Religious Hypocrisy In Tartuffe

Religious hypocrisy seems to always be an issue within society, especially between believers and nonbelievers. It is evident through the use of many media’s, from movies to literature. The use of these medias can turn one side against another, through many means but especially through the different characters actions. As stated from Baruch College’s Veronika, “Moliere created Tartuffe as a character that meant to depict one of the most widespread problems of the French society in the 17th century – religious hypocrisy (Baruch.cuny.edu)”. Moliere uses the actions of the character Tartuffe to show how religious hypocrisy is a prevalent social issue. Hypocrisy is claiming to have moral or religious beliefs that one contradicts in their actions.

The French Catholic Church was a major political power, “To understand the violent reaction to Tartuffe, we must look briefly at the place of church and faith in the intellectual, cultural, and political life of the times because they had important functions beyond religious and moral guidance” (kctcs.edu). Moliere’s intention was not to criticize the Church or undermine religion but to teach a valuable lesson to the public. That lesson was that religious hypocrisy is a major moral issue that the public needed to be aware of and to avoid. Moliere thought that the best way to bring this issue to the public’s attention was through comedy. It would tell everyone what they needed to know, but not in such a harsh way that they felt attacked or were overly dismayed. As a comic playwright, the idea of blind ignorance provided material for Moliere to work with. “The material for Tartuffe was artistically and dramatically excellent, popularly appealing, and psychologically fascinating, so there is small wonder that Moliere threw himself into the project of bringing it to the stage” (kctcs.edu). It was, however, difficult for Tartuffe to be performed due to its controversial subject matter. King Louis XIV had to intervene in order for the play to make it to the public