Orgon's Obsession in Moliere's Tartuffe

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Orgon’s Obsession in Moliere’s Tartuffe: Infatuation versus Reason
Julian Taibi
English Major, Secondary Education
In Moliere’s masterpiece Tartuffe, or The Imposter, written and first performed in 1664,
religious hypocrisy plays a major role in each of the characters’ lives. One character, Orgon, in
particular falls subject to the deception of Tartuffe, who pretends to be a devout, pious, and
humble man. Orgon becomes completely obsessed with Tartuffe and foolishly lets him stay
with his family while blindly following everything Tartuffe tells him. Moliere, meanwhile,
presents a few characters, namely Cleante, Dorine, and the King, who embody the power of
reason to overcome irrationality. The play explores the ways in which human reason can be
both deceived and undeceived, a controversial topic that resonates throughout history.
The first evidence we have of Orgon’s obsession with Tartuffe is in Act I, Scene IV, when
Orgon comes back from being away for a while. Orgon’s brother-in-law, Cleante, wishes to talk
to him, but Orgon replies by saying, “Excuse me, Brother; just one moment” (20). He then
dismisses his brother-in-law because he wants to learn of any family news; however, it is not his
family that he wants to hear about but rather his new guest, Tartuffe. At first, Dorine, the
family servant, assumes that Orgon would like to hear about his wife when she answers, “Your
wife, two days ago, had a bad fever, and a fierce headache which refused to leave her” (21).
Normally, in a situation where a husband learns that his wife is sick, the husband would ask
more about her condition and likely show sincere concern, particularly if the illness is of a
serious nature. Orgon, on the other hand, is no longer a “normal” husband, due to his
obsession with the sly and malicious Tartuffe. It is almost as if a spell has been cast upon Orgon
that allows him only to be concerned with Tartuffe. Orgon responds to Dorine’s statement by
asking about the object of his obsession, “Ah. And Tartuffe?” (21). Dorine replies, “Tartuffe?
Why, he’s round and red, bursting with health, and excellently fed” (21). When Orgon responds,
in turn, with the concerned, “Poor fellow” (21), the audience is left dumbfounded by Orgon’s
unnecessary sympathy towards Tartuffe. Not only does the audience question Orgon’s concern
with Tartuffe, but more importantly, his lack of interest in his sick wife. Is Orgon’s obsession
with Tartuffe so strong that it causes him to put this phony hypocrite above Elmire, the woman
he is married to?
As the conversation ensues, Dorine continues to attempt to get through to Orgon with
more information about his sickly wife, but Orgon ignores any news that does not concern
Tartuffe. At the end of the conversation, Dorine tells Orgon, “Both are doing well in short. I’ll go

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and tell Madame that you’ve expressed keen sympathy and anxious interest” (Moliere 23).
Through this statement, we can see that Dorine is just as puzzled as the audience is and that
she can do nothing but laugh in utter disbelief at the hypnotized Orgon.
What does Orgon find so magnificent about Tartuffe that causes him to display such an
infatuation? The playwright answers this question in Act I, Scene V, when Orgon recollects the
first time he met Tartuffe. Although Orgon offers a reason both for his interest and for his belief
as to why Tartuffe seems like such a religious and humble man, the audience can see that his
judgment is extremely weak. Orgon attempts to explains his interest in Tartuffe—“He *Tartuffe+
is a man who…a man who…an excellent man” (25)—and in his stuttering statement, we can see
how Orgon has lost his ability to rationally evaluate anything at all. What Orgon says next is
extremely irrational. He comments, “My mother, children, brother, and wife could die, and I’d
not feel a single moment’s pain” (25). After Orgon makes this claim, the audience likely expects
him to come to his senses and realize the severity of telling his brother-in-law that he would
feel nothing if his family died. However, Orgon continues to justify his thinking, ignoring the
sarcasm of Cleante’s comment, “That’s a fine sentiment, Brother; most humane” (25). By
freeing his soul “from earthly loves, and every human tie,” Orgon is almost trying to become a
missionary figure in his obsession with Tartuffe, putting aside his own earthly cares in favor of
what he perceives to be more spiritual matters: the person of Tartuffe himself. Orgon believes
that Tartuffe is a saint because he flaunts his humbleness around the church while publicly
performing minor tasks in church, often praying loudly, and how modest he is when accepting
only small gifts. It is obvious to all of the other characters and to the audience as well that
Tartuffe merely uses religious acts in order to appear religious himself. It almost seems as if
Orgon is joking when he says, “Last week, his *Tartuffe’s] conscience was severely pricked
because, while he was praying, he had caught a flea and killed it, so he felt, too wrathfully”
(Moliere 26). However, Orgon simply reveals his own misguided fixation on Tartuffe’s apparent
unassailable goodness.
