Blog Post #3

ELMIRE
…We let a lover know our heart surrenders,
The while our lips, for honour's sake, oppose
Our heart's desire, and in refusing promise.
I'm telling you my secret all too freely
And with too little heed to modesty.
But — now that I've made bold to speak — pray tell me.
Should I have tried to keep Damis from speaking,
Should I have heard the offer of your heart
So quietly, and suffered all your pleading,
And taken it just as I did — remember —
If such a declaration had not pleased me,
And, when I tried my utmost to persuade you
Not to accept the marriage that was talked of,
What should my earnestness have hinted to you
If not the interest that you've inspired,
And my chagrin, should such a match compel me
To share a heart I want all to myself?

TARTUFFE
'Tis, past a doubt, the height of happiness,
To hear such words from lips we dote upon;
Their honeyed sweetness pours through all my senses
Long draughts of suavity ineffable.
My heart employs its utmost zeal to please you,
And counts your love its one beatitude;
And yet that heart must beg that you allow it
To doubt a little its felicity.
I well might think these words an honest trick
To make me break off this approaching marriage;
And if I may express myself quite plainly,
I cannot trust these too enchanting words
Until the granting of some little favour
I sigh for, shall assure me of their truth
And build within my soul, on firm foundations,
A lasting faith in your sweet charity.

In this scene, Elmire is attempting a last ditch effort to expose Tartuffe, after her son Damis’ plan went awry earlier. Orgon is still blind to the mischief Tartuffe is called, but as he is often portrayed in the play, he is very easy to sway. Elmire convinces him to hide under a table while she conducts a secret rendezvous with Tartuffe in order to show the hiding Orgon how Tartuffe has been acting when Orgon is not watching. The setting in this particular case gives much more gravity to the scenario because the audience experiences the dramatic irony as well as the desperation of the plot, which helps us to better understand and engross ourselves within the play.

Tartuffe as one of the main characters and the namesake of the play becomes a vehicle in which the theme of disloyalty and a foil for the family unit. Orgon’s family was a close-knit group, very much invested in one another until Tartuffe was introduced and began to turn characters against each other. In a way, the fact that their trying to trick a trickster into revealing his true self shows a kind of irony that we wouldn’t expect. At the beginning of the play, it would be hard to imagine a noble family like Orgon’s being torn apart so viciously and then having to resort to backhanded trickery.

The content of this scene provides the climax of the play, as Orgon finally learns of Tartuffes nature. In analysis of the setting, the climax wouldn’t be reachable had without the very specific background and physical setting. Without the trickery of hiding under the table, Orgon would never have come to terms with the fact that Tartuffe is a liar and a scoundrel. Moreover, as an audience we wouldn’t experience that dramatic irony, the feeling that we know exactly what is going on and what is soon to happen but can’t turn away. In a way, we as an audience are seeking justice, so as the character’s climax is exposing Tartuffe and getting their lives back together, the audience has a different climax in that we have been waiting for this moment of justice ever since we were introduced to Tartuffe’s sneaky ways.