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Comparing Tartuffe And Alexander Pope's An Essay On Man

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Comparing Tartuffe And Alexander Pope's An Essay On Man
Teachers and Entertainers of the Enlightenment Period During the Enlightenment Period authors found their roles in life were to teach and entertain their audience. In Jean-Baptist Poquelin Moliere’s Tartuffe and Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man, both artist achieve the Enlightenment’s goal, to teach and entertain. Both writers use satire, optimism, and emphasis on reason to inform and keep the attention of their audience. There are some regards that Moliere and Pope sacrificed art, creativity, or entertainment just for educations. Readers of both works will realize that there are no other works like the two and the two works are entertaining and teach audiences valuable lessons. Therefore, both Moliere and Pope effectively fulfill the …show more content…
Optimism is the idea that this is the best of all possible worlds and that God, in his wisdom, created the best world. Also, the belief of optimism includes a world where good and evil coexist, for every bad thing comes good. In Tartuffe Moliere have many accounts of optimism. But focusing on the end of the play is where optimism really appears in the play. After, Tartuffe’s hypocrite ways are revealed to Orgon and it seems that everything bad is happening to Orgon finally gets some good. When Tartuffe wants Orgon to be put in prison the tables turn and it is Tartuffe who is to put in jail. Because the King “recognized Tartuffe as one/Notorious by another crime (Moliere 5.7 63-64)” for all the bad that Tartuffe did and was about to cause there was some justice, the good. With optimism Moliere also uses what is known as ‘Deus ex machina’ meaning God from a machine. This term refers to endings that do not grow logically from the plot but require a God or a gent of God to save the day. So, according to Moliere without God or the ‘Deus ex machina’ the bad would have prevailed over the good. This supports how Moliere uses optimism in Tartuffe to teach and entertain his

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