Cleante then makes a remark that caused much controversy in Versailles and
throughout France in 1664 when the play was first performed. He replies, “There’s a vast
difference, so it seems to me, between true piety and hypocrisy: How do you fail to see it, may I
ask? Is not a face quite different than a mask?” (27). This remark is perhaps the essence of
Moliere’s motivation for writing this play. In the 1660s in the official French royal court of
Versailles and throughout France, there were more than a few highly prominent and
supposedly religious and pious people in power that Moliere could clearly see were hypocrites
and not people of God with pure intentions. Moliere endeavored to expose these deceptive
authorities or at least provoke questions within his audience. Also, since Moliere wrote during
the beginning of the Age of Reason, people were beginning to demand adherence to common
sense in decision-making and behavior that was rational. As the character Orgon displays hardly

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any common sense at all and, at the same time, is speaking primarily about Christianity, people
rioted and some authorities demanded that the play be banned on the basis that Moliere had
ridiculed both religious and secular authorities for their lack of piety and absence of reason.
We can see a perfect example of the combination of the absences of these two
qualities—piety and reason—when Cleante says, “Good God, man! Have you lost your common
sense?” (26). Because Orgon follows what seem to be the tenets of Christianity, and at the
same time his character portrays a person lacking reason and rationality, some audience
members misconstrued Moliere’s message and assumed that the playwright had argued that
Christianity was synonymous with a lack of the ability to reason with clarity and intelligence. In
his 1963 article “Tartuffe, Religion, and Courtly Culture,” published in French Historical Studies,
Emanuel Chill addresses how the dévots, the followers of Cardinal Pierre de Berulle, found the
play extremely offensive. Chill explains that the original version of the play was probably even a
lot stronger in its social criticism than the versions we have today. Reflecting on the content of
the original version and the decision making process of the theatre company to edit the work,
Chill notes, “it is clear that the surviving remnant of the Company was moved to exert great
pressure against Tartuffe, and that its ‘excitation’ resulted in the royal prohibition of its public
performance” (Chill 155). Thus, in 1664, the play was banned because of the bad effect it
produced in challenging authority. In his PMLA essay “Tartuffe and the Mysteries” (1977),
Marcel Gutwirth states, “The challenge laid down by the comedy of Tartuffe was of a
magnitude the age could not afford to ignore. Moliere’s plea for the purity of the play’s
intentions had been swept aside with the gruff retort: ‘It is not the business of the stage to be
preaching the Gospel’” (Gutwirth 36).
