Tartuffe by Moliere

English

Troding on Toes: Interpersonal Conflict in Moliere's Tartuffe.

At the quote "How dare you even hinder or annoy, when I've the means to ruin and destroy. You should have though before my toes you trod" makes clear, the driving force behind Moliere's Tartuffe is that of interpersonal conflicts that spark the sense of revenge. In order to best understand this theme, one has to first understand the conflicts that drive the theme. As the conflicts are interpersonal conflicts, and thus exists between the play's characters, the starting point is with an overview of the play's lead characters.

The plot of Tartuffe, is a French play about the religious hypocrite Tartuffe. Tartuffe ingratiates himself with both Orgon and his mother and is eventually taken to their home. Here he is promised the hand of Orgon's daughter in marriage. However, at the same time, Tartuffe is also secretly trying to seduce Orgon's wife, Elmire. Despite Tartuffe's attempts at secrecy and to portray an aurora of piety, the entire family can see through his sham. Eventually, all of Tartuffe's machinations and hypocrisies are exposed, but not before the entire family is thrown into a comedic chaos of eviction, prison and scandal.

The general theme of conflict is portrayed through the characters who present themselves as devotes, or those who claim to be religious, but who are in fact religious hypocrites. Moliere explores and points out this internal conflict by presenting it in the form of interpersonal conflicts between the characters.

The two main characters are Orgon and Tartuffe. Tartuffe is a deceiving man who holds himself out as a devote individual but in fact uses others in order to better himself. On the other hand, Orgon is the exact foil of Tartuffe. Instead of being deceiving, Orgon is in fact devote in that he is trusting, giving and kind. Unfortunately, these attributes open up Orgon to becoming a victim of Tartuffe. This foil of trusting and dishonesty is what creates the main conflict in the play.

Tartuffe succeeds at taking control of Orgon's household by presenting himself as a divine, religious and knowledgeable person. This is done with the intention of gaining the complete trust of Orgon, the current leader of the house. Eventually Tartuffe's plan works and Orgon runs all questions and actions through Tartuffe first. Eventually Orgon even announces that his daughter Mariane will take the hand of Tartuffe in marriage.

At the same time that Orgon is being played by Tartuffe, the rest of the family members begin to see that Tartuffe is nothing but a religious fraud who has manhandled control of their house. Yet, they refrain from doing anything until it is found out that Mariane will be married to Tartuffe. This fact to is meant to exemplify the concept that true piety and devotedness is seen through modesty. Instead of engaging in a conflict with Tartuffe immediately, the pious members of Orgon's family purposely avoid conflict even when it is to their own detriment.

However, having Mariane married to such a fraud is too much and Orgon's family devise a plan to expose Tartuffe as the true fraud he is while still avoiding any serious conflicts. The plan is to trap Tartuffe into confessing to Elmire, Orgon's wife, his true desire for her. The thought is that a truly pious man who comes to stay as a guest in another man's house would have anything but sexual feelings for the other man's wife. The plan goes according to plan, with Tartuffe seducing Elmire, until the eavesdropping Damis cannot stand the scene anymore and prematurely confronts Tartuffe himself. Suddenly, the conflict between piousness and fraud is ignited, threatening to carry both parties further away from what a pious life truly is.

When Orgon enters and is told by Damis what has occurred, Tartuffe uses a trick akin to reverse psychology filled with religious undertones, acknowledging the fact that he is "the worst sinner." Again Orgon falls for Tartuffe's deceiving, believing that Tartuffe is nothing but a pious man willing to take blame for anything in order to avoid a conflict. Thus, Orgon, believing that Demis is lying, throws him out of the house and in facts allows Tartuffe to be around his wife even more.

Later in the play, Elmire herself tells Orgon what is going on, convincing him to hide under a table and take witness of Tartuffe's behavior. It only at this time that Orgon hears the truth and orders Tartuffe out. However, it is too late at Orgon has already signed over all his worldly possessions to Tartuffe, including a box of incriminating letters. Thus, Tartuffe orders Orgon to leave his own house.