Orgon's family is up in arms because Orgon and his mother have fallen under the influence of Tartuffe, a pious fraud (and a vagrant prior to Orgon's help). Servant of Madame Pernelle (non-speaking character)
Servant of Tartuffe (non-speaking character)įriend of Orgon who was anti-Louis XIV during the Fronde (mentioned but not seen). Wife of Orgon, step-mother of Damis and Marianeįamily housemaid ( suivante), who tries to help expose Tartuffe and help Valère and Mariane.īrother of Elmire, brother-in-law of Orgon (the play's raisonneur)ĭaughter of Orgon, the fiancée of Valère and sister of Damis Mother of Orgon grandmother of Damis and Mariane Madame Pernelle: Louis Béjart, cross-dressed The young romantic lead, who struggles to win the hand of his true love, Orgon's daughter Mariane. Houseguest of Orgon, hypocritical religious devotee who attempts to seduce Elmire Head of the house and husband of Elmire, he is blinded by admiration for Tartuffe. The play is written entirely in twelve-syllable lines ( alexandrines) of rhyming couplets - 1,962 lines total. : 76Īs a result of Molière's play, contemporary French and English both use the word "tartuffe" to designate a hypocrite who ostensibly and exaggeratedly feigns virtue, especially religious virtue. While the king had little personal interest in suppressing the play, he did so because, as stated in the official account of the fête:Īlthough it was found to be extremely diverting, the king recognized so much conformity between those that a true devotion leads on the path to heaven and those that a vain ostentation of some good works does not prevent from committing some bad ones, that his extreme delicacy to religious matters can not suffer this resemblance of vice to virtue, which could be mistaken for each other although one does not doubt the good intentions of the author, even so he forbids it in public, and deprived himself of this pleasure, in order not to allow it to be abused by others, less capable of making a just discernment of it. Almost immediately following its performance that same year at Versailles' grand fêtes (The Party of the Delights of the Enchanted Island/ Les fêtes des plaisirs de l'ile enchantée), King Louis XIV suppressed it, probably due to the influence of the archbishop of Paris, Paul Philippe Hardouin de Beaumont de Péréfixe, who was the King's confessor and had been his tutor.
Molière performed his first version of Tartuffe in 1664. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical theatre roles. Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite ( / t ɑːr ˈ t ʊ f, - ˈ t uː f/ French: Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur, pronounced ), first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy by Molière.
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