Orgon’s obsession with Tartuffe reaches its climax in Act III when Damis, Orgon’s son,
attempts to uncover Tartuffe’s true face. As Damis listens to Tartuffe’s advances on Elmire, he
cannot help himself and bursts out of hiding in order to prove Tartuffe’s treachery. When
Orgon arrives on the scene, however, Orgon acts in the same irrational, absurd way that defines
his character thus far in the play. He is now completely deceived, which plays into the hands of
Tartuffe perfectly. Instead of denying the accusations, Tartuffe maintains his pious posture and
then over-exaggerates the role of a sinner. Tartuffe says, “Yes Brother, I’m a wicked man, I fear:
a wretched sinner, all depraved and twisted, the greatest villain that has ever existed” (97). This
moment in the play is ironic because Tartuffe actually admits to his wrongdoing, but since
Orgon blindly believes that Tartuffe can do no evil, he refuses to listen to the accusation and
consequently turns on his own son, Damis. Orgon has become so obsessed with the notion of
Tartuffe’s saintly piety that he kicks Damis out of his house – hardly an act that would come
from a religious, or even a sane person. Orgon ends the scene by saying to Damis, “Well go
quickly then. I disinherit you; an empty purse is all you’ll get from me – except my curse!” (102).

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In Act IV, Elmire devises a plan in which Orgon will hide under a table while she and
Tartuffe have a conversation that will expose Tartuffe’s hypocrisy. It is the ultimate plan—one
based on the age-old adage that “seeing is believing”—to put a final stop to Orgon’s mad
obsession with the false fiend. With a little convincing, Elmire causes Tartuffe to come onto her
once again in a sexual advance, thereby proving that he is a fraud. However, in Act IV, Scene V,
Moliere’s humor is quite apparent as Elmire coughs several times, warning her husband that he
should come out of hiding immediately and reprimand Tartuffe. Because of his blind faith in
Tartuffe, though, Orgon still refuses to believe what he hears and does not come out after the
first or even second time his wife coughs. Tartuffe’s hypocrisy must be fully exposed in order
for Orgon to work his way out from under the table. When he finally comes out of hiding, he
exclaims, “That man’s a perfect monster, I must admit! I’m simply stunned. I can’t get over it”
(129).
Although the play focuses on Tartuffe’s deception of Orgon, Tartuffe greatly affects the
other characters of the play. Cleante, who represents the voice of rationality and reason
throughout the play, is constantly in a struggle to help Orgon come to his senses. In Scene 1,
Act IV, as Cleante talks with Tartuffe, Cleante uses logic to point out the hypocrisies of
Tartuffe’s actions. Cleante argues, “Your reasoning is badly warped and stretched, and these
excuses, Sir, are most far-fetched” (110). As Tartuffe tries to justify his taking Damis’s money
and estate, he expostulates, “Lest so much wealth fall into wicked hands, lest those to whom it
might descend in time turn it to purposes of sin and crime” (111). This quote, of course, is
extremely ironic: There can be no more wicked hands that the money could fall into than
Tartuffe’s. Cleante then reasons that Damis, being Orgon’s son, should be the first in control of
the family’s money, and also, points that it is not a pious action to be the cause of a son’s
disinheritance. Cleante advances the argument skillfully by evoking the principle of piety, “Does
true religion teach that lawful heirs may freely be deprived of what is theirs?” (112). Cleante’s
point is valid, especially given that Tartuffe has no claim to the family’s wealth and is merely a
stranger who manipulates those around him. Cleante’s logical reasoning proves to be
overwhelming, and consequently, Tartuffe interrupts him to say that he has “certain pious
duties to attend to” (112), thus leaving the scene. Tartuffe realizes that his scheme is in danger
and thus makes this hypocritical statement to escape the power of reason.
Through the character of Cleante, Moliere expresses his own view of true Christian
virtue as opposed to religious hypocrisy. Cleante explains to Orgon that many people lead lives
of virtue but they do not constantly need to prove to everyone how devout they are. He makes
the point that truly religious people do not make a big show, noting, “True piety isn’t hard to
recognize…their virtue is acknowledged; who could doubt it? But you won’t hear them beat the
drum about it. They’re never ostentatious, never vain, and their religion’s moderate and
humane” (29). Towards the end of the play, Cleante demonstrates his deep devotion to

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Christianity, especially the value of forgiveness. When Orgon learns of Tartuffe’s arrest, he
expresses his desire to see him suffer for his crimes of betrayal. However, the ever consistent
Cleante points out that he should not seek revenge on the double crosser, but rather should
hope that Tartuffe repents for his sins and receives mercy from the King. Through the character
of Cleante we can see how true Christianity and rationality work so well together and can be in
harmony in the age of reason, which is, likely, Moliere’s central position, one which his
contemporary critics refused to accept.
