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PLOITICAL SATIRE ESSAY
PLOITICAL SATIRE ESSAY
essay a modest proposal explaining satire
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“Tartuffe” is a 17th century play written by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, typically referenced by his stage name Molière. Molière utilizes comedy in his work to demonstrate the hypocrisy at times found within religion. During the 17th century, anyone believed to be righteous was viewed as a role model and it was common for people to believe the words and follow the rules of these leaders without questioning. Due to religion being a major focus of 17th-century society, “Tartuffe” was originally banned from public viewing as a result of objections by leaders of the Catholic Church, who felt the play was an attack on religion and people of faith. Molière uses Tartuffe, one of his main characters, to play the role of a man who manipulates others …show more content…
Molière also uses Cléante to teach the importance of moderation. Cléante calls to Orgon’s attention the foolishness of his extreme actions by telling him to “Listen to yourself! You’re over the top, / Getting carried away again. Just stop. / “Moderation.” Is that a word you know? / I think you’ve learned it, but then off you go.” ( ) Orgon has not only gone to the extreme of believing in Tartuffe but after learning the truth he flipped to the extreme of believing in no one. Cléante responds to Orgon’s reaction of religion being the cause of all his troubles by questioning, “…Rather than change your ways, you turned / Like that. [Snaps fingers] Attacking holy men who’ve earned / the right to stand among the true believers. / So now all holy men are base deceivers?” Molière demonstrates with these lines that one should recognize there are truly devout religious men in the world, even though there are men like Tartuffe, who are religious impostors and take advantage of faith to deceive others. Tartuffe’s character is a representation of how Satan deludes people. In the Bible, Jesus tells his followers that Satan is out to deceive and turn people away from him. Consequently, Tartuffe’s purpose was to deceive Orgon and take everything from him, resulting in his turning against religion completely. There are people who pretend to be righteous, but this is not a reason to classify all righteous people as imposters since overreactions can lead to the wrong conclusion and disastrous results. Molière’s intent is to show that moderation is important in all areas of
In Tartuffe, Cléante is characterized by what he says, what others say about him, and his reaction to others. As shown in the play, Cléante is Orgon’s brother-in-law and Elmire’s brother who is very intelligent and outspoken. Throughout the play, Cléante speaks his opinions and tries to set the characters on the right path. The author of Tartuffe, Moliére, portrays Cléante as outspoken, wise, and peaceful. Moliére reveals Cléante by using the methods aforementioned.
In Tartuffe, the nobility (mostly Orgon and his mother) is depicted as being fools because of the way they are easily tricked by the “holy impostor”. When Madame Pernelle praises Tartuffe for being a good holy man, her grandson Damis says “No, look you, madame, neither father nor anything else can oblige me to have any regard for him. I should belie my heart to tell you otherwise. To me his actions are perfectly odious; and I foresee that, one time or other, matters will come to extremity between that wretch and me” (Act 1, Scene 1). This representation of the nobility places them exactly where Louis intended. Spielvogel says that Louis removed the nobles from the royal council and lured them to be part of his court as a way to keep them occupied with trivial matters and out of important roles in politics
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere's Tartuffe is an epic play of hypocrisy, betrayal, and the tale of a foolish mind. Moliere's choice of protagonist in this play happens to be the most blatantly ignorant character in the play. Orgon is naive to the villain Tartuffe's hypocritical ways, makes a complete dunce of himself by uplifting Tartuffe as holy, and failing to pick up the abundance of clues of Tartuffe being fake. Analyzing this character is rather interesting and at the same time frustrating to read of someone so ignorant that they fail to see the wolf hiding under the sheep clothing. A fool is a fool unless they open their eyes to see the truth, and it took Orgon the majority of the play to realize the truth.
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.”
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.
Voltaire makes sure the reader can spot and see hypocrisy of religion and how they may judge others without following their own rules. "Alas!" said the old woman, "I have a shrewd suspicion of a reverend Grey Friar, who stayed last night in the same inn with us at Badajos. God preserve me from judging rashly, but he came into our room twice, and he set out upon his journey long before us." The person who stole Cunégonde’s money is a religious friar and he left before them which means he did not want to be caught. Religion is belief but only rarely, therefore most of the time sadly religion is hypocrisy and that is exactly how Voltaire wanted his readers to see it. With all his satire and sarcasm he made sure they see what religion is.
