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Tartuffe is a comedy by Molière, and arguably his most famous play. It was first performed in 1664 at the fêtes held at Versailles, and almost immediately censored by the outcry of the dévots ("devout" [people]), who were very influential in the court of King Louis XIV. While the king had little interest in suppressing the play, he eventually did so because of the dévots. The word dévots referred to those who claimed to be very religious, but as Molière points out in Tartuffe, these same people were often religious hypocrites. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Tartuffe (Herr Tartüff) is a German silent film produced by Erich Pommer for UFA and released in 1926. ... A comedy is a dramatic performance of a light and amusing character, usually with a happy conclusion to its plot. ... For the 2007 film, see Molière (film). ... Events March 12 - New Jersey becomes a colony of England. ... Fête is a French word meaning festival or holiday, which has passed into English as a label that may be given to certain events. ... Versailles in 1789. ... For other uses, see Censor. ... Dévots (pronounced /devo/ and meaning devout people in French) was the name given in France in the first half of the 17th century to a party following a Catholic policy of opposition to the Protestants inside France, and alliance with the Catholic Austrian Empire abroad. ... Louis XIV King of France and Navarre By Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701) Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638–September 1, 1715) reigned as King of France and King of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death. ... For other uses, see Play (disambiguation). ... Various Religious symbols, including (first row) Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Bahai, (second row) Islamic, tribal, Taoist, Shinto (third row) Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, Jain, (fourth row) Ayyavazhi, Triple Goddess, Maltese cross, pre-Christian Slavonic Religion is the adherence to codified beliefs and rituals that generally involve a faith in a spiritual... Hypocrisy is the act of condemning or calling for the condemnation of another person when the critic is guilty of the act for which he demands that the accused be condemned. ...

19th century costume design

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (512x870, 36 KB) Tartuffe, the title character in the play by Molière. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (512x870, 36 KB) Tartuffe, the title character in the play by Molière. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Main characters

• Madame Pernelle, mother of Orgon
• Orgon, head of the house and husband of Elmire
• Elmire, Orgon's second wife
• Damis, son of Orgon
• Mariane, daughter of Orgon, betrothed to Valère
• Valère, In love with Mariane
• Cléante,Elmire's brother
• Tartuffe, falsely pious man who fools Orgon and Mme. Pernelle
• Dorine, servant and companion to Mariane,
• Monsieur Loyal, a bailiff
• Un exempt (the King's officer)
• Flipote, servant of Madame Pernelle (non-speaking)
• Laurent, Tartuffe's servant (either unseen, or present but non-speaking)
• Argas, friend of Orgon; entrusts Orgon with documents that Tartuffe steals and attempts to use against Orgon (never seen, only spoken of. Many others are like this- mentioned in passing, but never seen.)

Setting: Paris, 1660s, house of Orgon

Brief synopsis

As the play begins, the well-off Orgon is convinced that Tartuffe is a man of great religious zeal and fervor. In fact, Tartuffe is a scheming hypocrite. He is interesting as a character in that he gets around Orgon not by telling lies, but by allowing him to use his power as the master of the household over everyone else. By the time Tartuffe is exposed and Orgon renounces him, Tartuffe has legal control of his finances and family, and is about to steal all of his wealth and marry his daughter — all at Orgon's own invitation. At the very last minute, the king intervenes, and Tartuffe is condemned to prison.

As a consequence, the word tartuffe is used in contemporary French, and also in English, to designate a hypocrite who ostensibly and exaggeratedly feigns virtue, especially religious virtue.

The entire play is written in 12-syllable lines (alexandrines) of rhyming couplets. An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter. ...

Detailed synopsis

Orgon's family is up in arms because Orgon and his mother have fallen under the influence of Tartuffe, a religious fraud (and a vagrant prior to Orgon's help). Tartuffe pretends to be pious and to speak with divine authority, and Orgon and his mother no longer take any action without first consulting him. One could even say Orgon has a single-minded obsession with Tartuffe, as clearly demonstrated in Act I, Scene 5.

The rest of the family and their kings are not fooled by Tartuffe's antics and detest him. The stakes are raised when Orgon announces that he will marry Tartuffe to his daughter Mariane (already engaged to Valère). Mariane is, of course, very upset at this news and the rest of the family realizes how deeply Tartuffe has embedded himself into the family.