Although Moliere portrays Cleante as the voice of reason and rationality, Cleante is
mainly ineffective in making Orgon see the truth about Tartuffe. In her short 2001 essay
“Moliere’s Tartuffe” published in the Explicator, Pamela S. Saur argues that without the other
characters, especially Elmire, the ending of the play would be quite different in that Tartuffe
would be victorious over Cleante in the struggle to guide Orgon. Saur states, “Cleante's rhetoric
and reasoning are ignored and even ridiculed by Orgon and his mother, Madame Pernelle; only
the drastic wiles of Elmire, who gets Tartuffe to try to seduce her while her husband, Orgon,
hides under the table, are effective in persuading Orgon of the truth” (Saur 9). The other
characters that are considered the “good” allies of the play, except for Elmire, are also
ultimately unsuccessful in helping to uncover Tartuffe’s true identity.
We can see further that Moliere insists that class has little to do with intellect as Dorine
has more sense and reason than Orgon. Even though she is inferior in terms of social position,
she is superior in intelligence and is able to see through the hypocrisy and two-facedness of
Tartuffe. Dorine is also not just a servant to Mariane but an honest companion as well.
However, although it seems that Dorine, being the sharp and witty lady’s maid that she is, has a
good chance of removing Tartuffe from his seat of power in the household, she only succeeds in
saving the relationship between Mariane and Valere. Through the character of Dorine, Moliere
makes sure that we have the right perspective. She is a realist who sees clearly and directly into
the truth of what is transpiring between Tartuffe and Orgon.
Orgon’s stubbornness, nonetheless, proves too strong for the cleverness of Dorine, the
wisdom of Cleante, and even the persuasion of his own son Damis. Even though Cleante and
Damis have the same goal of helping Orgon to come to his senses, Cleante represents wisdom
and reason while Damis, through his youth and passion, is impetuous and hot-headed,
threatening to cut Tartuffe’s life short. Cleante responds to this threat by identifying Damis’s
behavior as merely the ignorance of young, impulsive manhood: “What a display of young
hotheadedness! Do learn to moderate your fits of rage. In this just kingdom, this enlightened
age, one does not settle things by violence” (140). Through this remark, we can see the Age of
Reason in Cleante’s his measured, astute words.

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In contrast to Cleante, Madame Pernelle, Orgon’s mother, represents irrationality with
an unforgiving and judgmental attitude disguised as religious morality. In the opening scene of
the play, she leaves Orgon’s home because she does not approve of the household members’
negative view of Tartuffe. Madame Pernelle asserts angrily, “And [Tartuffe] practices precisely
what he preaches. He’s a fine man, and should be listened to. I will not hear him mocked by
fools like you” (10). She also criticizes everyone for their “promiscuous entertaining” which she
views as immoral although the audience understands that this is just normal socialization. Even
towards the end of the play when Orgon tells her that Tartuffe has tried to seduce his wife,
Madame Pernelle does not believe him and still insists that Tartuffe is a good religious man. As
is this case with Orgon, the final antidote to unreason is not reason itself but seeing the truth
first-hand. It is only when Tartuffe has taken Orgon’s property and tries to have him arrested
that Madame Pernelle finally comprehends the despicable character that Tartuffe really is.
Although Madame Pernelle is not proactively evil, she enables Tartuffe to successfully deceive
her son.
