Author of the comedy play Tartuffe. Abstract: “Tartuffe” by Moliere: issues and images
The playwright Moliere lived in the 17th century in the times that we mainly imagine from the novel “The Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas, but Dumas lived in the 19th century and was a fiction writer, and Moliere wrote comedies and farces and was a contemporary of his characters.
So it turned out that Alexandre Dumas’s France of that time was populated by noble knights, rare villains and good-natured people, and in Moliere’s work “Tartuffe” there are more realistic heroes and plausible events.
The plot of the comedy “Tartuffe” is very simple, but this plot exists both in life and in literature to this day. When the naivety and gullibility (as well as some stupidity) of one person meets the cunning, pretense and meanness of another, the latter always wins. And only the king or God can help the losing side in this case.
Rich, but convinced of Christian virtues, Orgon, naive and gullible, becomes the victim of an unprincipled and immoral man named Tartuffe, who poses (for the benefit of the cause) as a saint.
By social status Orgon is obviously a bourgeois (although it is not clear how he could get rich, being so naive and God-fearing). Tartuffe is a representative of the criminal world of that time. He's just a fraud.
The rest of the heroes of Moliere's tragicomedy: his wife, daughter and son, as well as the daughter's fiance, are described by the author as template people: the daughter cannot disobey her father, her nobleman fiance is hot-tempered, but he is above these plebeian squabbles, the wife is submissive and trusts her husband. All the characters around Orgon see that Tartuffe bad person, but they cannot oppose anything to him. Why? Because Orgon is the owner of capital and property. And as he says, so it will be.
The only person in the play who actively opposes Tartuffe is Dorina. She's a maid. She has nothing to lose and can afford to be bold and act.
Moliere's play "Tartuffe" is a comedy, and when you read a comedy, or you are a spectator in the theater, you have to laugh. What's so funny about the situation? All the characters in the work, as well as readers and spectators, understand that Orgon, in the shackles of his beliefs, is simply a fool. And everyone laughs at fools.
His epiphany comes very late: when he is already ruined. Tragic moment. But then a kind and fair king comes onto the scene. The scoundrel is punished. And the bourgeois Orgon is prosperous and happy again.
Moliere's comedy "Tartuffe" is a classic for those times. Eternal theme the struggle between good and evil. But then and now Orgon’s misadventures do not evoke any sympathy. In modern times, the swindler Tartuffe is a more sympathetic image of a smart, arrogant businessman who achieves his goal by any means necessary.
Several interesting essays
- Analysis of Nabokov's story The Thunderstorm
The work is filled with the play of metaphors, the use artistic techniques, which the author had excellent command of.
- Essay based on the painting Portrait of A.S. Pushkin Kiprensky 9th grade
As you know, Pushkin did not really like to pose in front of artists. But for Orest Kiprensky he made an exception. His best friend Delvig asked him about this.
- Essay Zaretsky in the novel Eugene Onegin by Pushkin
In the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” there are many characters who play significant role in the novel, but their presence is not as bright as that of the main characters. One of these characters is Mr. Zaretsky
- The image of Komarovsky in the novel Doctor Zhivago by Pasternak essay
One of these images is Viktor Ippolitovich Komarovsky. A wealthy lawyer, a ruthless businessman, he will make any deal with his conscience to achieve the desired result.
A person’s age does not affect his formation to such categories as experience and mistakes. No one is safe from them. However, the degree of responsibility is different for everyone. In other words, some people take it very seriously, others don’t.
The characters are more difficult to group, and their genealogical arrangement is more convenient here:
Madame Pernel, mother of Orgon - Flipota, servant of Madame Pernel.
Orgon is Elmira, his wife is Cleanthes, Elmira’s brother.
Damis, son of Orgon, Marianne, daughter of Orgon.
Valer, Marianne's lover,
Dorina, Marianna's maid.
Cameo persons: Mr. Loyal, officer.
Action in Orgon's house in Paris.