In an effort to show Orgon how awful Tartuffe really is, the family devises a plan to trap Tartuffe into confessing to Elmire his desire for her. As a pious man and a guest he should have no such feelings for the lady of the house, and the family hopes that after such a confession, Orgon will throw Tartuffe out of the house. Indeed, Tartuffe does try to seduce Elmire, but their interview is interrupted when Elmire's son, Damis, who has been eavesdropping, can't take it anymore and jumps out of his hiding place to denounce Tartuffe.

Tartuffe is at first shocked but recovers very well. When Orgon enters the room and Damis triumphantly tells him what happened, Tartuffe uses reverse psychology and accuses himself of being the worst sinner:

Oui, mon frère, je suis un méchant, un coupable.

Un malheureux pécheur tout plein d'iniquité

(Yes, brother, I am evil through and through,

Guilty, full of iniquity and sin) (III.vi).

Orgon is convinced by Tartuffe's self-accusations that Damis was lying, and banishes him from the house. Tartuffe even gets Orgon to order that, to teach Damis a lesson, Tartuffe should be around Elmire more than ever.

In a later scene, Elmire takes up the charge again and challenges Orgon to be witness to a meeting between herself and Tartuffe. Orgon, ever easily convinced, decides to hide under a table in the same room, confident that Elmire is wrong. He overhears, of course, Elmire resisting Tartuffe's very forward advances. When Tartuffe has incriminated himself beyond all help and is dangerously close to violating Elmire, Orgon comes out from under the table and orders Tartuffe out of his house.

But this wily guest means to stay, and Tartuffe finally shows his hand. Earlier, Orgon signed all his worldly possessions over to Tartuffe, and he admitted to the same that he was in possession of a box of incriminating letters (written by a friend, not him). Tartuffe has taken care to take this box and now tells Orgon that he must leave the house if he does not want to be exposed. Tartuffe takes his temporary leave and Orgon's family tries to figure out what to do.

Later that day, Tartuffe returns with a police officer to begin the eviction. But to his surprise, the police officer arrests him instead. The enlightened King Louis XIV (name not mentioned in play) has heard of the injustices happening in the house and decides to arrest Tartuffe instead. Even Madame Pernelle is convinced by this time of Tartuffe's chicanery, and the entire family thanks its lucky stars that it has escaped the mortification of leaving their house to a man with a long criminal history, changing his name often to avoid being caught.

Controversy Surrounding the Play

Though Tartuffe was received well by the public and even by Louis XIV, it immediately sparked conflict amongst many different groups who were offended by the play. The factions opposed to Molière's work included the Roman Catholic Church, members of upper-class French society, and the powerful underground organization called the Compagnie du Saint Sacrement. Tartuffe's popularity was cut short when the Archbishop of Paris issued an edict threatening excommunication for anyone who watched, performed in, or read the play. Molière attempted to assuage church officials by re-writing his play to seem more secular and less critical of religion, but the church could not be budged. The revised version of the play was called L'imposteur and had a main character titled Paulphe instead of Tartuffe. Even throughout Molière's conflict with the church, Louis XIV continued to support the playwright; it is possible that without the King's support, Molière might have been executed for heresy. In 1669, after Molière's detractors lost much of their influence, he was finally allowed to perform the final version of his play. However, due to all the controversy surrounding Tartuffe, Molière mostly refrained from writing such incisive plays as this one again.^[1]

Adaptations

A stage production of Richard Wilbur's translation of the play opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre in 1977 and was restaged for television the following year on PBS, with Donald Moffat replacing John Wood as Tartuffe, and co-starring Tammy Grimes and Patricia Elliott. Richard Purdy Wilbur (born March 1, 1921), is a United States poet. ... Circle in the Square Theater The Circle in the Square Theater is a Broadway theatre in New York City. ... Not to be confused with Public Broadcasting Services in Malta. ... Donald Moffat (born December 26, 1930) is an English-born American actor. ... John Wood (born 1930) is an English actor. ... Tammy Grimes (born January 30, 1934) is an award-winning actress and singer. ... Patricia Elliott (born July 21, 1942 in Gunnison, Colorado) is an American actress. ...

