Question No. 7. The work of Moliere.
Moliere comes from a wealthy, educated family. When Moliere was 15 years old. His father insisted that he go to Sarbona. Moliere graduated from the Faculty of Journalism successfully, but when he was 19, a very sharp turn took place in his life, he “fell ill” with the theater. A theater from the provinces toured Paris. Moliere left home for 10 years and remained in the provinces. Performances were given either in the threshing floor, or in the knights' hall, or somewhere else. Moliere returned to Paris at the age of 30. Gradually, Moliere began to write plays and comedies, and he himself acted as a comic actor.
One of the earliest comedies was “funny affectations” - comedies-lessons, characters for the first years of Moliere’s stay in Paris (a lesson for wives and a lesson for husbands), the comedy “Georges Dandin” was written in the same vein. Its hero, a rich farmer, a relatively young and ambitious man, decided to marry a noblewoman at any cost. And he makes his dream come true. An impoverished noblewoman marries the wealthy Georges. When she gets married, she begins to settle scores with Georges Dandin - for her he is an ignoramus, an ignoramus: she vents her dissatisfaction to her husband and believes that lovers should have compensation for their victims. She cuckolds her husband at every opportunity. The image of the main character is drawn in a special way. This is a person prone to self-reflection: he first of all blames himself. This makes him simultaneously vulnerable, unhappy and increases the reader's attitude towards the hero. “You wanted it yourself, Georges Dandin.”
“Amphitryon” occupies a special place in Moliere’s work. Husband of Alcmene (mother of Hercules). No one encroaches on her honor and beauty, she was a faithful wife. Zeus falls in love with Alcmene and decides that she should belong to him. Zeus took the form of Amphitryon. The comedy "Amphitryon" was a work of both gallant and ambiguous: it depicted Louis 14 in the image of the resourceful Zeus. The king was flattered by this work, and this comedy went on. In the first years of his stay in Paris, Moliere and his theater enjoyed the sympathy of the king; the king attended performances and especially loved comedy-ballet.
For example, “The Imaginary Sick” - the main character is a man who has only one illness - unthinkable suspiciousness. He dies all day long without harm to his health. Only the maid understands that this is a pretense. She figures out how to cure an imaginary patient in one go: he must be initiated into an eastern doctor. At the end of the comedy, a whole group of doctors enters the patient’s room; they are armed with professional weapons - tweezers. All this guard dances and sings, dedicating the patient to the Ta-to-shi clan, that is, to the enlightened doctors. In Macaroni language – French + Latin. These dances were comedy-ballets. The century of Louis 14th was the century of ballets, quite unique. The king, queen, princes, and ambassadors dance in these ballets. The courtiers contemplated.
The king's favor was so great that he was twice the godfather of Moliere's children, highlighting sumina, but Moliere's children did not survive.
In the 70s royal reverence came to an end, this is due to the comedy “Tartuffe”. When the first version came out, there was an immediate ban. The comedy was seen as a satire on the authority of the church. The second option also did not pass, followed by a ban. And in order to ensure the economic stability of the troupe, he writes the comedy “Don Juan” in 40 days, then creates the third version of “Tartuffe”.
Moliere died practically on stage: performing as the main character of “The Imaginary Invalid” and finished the play, the pain was genuine, and after that the curtain was closed and he was transferred to his house.
They could not find a single priest for Moliere to confess, but when the priest came, Moliere had already died. Based on this, the church refused to bury him in the cemetery; he was buried in the cemetery, but not in sacred ground.
high comedy by Moliere. The play "Tartuffe".
Moliere's next comedies develop in the traditions of “The School for Husbands” and “The School for Wives.” The plot outline is typical: an elderly man finds himself an orphan and tries to raise her as a wife according to his taste, but she finds herself a young lover. In such plays a canon is formed high comedy. These are five-act plays in verse, and they portray socially typical characters. Moliere creates examples of high comedy in 1664 - 1670.