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. In the social arena there is always a central powerful family, or first family that everyone in the community aspires to be, or in more recent term “keeping up with the Jones”, “or the one with swag”. The title, position and authority was so entrenched in their social community, that it came down to even choosing one’s mate through arranged marriages. We see in Moliere’s Tartuffe, that authoritative power was as precious as gold, in the realms or patriarchal power that was prevalent in the 17th Century, political and economic power, and also religious power (in which Oregon) wanted association
Tartuffe is nothing more than a traveling confidence man who veils his true wickedness with a mask of piety. Orgon and his mother Madame Pernelle are completely taken in by this charade. On the other hand, Cleante, Elmire, and Dorine see Tartuffe for the fake that he really is. Cleante is Orgon's wise brother who speaks elegantly about Tartuffe's hypocrisy. Through Cleante, Moliere most plainly reveals his theme.
This was the age of reason. People at this time began to apply rational thoughts to figure out and understand nature and to guide their human existence. In Moliere’s Tartuffe, this ideal is expressed through the character of the king. In the end, Tartuffe has brought an officer of the king back to take Orgon away. However, in Tartuffe’s attempt to get Orgon arrested, the king saw through him and reasoned that Tartuffe was the one to be accused and put to trial.
While Molière satirically criticized and warned against certain aspects of absolutism, divine right, and the patriarchal family, it was also evident that he supported them and did not believe in alternative ways that matters should be handled. He simply recognizes that in order for the kingdom to be conducted under these policies, rulers (both the King and heads of the household) had to be careful and wise in their decision-making to avoid corruption. Molière definitely makes some good points, and even though it was banned for a period of time, Tartuffe remains one of his most famous works.
Jean-Baptitste Poquelin Moliere’s Tartuffe, is undoubtedly a satirical comedy. In Moliere’s description of a satire, he was very direct as to the function and objectives of one are. The function is to correct men’s vices, using satire to ridicule them and expose them to public laughter (Moliere, p.14). Although this satire is making fun of many things in the church and organized religion, which is not the only objective Moliere had in mind. Tartuffe has many themes that reoccur through out the play. The time period, in which this play was written, was known as the Age of Reason. One of the main ideas and attitudes during this time was, reason must always control passion. Due to this attitude, one theme that constantly appears through the play, is the battle between reason and passion.
It is in the duality of Orgon, the believing subject, and Tartuffe, the manipulating hypocrite (or impostor), that Moliere takes his digs at the extremes of enthusiastic belief. Tartuffe plays the role of a man whose greedy actions are cloaked by a mask of overwhelming piety, modesty and religious fervor. Orgon is the head of a household who has taken Tartuffe in. We laugh at Orgon because everyone else (except his mother) knows that Tartuffe is a fake. All of Orgon's relatives warn him of Tartuffe's gluttony and of the false nature of his pious proclamations. When Dorine tries to tell Orgon about Elmire's illness, all Orgon can say is,
The play, set in the 1600’s during the witch hunt that sought to rid villages of presumed followers and bidders of the devil is a parallel story to the situation in the US in the 1950’s: McCarthyism, seeking the riddance of communist ideologists. Miller sets this story more particularly in a village called Salem, where the theocratic power governed by strict puritan rules require the people to be strong believers and forbid them to sin at risk of ending up in hell. However, the audience notices that despite this strong superficial belief in God, faith is not what truly motivates them, but it is rather money and reputation.
“It is science, and not religion, which has taught men that things are complex and difficult to understand”-Emile Durkheim. Understanding religion is a very difficult task, with so many views and thousands of different religions. No matter what the religion is, or where it is located they all have an importance for society. The importance religion has is establishing what is correct and what is not. Religion has been around for many years, so has the many different understanding of the purpose religion has on society. Most of all the three key factors of religion that has an impact on society are; Social support, experience, maintain social control.
The world we live in today has been shaped by the beliefs systems that were used to govern, growing societies. Religion is connected to government in every culture across the globe. It is how the laws are made and it is the model used to determine what is considered acceptable behavior or morally right and wrong.