Blog Post #3 Tartuffe

The setting in Tartuffe plays a very important role in characters finding out the truth about other characters.  In Act 3, the setting environment is critical to the characters' roles in finding out the truth about one another.  Scenes three and four depict a conversation between Elmire and Tartuffe in which Tartuffe attempts to seduce Elmire.  Damis, who has been hiding in the closet throughout the conversation emerges after Tartuffe leaves.  The passage including the end of Elmire and Tartuffe's conversation and Damis' emerging from the closet is pasted below:

           Tartuffe: I know, dear lady, that your exceeding charity
                         Will lead your heart to pardon my temerity;
                          That you'll excuse my violent affection
                          As human weakness, human imperfection;
                         And that--O fairest!--you will bear in mind
                         That I'm but flesh and blood, and am not blind
          Elmire: Some women might do otherwise, perhaps,
                       But I shall be discreet about your lapse;
                       I'll tell my husband nothing of what's occurred
                        If, in return, you'll give your solemn word
                      To advocate as forcefully as you can
                      The marriage of Valere and Mariane,
                       Renouncing all desire to dispossess
                       Another of his rightful happiness,
                      And...
Scene IV
         Damis: No! We'll not hush up this vile affair;
                     I heard it all inside that closet there,
                    ......
                    And give my father clear and shocking proof
                    Of the black character of his dear Tartuffe

In these scenes Damis' character is especially interactive with the environment because the character becomes a part of the setting by hiding in the closet.  This character becomes one with the setting/environment and is then able to hear Tartuffe attempt to seduce Elmire. The conversation between Elmire and Tartuffe that Damis overhears is a perfect example of how words and actions color the way we interpret those words.  As an audience we know that Damis is hiding in the closet but Elmire and Tartuffe do not.  Tartuffe's attempt to seduce Elmire is sincere but Elmire does not respond in a way that is in agreement with Tartuffe, she remains objective.  Based on how forward Tartuffe is, if we did not know that Damis was in the closet in an attempt to catch Tartuffe in the act, as an audience we might believe that Elmire and Tartuffe were having some sort of affair. 

These scenes have a strong relationship with the point of the play which is things are always what they seem.  Throughout the play, characters are trying to prove that Tartuffe is not who is appears to be.  This can be taken to be the point of the play, as it happens in everyday life quite often.  We often misjudge our peers but later find out they are not who we once thought them to be.  On a more localized level things aren't what they seem in these scenes because Tartuffe is unaware that Damis is hiding in the closet, attempting to hear the real truth about Tartuffe and his morals. In the play as in life, we want to see the good in people but sometime the truth, like Tartuffe's anti-religious and deceitful behavior, is inevitable.