deception to bring Tartuffe’s downfall and succeeds. Orgon refuses to listen to any of the men, but this time it is woman who uncovers the truth. During this century woman were still considered inferior than men, however Elmire contradicts that.

In the novel, Ordinary People by Judith Guest, a family goes through the trials of trying to find normalcy after a tragedy strikes. Throughout the story you meet the Jarret family and watch as they progress through the everyday life and the challenges that come with it. Conrad Jarret is an ordinary 17-year-old boy living in Lake Forest, Illinois. Conrad is living with the burden of thinking he is at fault for his brother’s death and blaming himself for the family quandary’s. Conrad, by far, is the most interesting character for the reason that he unquestionably struggles to try to find what he defines as a “normal” life.

Orgon is blinded by his admiration of Tartuffe. Without Orgon seeing for himself, he would never believe that Tartuffe could have deceived him. Moliere makes Tartuffe betrays others by his remarkable gestures of humiliation and aid. Moliere uses satire to emphasize the truth about Tartuffe’s lust for Elmire.

Stephanie Plum, Morelli, and Ranger are three main characters in the book, One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich. Stephanie is a young woman struggling to get by in the city of Trenton, New Jersey. After losing her job, she goes against her family’s request and gets the dangerous job of a bounty hunter. She gets assigned Joe Morelli, who was accused of murder and who happened to be a childhood enemy. Stephanie is very inexperienced and receives help from a professional bounty hunter, Ranger.