Theme Of Immoderation In Tartuffe

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière is credited as saying, "I wonder if it is not better to try to correct and moderate men's passions than to try to suppress them altogether." The playwright attempts to educate the world regarding this theme in his play Tartuffe. Each character in Tartuffe reveals a facet of immoderation that Molière wished to discourage.
Perhaps the most obvious example of immoderation in the play is Tartuffe himself. This antagonist is a crafty religious fraud who eventually convinces Orgon to turn over everything that he owns to Tartuffe. In addition to greed, gluttony and lust manifest themselves in Tartuffe’s actions, from eating extreme amounts of food (In Act I, Scene IV, Dorine claims that “…he ate so much, he popped a button.”), to attempting to seduce Orgon’s wife, Elmire. It is this lust that eventually spells the undoing of Tartuffe’s influence on Orgon.
Orgon, the master of the house, also demonstrates obvious immoderation throughout the play. Molière chiefly used Orgon’s character to contrast total trust and
When informed by her father that she will be forced to marry Tartuffe instead of her fiancé Valère, her protests do not surpass helpless sobs. After convinced by Dorine to resist more adamantly, she first declares that she will commit suicide, then later changes her mind and claims that she will resign herself to a convent if her father does not honor her engagement to Valère. Mariane’s shallow and immoderate thought process prevents her from finding a true solution to her problem. Ultimately, each character of Tartuffe exhibits some aspect of immoderation. Tartuffe’s greed, Orgon’s total trust, Cléante’s pretentiousness, and Mariane’s submission join to demonstrate the qualities Molière cautioned strongly against. His ingenious satire is woven throughout the play, ensuring that generations to come will be intrigued by his