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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 the plot, Cleante is Orgon’s brother-in-law and his main characteristic is being the person who plays the voice of reason in the chaotic situation. To prove this, the journal article titled “The Explicator,” describes Cleante as having the “‘ability to see things clearly is reflected in his ironic comments to Tartuffe’” (Saur 10). Because of this characteristic, Cleante can be viewed as the character who channels Moliere’s thoughts regarding religion. In the journal article, Saur discusses the extent to which Cleante is a “‘mouthpiece of the author’” (9). Saur’s comment can be proven true with relative ease. For example, Cleante discusses with Orgon about Tartuffe, stating “I’m talking about those sanctimonious fellows who use religious zeal to fatten their bank accounts, who attach themselves to the Court while preaching austerity, who adjust their piety to fit their vices. (Moliere 18). In this excerpt, Cleante refers to Tartuffe as a deceptive person who manipulate others by using religion as an excuse. As discussed previously, Moliere makes reference to the real life counterpart, the Cabale des Devots, who uses Christianity as an excuse to carry out their devious plans. In addition, The author inserts himself indirectly into the story by utilizing Cleante as a way to address his opponents’ criticism.
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 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
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.”
Greed and envy are two of the seven deadly sins in the Christian world that adherents must dispel from their lives. This fact makes it all the more ironic when many Christians during the Salem witch trials display these two offenses in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. One reason explaining the prevalence of sin in a society that thinks of itself as pure is that leaders demonstrate that they care more about actions rather than pureness of thought. For example, clergymen who feature themselves in the play, like Parris and Hale, often measure a person’s connection with the divine through the number of times he or she attends church. In actuality, according to many prominent officials of the Christian Church, that connection can only be achieved
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.
Madame Pernelle shows the family trait that she shares with her son when she states: "He's a fine man, and should be listened to. " (I, i, 44), while speaking of Tartuffe. Although they share this trait throughout the play, Orgon's eyes are finally opened at the end of the play while his mother is still held by the farce of Tartuffe. Although Tartuffe is portrayed as the main character of the play, Orgon is the character who should really be paid attention to the most. As suggested in an essay on "Tartuffe" audiences who concentrate on the character who titles the work may miss the author's point: ".vitriol and spleen vented on one man suggests that Moliere's satire of Orgon, nevermind Tartuffe, was steeped in truth.
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.
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.
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.
...traight from the tavern world – survival is more important to him, unlike those of the court world who live by honour, and care not if it leads to their death, but only that they one day may come to be ‘honourable’, whether dead or alive. He closes with the comment that what he has told us is his ‘catechism’. This suggests an idea that his religion is to avoid honour, and ever to question its value.
Phaedra, a tragedy written by Jean Racine, tells the tale of forbidden relationships and the consequences of following one’s passion rather than abiding by the neoclassical virtue of reason. The comedy, Tartuffe, written by Molière also displays a set of forbidden relationships and the consequences of pursuing passion. In each play, there exists a father/son relationship that is either saved or broken by the actions of the characters in the play. While the father/son relationships in Phaedra and Tartuffe are similar in that each son battles with forbidden relationships that they want to exist and ones that they do not, the sets of relationships are more different in the following: one son attempts to preserve his father’s pride, the father
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.
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.
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.