Tartuffe Summary

In Tartuffe, written by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere, a man named Tartuffe fools Orgon, the wealthy head of the household. Orgon takes in Tartuffe and treats him as if he was of blood relation and is blinded by the façade he puts on of being a good, moral, and righteous man. In reality, Tartuffe is a hypocrite and a self-righteous one at that. The only people who notice Tartuffe’s façade are everyone but Orgon and he will not listen to their complaints. As the play progresses Orgon keeps refusing to listen to his family but eventually the truth is revealed. The play takes place in Paris at Orgon’s house and at the beginning, Madame Pernelle, Orgon’s mother, is leaving because she does not like what has happened at her son’s house. Everyone tries to stop her from leaving but nothing works. Orgon’s daughter is to marry her love Valere and Cleante, Orgon’s brother-in-law, wants to make sure that they are still to be married. When Orgon arrives back from a trip out of town he ignores his brother-in-law and instead wants to know how the family has been. He hears that his wife, Elmire, has had a fever but the only person he really cares about is Tartuffe, and he has been doing just fine. Cleante tries his hardest to talk some sense into Orgon about who Tartuffe really is but none of his approaches work. Orgon wants to have a talk with his daughter, Mariane, the subject matter being her marriage. He wants her to marry Tartuffe. When she hears this, she is very much against the offer and is appalled at what her father has just said. Orgon tries to convince her that it is the right thing to do but she does not comply. She even tells her maid, Dorine, that she would rather kill herself than marry Tartuffe so they come up with a plan to stop her from having to marry him. Valere hears about what has happened and comes to find out more. They end up in a fight but Dorine eventually puts a stop to it. Damis, Orgon’s son, is heated about the situation with Tartuffe