by Chris Alexion, Copyright August 12, 2006, all rights reserved. 47 views
Jean-Baptiste Moliere's comic play Tartuffe, published in the mid-seventeenth century, points its satiric barbs at hypocrisy–religious hypocrisy in particular. Tartuffe, the title character, is a pseudo-saintly buffoon who "rails at everything" (I.i.51) his acquaintances enjoy in order (purportedly) to save their souls. As the play unfolds, Tartuffe's true colors become appallingly clear, and the more skeptical characters must work to unveil the deceived husband and father Orgon before the hypocrites schemes can be fulfilled.
Tartuffe drew fire early on from French king Louis XIV and the Roman Catholic Church, who alleged that Moliere's play was anti-religious. Moliere's choice of a specifically religious hypocrite seemed to them to support this conclusion. Tartuffe is a man, who, as Orgon explains, "used to come into our church each day / And humbly kneel nearby, and start to pray. / He'd draw the eyes of everybody there / By the deep fervor of his heartfelt prayer" (I.v.25-28). Tartuffe is so zealous that "he guides our lives, and to protect my honor / Stays by my wife, and keeps an eye upon her" (I.v.43-44). His conscience is pricked by killing a flea, yet he makes sexual advances on another man's wife. In short, religion is Tartuffe's shield for his pride, greed, and lust.
We can readily understand why the Church responded as it did. The shockwaves of the Enlightenment had reverberated through all forms of European literature and challenged many traditional sources of authority. Further, the Protestant Reformation had ignited vast theological change, leaving Rome unsure of itself and its reputation. Luther's and Calvin's theological revolution had begun as a concern with religious vice and clerical hypocrisy, and concerned Catholics were still smarting.
Another possible ground for Catholic complaint is Tartuffe's close resemblance to a priest, monk, or other such man of God. Tartuffe dedicates himself to no trade but holy things, and remains single (Moliere's first edition left it unclear whether Tartuffe could lawfully marry, an opening the author later rectified). So, given the prickly nature of Moliere's wit and the Church's close association with Louis's absolutist administration (Louis XIV was nicknamed the "Sun King"), why not use this power to snuff out the play?
Yet a clearer perspective lets us see that the Louis's and the Church's reaction missed Moliere's point. Moliere wrote that he especially wished to defend his play "to the truly devout" and beg of them "not to condemn it before seeing it." Moliere claimed to have written the work "with all the care and caution that the delicacy of the subject demands." In short, he wrote that "I have removed all that might confuse good with evil, and have used for this painting only the specific colors and essential lines that make one instantly recognize a true and brazen hypocrite."
But what, someone might ask, if Moliere is lying, buttering up a complacent monarch? While it's impossible to judge a person's intentions merely from a letter, it hardly seems likely that Moliere, in order to save his comedy, would transform himself into the same type of man as its target. Too, a simple, unprejudiced reading of the play reveals no broad critiques of religion, only jabs at one particular hypocrite.
The introduction to Tartuffe in the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces (vol. 2), however, lays out another possible cause of concern for the Church. Contributors Hugo and Spacks write that "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….Religion offers ready justification for a course manifestly destructive as well as self-seeking."
If the authors mean by this simply that religion can be abused, then the point is well taken. Moliere would certainly agree, as would any person of faith; this doesn't make Tartuffe anti-religious. To claim, however, that religion is somehow unique in its appeal for hypocrites would be to miss the point of the play entirely.
Tartuffe is at root a man–a fallen man, susceptible to myriad temptations to wrongdoing. Because of the wide appeal of pride or lust to human nature, hypocrites have a vast variety of masks from which to choose. They can seek shelter in the church; they may use false love to cover selfishness; they can whip up crowds with high-sounding political rhetoric in order to clothe a naked lust for power. Moliere wants us to realize that unchecked desire festers under an outward facade–and that there could well be a little of Tartuffe in all of us.
-----No comments yet.