Tartuffe Study Guide Essay Example
Tartuffe Questions Acts I-V
Act I
1. Madame Pernelle is leaving because she is dissatisfied how everyone in the household is not paying attention to what she says because they are constantly chattering on and on. 2. Madame Pernelle is dissatisfied with Dorine because she is chatty, is “too saucy for a lady’s-maid”(14). She also claims Dorine to be interfering because she always has a say in something. Dorine’s having so many lines implicates that she is one of the more significant characters of the story because she is perceptive enough to see through Tartuffe. 3. The reader realizes that Orgon is behaving strangely when Orgon asks the condition of his own family, and Dorine tells him that his wife has had a terrible fever for the past few days. Without expressing sympathy for his wife, Orgon then asks how Tartuffe is, and Dorine tells him that he is doing well as he being excellent fed. Orgon strangely sympathizes Tartuffe as if he deserves more than this, while not having the best interests of his family in mind. 4. In Tartuffe, Moliere uses dialogue to express irony in the play. When Orgon tells his brother-in-law, “You do not know the man of whom you speak,” it is ironic because although Cleante has never met Tartuffe in person, he does know that he is deceiving everyone. It is also ironic because Orgon is saying this even though he does not know Tartuffe’s true intentions. It is also ironic when Orgon says “Under his[Tartuffe] tutelage my soul’s been freed from earthly loves, and every human tie: My mother, children, brother, and wife could die, and I’d not feel a single moment’s pain,”( 276-279) because Orgon thinks that Tartuffe has taught him to free himself of human ties including family, but in actuality, he is placing Tartuffe so ahead of his family that he no longer cares about his family. 5. During the concerning of the wedding of his daughter, Orgon says he will be guided by “Heaven’s will”, which alludes to the Divine Right
Act I
1. Madame Pernelle is leaving because she is dissatisfied how everyone in the household is not paying attention to what she says because they are constantly chattering on and on. 2. Madame Pernelle is dissatisfied with Dorine because she is chatty, is “too saucy for a lady’s-maid”(14). She also claims Dorine to be interfering because she always has a say in something. Dorine’s having so many lines implicates that she is one of the more significant characters of the story because she is perceptive enough to see through Tartuffe. 3. The reader realizes that Orgon is behaving strangely when Orgon asks the condition of his own family, and Dorine tells him that his wife has had a terrible fever for the past few days. Without expressing sympathy for his wife, Orgon then asks how Tartuffe is, and Dorine tells him that he is doing well as he being excellent fed. Orgon strangely sympathizes Tartuffe as if he deserves more than this, while not having the best interests of his family in mind. 4. In Tartuffe, Moliere uses dialogue to express irony in the play. When Orgon tells his brother-in-law, “You do not know the man of whom you speak,” it is ironic because although Cleante has never met Tartuffe in person, he does know that he is deceiving everyone. It is also ironic because Orgon is saying this even though he does not know Tartuffe’s true intentions. It is also ironic when Orgon says “Under his[Tartuffe] tutelage my soul’s been freed from earthly loves, and every human tie: My mother, children, brother, and wife could die, and I’d not feel a single moment’s pain,”( 276-279) because Orgon thinks that Tartuffe has taught him to free himself of human ties including family, but in actuality, he is placing Tartuffe so ahead of his family that he no longer cares about his family. 5. During the concerning of the wedding of his daughter, Orgon says he will be guided by “Heaven’s will”, which alludes to the Divine Right