Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
How art affects society
How art affects society
Age of enlightenment
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: How art affects society
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin or better known by his stage name, Moliere, first began performing the play Tartuffe in 1664. The play was received very well by the public of Paris and was also performed for King Louis XIV even though the subject manner was considered controversial for the time. The time period in which Moliere wrote the play in was during the Age of Enlightenment, which was a time when people were beginning to actually think for themselves rather than blindly accept the traditional views. It was also an attempt for people to develop as individuals and become more than just nameless subjects under a monarch. Tartuffe is social commentary on the period before the Age of Enlightenment with a message encouraging individualism and reason. Moliere no longer accepts that people should obey traditions simply because they are traditional and he uses his power and status to fight for the common person that he saw as voiceless against the throne. He uses the situations in the play to shed light on the problems that people face and uses the characters to highlight the problem’s of society that have been transformed into normality. The characters in Tartuffe are used to personify problems within Europe and through them Moliere is able to shift the European peoples’ views during the time of the Enlightenment towards a more free thinking society.
At the time that Tartuffe was written, Europe was beginning to merge into a new time period that would be known as the Age of Enlightenment. This was a time when many new philosophers and philosophies were being expressed and citizens of Europe were branching out to grab onto new ideologies. People were beginning to challenge the ideals that were simply handed to them and expected to accept. T...
... middle of paper ...
...tting in Tartuffe.” Modern Language Association. Vol. 89, No. 1 (Jan., 1974), pp. 42-49
Kuslow, Michael. "Is it the Role of the Artist to Change Society?" New York Times (1923-Current file): 61. Aug 02 1970. ProQuest. Web. 6 Nov. 2013 .
Leon, Mechele. "The Poet And The Prince: Revising Moliere And 'Tartuffe' In The French Revolution." French Historical Studies 28.3 (2005): 447-465. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.
Mazzara, Richard. “Unmasking the Imposter: Les Lettres provincials and Tartuffe.” The French Review. Vol 37 No.6. (1964) 664-672.
Poquelin, Jean-Baptise, Moliere. “Tartuffe.” The Longman Anthology: World Literature. Ed. David Damrosch and David L. Pike. New York: Pearson, Longman. 2009. 199-252. Print
Zwillenberg, Myrna Kogan. “Dramatic Justice in Tartuffe.” Modern Language Notes. Vol. 90, No. 4, The French Issue (May, 1975), pp. 583-590.
Moliere’s Tartuffe assumed set of social conventions were shaped by all the characters within the play, however the authoritative figure was established depicted by the father, Oregon. Oregon’s character assumed the role of king or lord of his household. He believed that as the head of household, he had the right to rule over his kingdom as he saw fit. His kingdom had to run smoothly in order for it to be effective. No matter how harsh, unfair and painful it was for his, wife daughter or servants.
Examining the difference between reality and appearance is strongly manifested in this story. The author has made an impressive account of what is really happening to families whether during the earlier days or the modern times. The story of Tartuffe is a great lesson for every person that people should not be easily deceived by first impressions and the story of the Monkey King showed outspokenness along with truthfulness in intentions.
Out of the plays that we could have chosen to produce, I have decided to go with Molière’s, “Tartuffe.” This play is a comedy that comes from 17th century France and is heavily influenced by two large sources of experience for Molière. Those sources are the rules and structure for a play put in place by the French academy and the lessons of improvisation taught by the Commedia dell’Arte. This piece is written in fives acts that are in a unique alexandrine style of verse which have 12 syllables in a line and usually ends with rhyming words. The reason I chose this play is because, in my opinion, things like television, movies, plays, and other forms of media and entertainment are meant to transport you away from all the bad things happening in real life and focus you on something fun and/or interesting. I find this play to have a lot of fun moments that can be mined for even more comedy and I think it has the good chance to keep a large audience entertained for a long period of time. To accomplish my goal I will use elements of situational comedies, France in the 1660’s, and one of Molière’s plays, “A school for girls.”