Two other victims of Tartuffe’s hypocritical actions include Mariane and Valere, lovers
who struggle with their relationship due to Orgon’s deception and his breaking off of their
marriage. At one point, Mariane is so horrified by the idea of having to marry Tartuffe that she
tells Dorine, “I’ll kill myself, if I’m forced to wed that man” (54). Near the end of the play, Valere
courageously does everything in his power to save Orgon from being arrested by bringing him a
carriage and money with which to escape. Although Orgon is eventually cleared of the charges
and does not need Valere’s help, he is extremely grateful and makes the announcement that he
will arrange Valere’s marriage to Mariane. Here we can see that Valere’s true friendship and
loyalty are contrasted with the false friendship of Tartuffe. Furthermore, Valere’s authentic and
admirable love for Mariane contrasts with Tartuffe’s lust for Elmire, which leads to his ultimate
downfall.
A number of critics have discussed the unusual role of the King in the play as a center of
correct authority within the larger treatment of reason and irrationality. For instance, in his
1955 article “Moliere and the Historian of French Society,” Leon Bernard states,
The heroes of tragedy, Moliere said, could be drawn according to the fancy of the
playwright, but the writer of comedy must be close to life. ‘The purpose of comedy,’
he has one of his characters say, ‘is to represent all the defects of men and
particularly those of the present age.’ No class, no profession was spared in Moliere’s
plays; only the person of the King was sacrosanct (Bernard 530).
The character of the King is vital to the resolution of this play, although he is not a speaking
character or a visible presence on stage. Just when Orgon is about to be arrested, a gentleman

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of the King’s guard is sent to tell Orgon that the King has pardoned him and will restore his
wealth and property due to Orgon’s prior service, fighting loyally for the King in the civil wars.
Moliere uses the appearance of the King at the end of the play to further emphasize that in the
end, loyalty will be rewarded and betrayal punished.
Many critics, however, see the introduction of the King as an artificial means of external
resolution. In “Dramatic Justice in Tartuffe,” Elsa Vineberg states,
The King’s justice, it is argued, may be thorough and effective, but it is so unexpected
as to cast doubt upon the dramatic coherence of the entire comedy. Probably, Moliere
himself is responsible for this reaction, having resorted to a deus ex machina that
appears to defy internal resolution. By relying on a device which introduces a new
character possessed of sweeping powers, he seems to be saying that there is a break
between dramatically motivated expectations of justice and the King’s own dazzling
display of power and omniscience (Vineberg 583).
Having the King resolve everything in his grand and powerful manner was seen by many in the
seventeenth century and by critics today as Moliere’s appeasement of the aristocracy and the
King himself in the hope of lessening the sting of his satirical portrayal of religious hypocrisy.
The King, in his wisdom and fairness, epitomizes the values of the age of reason.
Moliere’s Tartuffe wrestles with issues of reason, irrationality, and obsession that we
are still faced with today in 2010. Religious hypocrisy, as well as political hypocrisy, pervades
our whole society, and in some form, presents itself in the news every day, often motivating
contradictory and dangerous actions. We encounter so many false prophets and leaders in all
sectors of our culture, and it is often difficult to tell the sincere and genuine from the masked
and deceptive. We should still look for the simple virtues advocated by Moliere through the
character of Cleante and always be willing to look for the truth behind the facade.

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Works Cited
Viewpoints Fall 2010
Bernard, Leon. "Moliere and the Historian of French Society." The Review of Politics 17 (1955):
530-544.
Chill, Emanuel S. "Tartuffe, Religion, and Courtly Culture." French Historical Studies 3.2 (1963):
151-183.
Gutwirth, Marcel. "Tartuffe and the Mysteries." PMLA 92.1 (1977): 33-40.
Moliere. Tartuffe. Trans. Richard Wilbur. New York: Mariner, 1968.
Saur, Pamela S. "Moliere's Tartuffe." Explicator 60.1 (2001): 9-12
Vineberg, Elsa. "Dramatic Justice in Tartuffe." MLN 90.4 (1975): 583-590.