Act I. Scene I. Orgon's mother, Madame Pernelle, irritably lectures all members of Orgon's family (except for the absent Orgon himself). From cross-talk we learn that, against the backdrop of her dissatisfaction with everyone, she feels a feeling of special respect for some Tartuffe, hated by everyone else. The existence of two camps in Orgon's family is revealed - Tartuffe, Orgon and his mother - on the one hand, the rest - on the other.
Phenomenon II. Everyone leaves to see off Madame Pernelle, except Dorina and Cleanthe. Dorina's speech characterizes Tartuffe, a feigned hypocrite who has ingratiated himself into Orgon's trust and settled in Orgon's house, where he controls everything.
Scenes III and IV. From short remarks we learn about the love of Marianne and Valera (as well as the love of Damis and sister Valera - a traditional parallel French comedies), the obstacle of which is Tartuffe.
Scenes V and VI. From the conversation between the newly arrived Orgon and Dorina and Cleante, it becomes clear, in the form of comic remarks, that Orgon is blinded by Tartuffe and his reluctance to listen to Cleanthe’s sound advice. To Cleanthe's question about the fate of Marianne, whose marriage to Valer Orgon had previously agreed to, Orgon answers evasively.
Act II. Phenomena I and II. Orgon announces to Marianne his decision to marry her to Tartuffe. Dorina (a type of comedic servant who moves the dialogue and the main “springs” of intrigue) enters into a comic argument with Orgon, accompanied by a game (Orgon’s pursuit of Dorina).
Apparitions III and IV develop the love affair of Marianne and Valera with characteristic quarrels, reconciliation (with the assistance of Dorina directing the action), outpourings, explanations, etc.
Act III. Scene I. Damis expresses his hatred towards Tartuffe to Dorina.
Phenomenon II. The appearance of Tartuffe. (The comedy “Tartuffe” is an exceptional phenomenon of the late appearance of the hero. Throughout two acts, Tartuffe was only talked about, and he himself did not appear). The dialogue between Tartuffe and Dorina characterizes Tartuffe’s exorbitant feigned modesty.
Scenes III and IV. Tartuffe and Elmira (preparing the denouement). Suddenly, the secret passion that Tartuffe feels for Elmira is revealed. He declares his love for her (Damis overhears from the next room). Damis bursts in with the intention of exposing Tartuffe.
Scenes V and VI. Orgon, who appears, believes Tartuffe in everything, takes his son’s words for slander, curses him, drives him away and immediately donates his property to Tartuffe.
Act IV. Scene I. Cleante wants to get Tartuffe to intercede with Orgon on behalf of Damis, but is refused. Tartuffe leaves.
Phenomena II-IV. Orgon announces to the family his will to marry Marianne to Tartuffe, but Elmira invites him to see personally Tartuffe’s hypocrisy. Orgon hides under the table, Elmira is left alone and calls Tartuffe.
Apparitions V–VII. Orgon overhears the conversation between Tartuffe and Elmira, is convinced of his pretense and drives him away. Tartuffe leaves with threats.
Scene VIII. Orgon confesses to his wife that he has transferred property to Tartuffe and expresses concern about a certain box.
Act V. Scenes I and II. Orgon finds out the history of the box in which he kept incriminating documents entrusted to him by a friend - a political exile - that fell into the hands of Tartuffe (preparation for a false denouement). Damis, reconciled with his father, wants to take revenge on Tartuffe.
Phenomenon III. A comic dialogue between Orgon and his mother, in which Orgon has to prove to his mother Tartuffe’s hypocrisy. Madame Pernelle stubbornly does not believe.
Appearances IV and V. Mr. Loyal, the bailiff, brings Orgon an order to evict him from the house and transfer the property into the hands of Tartuffe. Madame Pernelle is convinced of Tartuffe's villainy
Apparitions V-VII. Valère informs Orgon about his impending arrest, since documents incriminating him were transferred by Tartuffe to the government; Valere facilitates the escape of Orgon, who is stopped by an officer who appears with Tartuffe (Spanung in the form of a false denouement). After Tartuffe's speech, an officer intervenes, arrests Tartuffe, in whom the police have discovered a hiding criminal, and declares Orgon a royal pardon.
Scene VIII (denouement). Orgon is preparing for the marriage of Valera and Marianne.