Rochette-Crawley, S. (2004) James T. Farrell. The Literary Encyclopedia. April 2, 2004. Retrieved on May 13, 2009 from http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1487
By comparing and contrasting the two stories, "The Journey to the West" and "Tartuffe", this essay will attempt to compare and contrast the function of the endings in these two works. " The Journey to The West" is a story containing one hundred chapters. explaining how a Tripitaka, a monk, with three disciplines travels to India to retrieve the holy. sculptures and seek for enlightenment, while "Tartuffe" is a short play about Orgon, head of a. family, being manipulated by Tartuffe, a religious hypocrite, and Orgon was enlightened at the. end. Then the.
The Flawed Characters of Tartuffe To be perfect is to be inhuman. Human nature is complete with many flaws and imperfections, one of which is represented in the play "Tartuffe", by Moliere. “Tartuffe” was written specifically to show the reader a basic flaw in human nature. This flaw is shown through two characters, Madame Pernelle and Orgon.
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
Literature is often used to convey messages to their audience, through art, play or poetry. Whether it is intentional or not, an author can not help to include some aspect of the political events that happened during that time period. Two movements discussed in this essay are Enlightenment (17th – 18th Century) and Romanticism (18th – 19th Century) and through literature, we come to acknowledge the presence and representation of evil and how they shape society. Enlightenment thinkers value reason, rationality and moderation, whereas Romanticism encouraged imagination, emotion and individual sensibility. Tartuffe by Moliere demonstrates all of the Enlightenment values in his play, whereas Frankenstein by Mary Shelley emphasizes emotion, passion and the natural world. This essay will explore ways in which human reason and society can be evil and deceiving; although some individuals may think that evil is instilled in us from the day we were born.
Moliere rocked the 17th century French world with his comedy "Tartuffe" in 1664. Although, religious factions kept the play banned from theatres from 1664-1669, "Tartuffe" emerged from the controversy as one of the all-time great comedies. Tartuffe is a convincing religious hypocrite. He is a parasite who is sucking Orgon, the rich trusting father, for all he is worth. Orgon does not realize that Tartuffe is a phony, and caters to his every whim. For instance, he reneges on his promise to let his daughter Mariane, marry Valere. Instead he demands that she wed Tartuffe, whom she despises. He also banishes his own son, Damis, from his house for speaking out against Tartuffe and all of his son's inheritance is promised to Tartuffe.
“Père Duchesne, no. 313”. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1973. Marquis de Ferreriès. Correspondence inédite. “The Réveillon Riot (28 April 1789)”.
New York: Barnes & Noble, 1969. Print. The. Kreis, Steven. A. A. "Lecture 12: The French Revolution - Moderate Stage, 1789-1792.
Molière’s play “Tartuffe and Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” both demonstrate a comical portrait of hypocrisy. In “Tartuffe”, the main character Tartuffe is seen as a religious hypocrite who takes advantage of Orgon’s wealth and agrees to marry his daughter, Mariane against her wishes. In “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Jack and Algernon both lie about their identity to get the woman of their dreams. The authors use the concept of double personalities in the play to reveal the deceit and lies to represent the theme of hypocrisy. In fact, hypocrisy is not only displayed in the characters but in the play as a whole. Additionally, the plays are both hypocrital in ways that they do not follow the structure of comedy.
Moliere, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. "Tartuffe." Norton Anthology of World Literature: 1650 to the present. 3RD ed. Volume D. Puchner, Akbari, Denecke, et al. New York, London: W. W Norton, 2012. 144-197. Print.
A theme of the play Tartuffe is justice. Justice, or the lack of justice, can be seen in the relationship between father and son, father and daughter, and guest and host. Lacanian philosophy, which focuses on language and the conflict that the male feels due to a disintegration of oneness, can be used to look at injustice as it manifests itself in the male conflict within the play.
Nardo, Don. A. The French Revolution. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1999. Print.