Liz Lochhead translated and adapted Tartuffe into Scots in 1985; this premiered at the Edinburgh Royal Lyceum in 1987 and was revived at the same theatre on January 7, 2006. Liz Lochhead (born December 26, 1947) is a Scottish poet and dramatist, originally from Motherwell. ... This article is about the Anglic language of Scotland. ... This article is about the year. ... Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 7th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

A version was performed at the National Theatre in London, England in 1990 by the Tara Arts Theatre Company. The Tara Arts version was in English but the play was restyled to the format of Indian theatre, set in the court of Aurangazeb and began with a salam in Urdu. The Royal National Theatre from Waterloo Bridge The Royal National Theatre is a building complex and theatre company located on the South Bank in London, England immediately east of the southern end of Waterloo Bridge. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... Image:RangaShankara. ... Abul Muzaffar Muhiuddin Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir (November 3, 1618 - March 3, 1707), also known as Alamgir I, was the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1658 until 1707. ... Sa*lam (s[.a]*l[aum]m), n. ... Urdu ( , , trans. ...

A translation into modern English by playwright Ranjit Bolt, published by Absolute Classics, 1991 (ISBN 0-948230-50-9) has been produced on the stage in Britain and abroad.

A second version by Ranjit Bolt (first performed at the National Theatre, London, in 2002) is published by Oberon Books ISBN 1840022604

James Scotland adapted the play into Scots, titled The Holy Terror, which was revived to considerable critical aclaim in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2007 by Edinburgh People's Theatre.[1] This article is about the Anglic language of Scotland. ...

A 2007 translation by Justin Fleming for the first time uses a variety of verse forms respectively for truth, love and hypocrisy. Justin Fleming (1953- ) is a playwright and writer. ...

The most recent adaptation of Tartuffe was completed in the summer of 2007 by Chris Martin as a part of his MFA degree from the University of Arkansas. A performance of this adaptation occurred in August, 2007 in Fayetteville, AR. Martin's adaptation is titled Sinclair and takes place in the home of a future Republican presidential candidate on the day of elections. The University of Arkansas is a public co-educational land-grant university. ... Fayetteville is a city located in Washington County, Arkansas, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 58,047. ...

Film

A film version was produced by Ufa in 1926. It was directed by F. W. Murnau and starred Emil Jannings as Tartuffe, Lil Dagover as Elmire and Werner Krauss as Orgon. Herr Tartüff is a German silent film produced by Erich Pommer for UFA and released in 1926. ... UFA logo Universum Film AG, better known as Ufa or UFA, was the principal film studio in Germany, home of the German film industry during the Weimar Republic and through World War II, and a major force in world cinema during its brief existence from 1917 to 1945. ... Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... F W Murnau Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (December 28, 1888 - March 11, 1931) was one of the most influential directors of the silent film era. ... Emil Jannings (July 23, 1884 - January 3, 1950) was an actor and the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor. ... Werner Krauss (June 23, 1884 – October 20, 1959) was a German film actor. ...

Opera

The composer Kirke Mechem based his opera of the same name on the play. mm A composer is a person who writes music. ... Kirke Mecham, born on 16 August 1925, is an American composer. ... For other uses, see Opera (disambiguation). ... Tartuffe is an opera in two acts by Kirke Mechem to an English libretto by the composer, based on the play of the same name by Molière. ...

See also

• Blaise Pascal's 7th Provincial Letters (contrast with Tartuffe, Act IV, scene V, 1489-1493)

Blaise Pascal (pronounced ), (June 20 [[1624 // ]] – August 19, 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. ... The Lettres provinciales (Provincial letters) are a series of eighteen letters written by French philosopher and theologian Blaise Pascal under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte. ...

External links

• Plot overview (in French)
• Free Project Gutenberg etext of Tartuffe (in English)
• Theatre History
• Bartleby
• CliffsNotes
• Cummings Study Guides

1. ^ "Molière: Introduction." Drama Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski, Editor. Vol. 13. Gale Group, Inc., 2001. eNotes.com. 2006. 26 Nov, 2007 <http://www.enotes.com/drama-criticism/ moliere>