The plot texture of a comedy is characterized by its complexity compared to a tragic plot. Here we have a number of parallel plot lines intertwined with each other: the love of Marianne and Valera (traditional comedic love affair), the clash between father and son, the episode of Tartuffe and Elmira, leading to the exposure of Tartuffe, the history and characterization of Tartuffe reported in speeches, last episode with a box leading to a false ending, etc. The central plot line, which closes the denouement, is perhaps the least developed and introduced due to tradition, which required a love affair in comedy.
Episodic persons (Dorina, Cleanthe - the reasoner, Madame Pernel) play a responsible role in the development of dialogic episodes and sometimes lead the stage movement. Instead of mental struggle and internal hesitation, there is a clash of clearly defined interests. Motives of ignorance, eavesdropping, etc. widely used. The gaming side has been strengthened. There are almost no monologues - there are dialogues, sometimes cross-talk (especially in the first scene, where Madame Pernelle speaks to everyone, delivering remarks sequentially to everyone present).
The pace is quickened. Time and place appear much more specifically (tendency towards naturalistic motivation. It should be noted that comedy began to violate “unity” before tragedy).
Although the comedy is also written in Alexandrian verse, but much freer, with a variety of rhythms, less distinct caesura, with the verse being cut into lines, for example:
The first verse is cut into six separate lines.
It should be noted that, along with Alexandrian verse, Moliere used free (unequally syllabic) verse and prose in other comedies.
The sharpness of Moliere's comedy lies in its anti-clericalism. The clerics of his time took this into account, launching a campaign against the play and achieving its temporary ban. Raising specific issues of everyday life, politics, etc. typical for comedy, while tragedy primarily deals with the interpretation of “universal” problems of love, hatred, sense of duty, etc. Only Voltaire from the 18th century. made tragedy a means of political and philosophical propaganda, in which he was followed by the theater of the Revolution (in the tragedies of Marie-Joseph Chenier and others). But this change in the ideological function of tragedy occurred on the eve of the fall of the classical canon and the mixing of techniques of comic and tragic composition, which took place in German and French tragedy of the era of romanticism (late 18th century in Germany - 20s of the 19th century in France). In their reform of tragedy, the French proceeded from the teachings of Shakespeare. Shakespeare's theater, which influenced continental drama back in the 18th century, determined the evolution of drama in the 19th century.
Jean-Baptiste Moliere was both an actor and a theater director. But he is best known to us as a comedian. Repertoire famine forced Monsieur Poquelin ( family name) take up the pen. The forty-two-year-old writer, having already become famous and recognized by the royal court, ventured to introduce theatrical performance a caustic social pamphlet parodying the hypocrisy of the sophistry of the French clergy.
Molière's plot intrigue
An attempt to perform the work in the theater was successful only five years later. This article is his summary. "Tartuffe" has a rather prosaic plot: the resolution of the circumstances preventing the wedding of Marianne, the daughter of the owner of the house (Orgon), and her beloved Valera. (Marianna's brother Damis, in turn, is in love with his sister Valera). The whole intrigue is “twisted” around the main character - Tartuffe, who is visiting the house. Outwardly, he is a young, educated, pious man, prone to high deeds. In fact, having a criminal past, Tartuffe has a whole bunch of “advantages”: chronic deceit, a rare ability to weave a continuous chain of fraud. But the highlight of the image of a fraudster is professional mimicry - imitation of sermons clergyman. Moliere brilliantly presented this “explosive cocktail” to the audience. A complete picture of comedy can only be given by her theatrical performance, for a poor mirror for the irony of the great Frenchman is a summary devoid of emotions. Molière's "Tartuffe" has been leading the hits of theater seasons for more than 350 years.
The rogue manages to deceive Orgon to such an extent that he decides to cancel the wedding with Valera and marry his daughter to Tartuffe. But the scammer’s goal is to take over the entire house and fortune. He also has influence on Madame Pernel, the mother of the owner of the house.
Moliere shows the deceiver without deliberately resorting to the intricate lace of lies. He is so confident in the unfailing influence of his sanctimonious pseudo-morality on simpletons that he often acts simply “clumsily.”
