Religious Hypocrisy In Moliere's Tartuffe

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An author’s work serves as a window of insight for the reader; for example, the author of The Song of Ch’un-Hyang revealed women’s issues in 18th century Korea, and the author of Tartuffe, Moliere, expressed the issue of religious hypocrisy. The arrangement of the characters and the story itself conveyed their themes perfectly, allowing the reader to view into the author’s time period and analyze the society, the ideals, and issues mentioned. This is done through utilizing literary devices, ranging from voice of reason to the type of mediums their works were presented. In comparison the authors employed the literary devices of voice of reason and the type of medium used to highlight social issues prevalent in their time. The voice of reason …show more content…
For example, the author of Tartuffe, Moliere, employed satire to criticize the faults that lie in the French society at the time. In his play he creates this satire in the form of the villain, Tartuffe; Tartuffe highlights Moliere’s representation of religious hypocrisy and the theme is shown in two ways: the first way is through Orgon’s character throughout the play; Orgon was talked negatively by his family due to his involvement with Tartuffe. Orgon believes he is giving his courtesy to who he deems as a religious man, but on the other hand his family sees that Tartuffe abuses that courtesy to take advantage anything Orgon will offer. Despite the many attempts his family, especially Cleante and Dorine trying their best to reason with Orgon, his religious piety overwhelmed his thinking and narrowed his reasoning when it came to seeing Tartuffe as a man with ill intentions. The second way Moliere displays the hypocrisy in religious devotion is in the villain himself, Tartuffe; according to his biography, “Moliere suggests how readily religious faith lends itself to misuse, how high sounding pieties allow men and women to evade self-examination and immediate responsibilities. Tartuffe deceives others by his grand gestures of mortification and charity.”(142) Throughout the play, Orgon defended Tartuffe because of his “religious piety,” without realizing how easily he falls victim to Tartuffe’s deception. In this satire, it shows how religious piety was held at a high esteem in France that it was easy for one to use that as a cloak to misuse it in order to attain what they desire. The Song of Ch’un-Hyang is a pansori, described as, “traditional performane art with a set of repertoire.”(Norton 75) Despite that it sounds like any ordinary theater present in the Western world, its use gives has a profound impact on Korean
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