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Two classic pieces of literature that show the evolution of humanity during the Enlightenment and Romantic periods are Molière’s Tartuffe and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Jean Baptiste Poquelin Molière wrote Tartuffe, which illustrates the cynical and neglectful behavior of a Father (Orgon) towards the truths that are told to him by his family in regards to a religious peasant he openly took into his home. Unbeknownst to him, he is being manipulated mentally and down to his material riches by this religious peasant (Tartuffe) who disguises himself as a respectful holy man. Tartuffe further inspires to such a point that Orgon see’s him as a better suitor to his daughter (Mariane) than her love interest. Mary Shelly’s masterpiece Frankenstein is a story within a story. An Arctic explorer (Robert Walton) writes to his sister about his travels and encounter with a dying man that he discovers. This man (Victor Frankenstein), who is a scientist, talks about his very deadly eventful life experiences, although this man is the cause of his own misfortune, he speaks on revenge towards a being that he created who is also the one that he blames.

Evil in Tartuffe and Frankenstein are represented by morally irresponsible choices. In Frankenstein, Victor gives life to a creature, which is an act of God, Victor is a man and he also made the choice to abandon and not give any guidance to his creation whereas in Tartuffe, the character known as Tartuffe acts like a moral authority, but he engages in acts of adultery and manipulation which is very hypocritical. The behaviors in both literary pieces show a distinct picture that nothing good comes from making poor moral decisions and that a person should treat others, as they would want to be treat...

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...rates the evil in this literary work in the form of moral irresponsibility.

Each person that lived within the Romantic and Enlightenment periods had their own individual responsibility to society to act in morally acceptable ways. In both Frankenstein (Romantic) and Tartuffe (Enlightenment) an imbalance was created by the choices that were made, and these choices caused a discord to the harmony that could have existed. Had Tartuffe chose to be himself and not create a false persona and manipulated people to satisfy his needs he might have been accepted in society. And had Victor Frankenstein chose not to play God he would not have been faced with the responsibility of providing guidance for his creation. Free will is what we all have and to use it for absolutely negative means is simply wrong and just an illustration of what evil is in Tartuffe and Frankenstein.