Comedy characters
The summary of “Tartuffe” tells not only about scoundrels and the fooled. Oregon's wife, Elmira Dorina, is a fairly sober lady, distinguished by her calm disposition and self-control. At the same time, she is flirtatious and social. Tartuffe openly trails after her, when the opportunity arises, inviting the pretty hostess of the house to make love to him. She refuses, threatening that she will betray the hypocrite, and then tries to outplay the fraudster by offering him her silence in exchange for his refusal to marry Marianne.
The mother's plan is unintentionally destroyed by the young and hot-tempered son Damis, who overheard and passed on its contents to his father, Oregon. Naive! It costs Tartuffe nothing to convince the owner of the house, a simpleton, of the sublimity of his feelings and actions. He, fooled, angrily expels his son, promising all the property due to him to the swindler.
Secondary images also add their accents to the summary of Tartuffe. An acute antipathy towards the swindler distinguishes the maid Dorina. Moliere attributes some of his most poignant statements to her. Cleante, Elmira's brother, according to Moliere's plan, represents with his decency a contrast to the swindler Tartuffe. He first tries to reason with Tartuffe to abandon his marriage to Marianne, then convinces Damis not to beat the swindler, since it is preferable to follow reason.
However, despite all the antipathy and opposition that accompanies it, Tartuffe’s plan moves “like clockwork.” It's getting closer to the wedding. Even if something goes wrong, the fooled Oregon has transferred all his property to him. In addition, he has incriminating evidence in his hands - a secret chest with letters that are sensitive to him, given to him of his own free will by the narrow-minded owner of the house. In addition, he bribed the bailiff Loyal (Moliere’s irony is clear here: “loyal” is translated from French as “justice”).
Climax
Elmira feignedly confesses her love to him, but the scoundrel, as a pledge of refusing to marry his daughter, wants intimacy with his stepmother. This finally opens Oregon's eyes and he kicks the cheater out of the house.
But according to documents, the house is already owned by Tartuffe. The Loyal bailiff comes to Mr. Oregon with an order containing a requirement - up to tomorrow vacate your home. However, it seemed to the scoundrel that it was not enough to ruin, wanting to completely destroy the owner of the house, he sends the king a secret casket with letters testifying to helping his rebel brother. The monarch acts wisely by first determining the identity of the person who filed the denunciation. The astonished Tartuffe, who gloatingly came along with the royal officer to enjoy the arrest of Oregon, is arrested himself.
Conclusion
This is how Moliere’s comedy “Tartuffe,” called by our classic Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, ends with a traditional happy ending, and also with an exaltation of the king’s wisdom. Like Shakespeare, the strength of the writer's talent was combined in this man with devotion and service to the Theater. Contemporaries believed that Moliere's talent blossomed because he had the Gift of seeing “something extraordinary” in every person.
Composition
In the mid-1660s, Moliere created his best comedies, in which he criticizes the vices of the clergy, nobility and bourgeoisie. The first of them was “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver” (edition 1664, 1667 and 1669). The play was to be shown during the grandiose court festival “The Amusements of the Enchanted Island”, which took place in May 1664 at Versailles. However, the play upset the holiday. A real conspiracy arose against Moliere, led by Queen Mother Anne of Austria. Moliere was accused of insulting religion and the church, demanding punishment for this. Performances of the play were stopped.
Moliere made an attempt to stage the play in a new edition. In the first edition of 1664, Tartuffe was a clergyman. The wealthy Parisian bourgeois Orgon, into whose house this rogue plays the saint, enters, does not yet have a daughter - the priest Tartuffe could not marry her. Tartuffe deftly gets out of a difficult situation, despite the accusations of his son Orgon, who caught him courting his stepmother Elmira. The triumph of Tartuffe unequivocally testified to the danger of hypocrisy.
In the second edition (1667; like the first, it has not reached us) Moliere expanded the play, added two more acts to the existing three, where he depicted the connections of the hypocrite Tartuffe with the court, the court and the police. Tartuffe was named Panjulf and turned into a socialite, intending to marry Orgon's daughter Marianne. The comedy, called “The Deceiver,” ended with the exposure of Panyulf and the glorification of the king. In the latest edition that has come down to us (1669), the hypocrite was again called Tartuffe, and the entire play was called “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver.”
