Tartuffe

One of Molière’s most stinging satires, Tartuffe unmasks the true motives of those religious impostors who have plagued and manipulated people throughout the ages. Masquerading as a pious zealot, Tartuffe bullies his way into a contented household, disguising his own predatory sexual appetites under a mask of righteousness. As a Presidential year approaches in which the separation of Church and State is once again being questioned, Molière’s vision of religious hypocrisy and constraint in the time of Louis XIV seems remarkably relevant—and just as hilarious!

SYNOPSIS

Tartuffe, an odious hypocrite whose apparent piety has ingratiated him with the credulous Orgon and his mother Mme. Pernelle, has been taken into Orgon’s home. Both Orgon and his mother believe that Tartuffe’s pious example will be good for the other members of the family. But everyone else in the family, including even the outspoken servant Dorine, is perceptive enough to see through the impostor.

Despite the protestations of his sensible brother-in-law Cleante and his son Damis, Orgon determines that his daughter Mariane, who is in love with a young man named Valere, shall marry Tartuffe. When Orgon’s wife Elmire seeks out Tartuffe to beg him to refuse Mariane’s hand, he attempts to seduce her. Damis, who has over heard, denounces the impostor, but Orgon reads by banishing his son rather than his guest and by signing over his entire property to Tartuffe.

Realizing the futility of reasoning with either Tartuffe or her husband, Elmire devises a way to expose the hypocrite to Orgon. She persuades Orgon to conceal himself under a table while she speaks to Tartuffe, and her husband is thus a witness to the impostor’s advances to her.

Orgon’s eyes are opened a little too late, for he has already assigned all he owns to Tartuffe. When Tartuffe realizes his hypocrisy has been discovered, he promptly turns the family out of the house. Then by reporting to the authorities that Orgon possesses a strongbox containing the papers of an exiled friend, Tartuffe contrives to have his former host arrested. But by order of the King, the arresting officer apprehends Tartuffe instead, and the impostor is hauled off to prison for his treacherous behavior toward his well-meaning if too credulous host. The play ends as Damis is reconciled with his father and the wedding of Mariane and Valere is announced.