Theme Of Immoderation In Tartuffe

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière is credited as saying, "I wonder if it is not better to try to correct and moderate men's passions than to try to suppress them altogether." The playwright attempts to educate the world regarding this theme in his play Tartuffe. Each character in Tartuffe reveals a facet of immoderation that Molière wished to discourage.
Perhaps the most obvious example of immoderation in the play is Tartuffe himself. This antagonist is a crafty religious fraud who eventually convinces Orgon to turn over everything that he owns to Tartuffe. In addition to greed, gluttony and lust manifest themselves in Tartuffe’s actions, from eating extreme amounts of food (In Act I, Scene IV, Dorine claims that “…he ate so much, he popped a button.”), to attempting to seduce Orgon’s wife, Elmire. It is this lust that eventually spells the undoing of Tartuffe’s influence on Orgon.
Orgon, the master of the house, also demonstrates obvious immoderation throughout the play. Molière chiefly used Orgon’s character to contrast total trust and
distrust. Orgon is best known for his infatuation with Tartuffe. His obsession goes far enough to distort Orgon’s priorities. Orgon’s shocking declaration that he cares more about Tartuffe than his own wife reveals the blindness he succumbs to. This fact is also manifested when Orgon returns home after a short trip and asks the family maid, Dorine, to provide an update; Orgon repeatedly turns the report away from his wife’s sudden illness and toward Tartuffe with the simple question, “And Tartuffe?” Ultimately, this blindness causes Orgon to grant his entire estate to Tartuffe. Near the end of the play, when Orgon realizes his folly and Tartuffe’s craftiness, he leaps to the opposite extreme and announces that he will never trust another religious figure again. This statement is dismissed by Orgon’s brother-in-law, Cléante, as foolishness. “…You fly back and forth between extremes,” he accuses (Act V, Scene I).
Due to confrontations such as this, Cléante is often seen as the voice of reason in Tartuffe, while his own shortcomings of moderation are overlooked. Throughout the play, he often offers advice while emphasizing his credibility in mock humility. “You have been corrupted by your friends,” he tells Orgon (Act I, Scene V). A short time later, he asserts himself by claiming that he does not “…pretend to be a sage, / Nor [has]…all the wisdom of the age. / There's just one insight [he] would dare to claim: / [He]know[s] that true and false are not the same.” (Act I, Scene V). Although he is eventually able to show Orgon the error in his ways, Cléante is, in fact, quite long-winded and often pretentious, as seen through this rant. Mariane, the daughter of Orgon, on the other hand, is far too timid and submissive to defend herself.
When informed by her father that she will be forced to marry Tartuffe instead of her fiancé Valère, her protests do not surpass helpless sobs. After convinced by Dorine to resist more adamantly, she first declares that she will commit suicide, then later changes her mind and claims that she will resign herself to a convent if her father does not honor her engagement to Valère. Mariane’s shallow and immoderate thought process prevents her from finding a true solution to her problem. Ultimately, each character of Tartuffe exhibits some aspect of immoderation. Tartuffe’s greed, Orgon’s total trust, Cléante’s pretentiousness, and Mariane’s submission join to demonstrate the qualities Molière cautioned strongly against. His ingenious satire is woven throughout the play, ensuring that generations to come will be intrigued by his
ideas.