The king knew about Moliere's play and approved his plan. Fighting for “Tartuffe,” Moliere, in his first “Petition” to the king, defended comedy, defended himself from accusations of godlessness and spoke about public role satirical writer. The king did not lift the ban on the play, but did not listen to the advice of rabid saints “to burn not only the book, but also its author, a demon, an atheist and a libertine, who wrote a devilish play full of abomination, in which he mocks the church and religion, the sacred functions” (“The Greatest King of the World,” pamphlet by Sorbonne doctor Pierre Roullet, 1664).
Permission to stage the play in its second edition was given by the king orally, in a hurry, upon leaving for the army. Immediately after the premiere, the comedy was again banned by the President of Parliament (the highest judicial institution), Lamoignon, and the Parisian Archbishop Perefix issued a message in which he forbade all parishioners and clergy from “presenting, reading or listening to a dangerous play” under pain of excommunication. Moliere sent the second “Petition” to the king’s headquarters, in which he stated that he would stop writing completely if the king did not come to his defense. The king promised to sort it out. Meanwhile, the comedy is read in private homes, distributed in manuscript, and performed in private home performances (for example, in the palace of the Prince of Condé in Chantilly). In 1666, the Queen Mother died and this gave Louis XIV the opportunity to promise Moliere quick permission to stage it. The year 1668 arrived, the year of the so-called “ecclesiastical peace” between orthodox Catholicism and Jansenism, which promoted a certain tolerance in religious matters. It was then that the production of Tartuffe was allowed. On February 9, 1669, the performance of the play was a huge success.
What caused such violent attacks on Tartuffe? Moliere had long been attracted by the theme of hypocrisy, which he observed everywhere in public life. In this comedy, Moliere turned to the most common type of hypocrisy at that time - religious - and wrote it based on his observations of the activities of a secret religious society - the “Society of the Holy Sacrament”, which was patronized by Anne of Austria and of which both Lamoignon and Perefix were members. and the princes of the church, and the nobles, and the bourgeoisie. The king did not give sanction to open activity of this extensive organization, which had existed for more than 30 years, the activities of the society were surrounded by the greatest mystery. Acting under the motto “Suppress all evil, promote all good,” members of the society set their main task to fight freethinking and godlessness. Having access to private homes, they essentially performed the functions of a secret police, conducting covert surveillance of those they suspected, collecting facts supposedly proving their guilt, and on this basis handing over alleged criminals to the authorities. Members of society preached severity and asceticism in morals, and had a negative attitude towards all kinds of social entertainment and theater, pursued a passion for fashion. Moliere observed how members of the “Society of the Holy Sacrament” insinuatingly and skillfully infiltrated other people’s families, how they subjugated people, completely taking possession of their conscience and their will. This suggested the plot of the play, and Tartuffe’s character was formed from typical features, inherent in members of the “Society of the Holy Gifts”.
Like them, Tartuffe is associated with the court, with the police, and is patronized at court. He hides his true appearance, posing as an impoverished nobleman looking for food on the church porch. He penetrates into Orgon’s family because in this house, after the owner’s marriage to young Elmira, instead of the former piety, free morals, fun reign, and critical speeches are heard. In addition, Orgon's friend Argas, a political exile, participant in the Parliamentary Fronde (1649), left him incriminating documents, which are stored in a box. Such a family could well seem suspicious to the “Society”, and surveillance was established on such families.
Tartuffe is not the embodiment of hypocrisy as a universal human vice, it is a socially generalized type. It is not for nothing that he is not at all alone in the comedy: his servant Laurent, the bailiff Loyal, and the old woman - Orgon's mother Madame Pernel - are hypocritical. They all cover up their unsightly actions with pious speeches and vigilantly monitor the behavior of others. Tartuffe’s characteristic appearance is created by his imaginary holiness and humility: “He prayed near me in church every day, // Kneeling in an outburst of piety. // He attracted everyone's attention" (I, 6). Tartuffe is not without external attractiveness; he has courteous, insinuating manners, which hide prudence, energy, an ambitious thirst for power, and the ability to take revenge. He settled well in Orgon's house, where the owner not only satisfies his slightest whims, but is also ready to give him his daughter Marianne, a rich heiress, as his wife. Orgon confides all secrets to him, including entrusting him with the storage of the treasured box with incriminating documents. Tartuffe succeeds because he is a subtle psychologist; playing on the fear of the gullible Orgon, he forces the latter to reveal any secrets to him. Tartuffe covers up his insidious plans with religious arguments. He is well aware of his strength, and therefore does not restrain his vicious desires. He does not love Marianne, she is only an advantageous bride for him, he is carried away by the beautiful Elmira, whom Tartuffe is trying to seduce. His casuistic reasoning that betrayal is not a sin if no one knows about it outrages Elmira. Damis, the son of Orgon, a witness to the secret meeting, wants to expose the scoundrel, but he, having adopted a pose of self-flagellation and repentance for supposedly imperfect sins, again makes Orgon his defender. When, after the second date, Tartuffe falls into a trap and Orgon kicks him out of the house, he begins to take revenge, fully revealing his vicious, corrupt and selfish nature.
But Molière not only exposes hypocrisy. In Tartuffe he puts important question: Why did Orgon allow himself to be deceived like that? This already middle-aged man, clearly not stupid, with a strong disposition and strong will, succumbed to the widespread fashion for piety. Orgon believed in the piety and “holiness” of Tartuffe and sees his own in him spiritual mentor. However, he becomes a pawn in the hands of Tartuffe, who shamelessly declares that Orgon would rather believe him “than his own eyes” (IV, 5). The reason for this is the inertia of Orgon’s consciousness, brought up in submission to authority. This inertia does not give him the opportunity to critically comprehend the phenomena of life and evaluate the people around him. If Orgon nevertheless acquires a sensible view of the world after Tartuffe’s exposure, then his mother, the old woman Pernelle, a stupidly pious supporter of inert patriarchal views, never saw Tartuffe’s true face.
The younger generation, represented in the comedy, which immediately discerned Tartuffe’s true face, is united by the maid Dorina, who has long and faithfully served in Orgon’s house and enjoys love and respect here. Her wisdom common sense, insight helps to find the most suitable means to combat the cunning rogue.
The comedy "Tartuffe" had a great social significance. In it, Moliere depicted not private family relationships, and the most harmful social vice is hypocrisy. In the Preface to Tartuffe, an important theoretical document, Moliere explains the meaning of his play. He affirms the social purpose of comedy, states that “the task of comedy is to castigate vices, and there should be no exceptions here. From a state point of view, the vice of hypocrisy is one of the most dangerous in its consequences. The theater has the ability to counteract vice.” It was hypocrisy, according to Moliere’s definition, the main state vice of France of his time, that became the object of his satire. In a comedy that evokes laughter and fear, Moliere painted a profound picture of what was happening in France. Hypocrites like Tartuffe, despots, informers and avengers, dominate the country with impunity and commit genuine atrocities; lawlessness and violence are the results of their activities. Moliere painted a picture that should have alerted those who ruled the country. And although the ideal king at the end of the play acts justly (which was explained by Moliere’s naive faith in a just and reasonable monarch), social situation, outlined by Moliere, seems threatening.
Moliere the artist, when creating Tartuffe, used the most by various means: here you can find elements of farce (Orgon hides under the table), comedy of intrigue (the story of the box with documents), comedy of manners (scenes in the house of a wealthy bourgeois), comedy of characters (dependence of the development of action on the character of the hero). At the same time, Moliere's work is a typically classicist comedy. All the “rules” are strictly observed in it: it is designed not only to entertain, but also to instruct the viewer. In the “Preface” to “Tartuffe” it is said: “You can’t catch people’s attention better than by depicting their shortcomings. They listen to reproaches indifferently, but cannot bear ridicule. Comedy reproaches people for their shortcomings in pleasant teachings.”
During the years of struggle for Tartuffe, Moliere created his most significant satirical and oppositional comedies.