The play "Tartuffe" existed in three editions. The first of them was staged in 1664 on the occasion of the name day of Anna of Austria. In this play, the Queen Mother saw an attack on her “Society of the Holy Sacrament,” which spread ideas of piety, but in fact served as a secret investigation. Persecution began against Moliere, and he was forced to create a new edition of the comedy, which was published in 1666. The main character from a priest becomes a nobleman, the most acute moments are softened, and three acts are added. The third edition of the play was staged in 1669. The play turned into a kind of debate about Tartuffe and the nature of hypocrisy. As a result, Tartuffe did not appear in the first two acts. Only opinions about him and morals appeared in which Tartuffe could have appeared - blind submission to authority, inability to determine the truth.
Orgon, in his friendship with Tartuffe, looks at the external manifestations of his holiness. The maid Dorina plays an active role in the intrigue. Tartuffe becomes the manager of Orgon's house. Moliere shows doublethink when a person's actions diverge from his true nature. Tartuffe's philosophy is based on undisguised self-interest and the ability to control the destinies of others. The only obstacle for him is publicity. All his actions are motivated by certain good intentions. Tartuffe's behavior is that of a kind of provocateur. He causes a certain reaction with his actions, and he can only be caught with the help of human experience. But in the end plays Tartuffe turns into a political force. Moliere introduces a happy ending for censorship reasons, but doublethink cannot be eradicated. This was the first attempt at a political comedy, which did not catch on in times Louis XIV.
"Tartuffe" is the recognized pinnacle of Moliere's work. This comedy happily combines ideological intensity with artistic perfection.
The characters portrayed in it are remarkable. In the play there are almost no “auxiliary” characters with conventional characteristics. Perhaps the palest were Mariana, Orgon's daughter, and Valer, her lover. However, this kind of characters were quite familiar to the French comedy of the 17th century, which required an obligatory romantic element.
They were a kind of engine for the stereotyped “external” action of the comedy: the fall of obstacles to their marriage was, in essence, a signal for the end of the play. The main interest of the play often departed from the love affair. This is what happened in Tartuffe.
Among the conventionally outlined characters is the reasoner Cleanthes, Orgon’s brother-in-law, introduced as a preacher of the principle of sound reason. He is charged with proving the difference between false and true piety. According to Moliere's plan, he was supposed to set off Tartuffe's trickery. Without Cleanthe's maxims, the comedy would hardly have been allowed to be presented.
With the exception of the named persons, the rest of the characters have bright personalities, which are extremely suitable for stage embodiment.
The main character, the hero of the comedy, is Tartuffe.
It is in him that the figure of the bigot hated by Moliere is embodied. Tartuffe is depicted as a complete swindler, deftly using the naive gullibility of people, their belief that the highest virtue is always hidden behind external holiness. From the denouement of the comedy we learn that Tartuffe is essentially not even a prude, but a rogue with a criminal past. He puts on the mask of a prude to commit another trick, the victim of which is Orgon. Moliere exposes bigotry itself, showing that it is an instrument of crime against which naive saints are defenseless. To make the satire bright, hitting the target, accessible, and not requiring a solution, Moliere spared no colors in depicting Tartuffe’s true physiognomy.
The famous French moralist writer La Bruyère, in his “Characters” (1688), reproached Moliere for the fact that his Tartuffe was too straightforward, too careless, too revealing of himself. But Moliere sought precisely to thicken the colors, strive to free the viewer from all illusions, and ensure that from the first steps of the hero the viewer knew who he was dealing with. Tartuffe is a greedy, rude and predatory rogue. He put on a mask primarily because this mask blinds simpletons and prevents them from noticing even the most obvious trickery. Tartuffe is too confident in the blindness of the well-meaning saints he has fooled. Yes, he is impudent and careless. But this is because he, in essence, is not afraid of exposure. Having received a deed of gift from Orgon for the property and having taken possession of documents that denigrate Orgon politically, Tartuffe throws off his mask and hurries to take advantage of the trump cards he has received and destroy the now-sighted Orgon. However, when he is finally exposed, he instantly fades away. His insignificance - despite his rudeness and rapacity - is clearly revealed. Only the mask of imaginary holiness gave him the appearance of significance. Tartuffe was created by the gullibility of Orgon and others like him.
Throughout the entire comedy there are, as it were, two Tartuffes. One is a greedy, selfish, voluptuous, unscrupulous swindler who knows no restraint in his base aspirations. The other is his mask: a hypocrite who has mastered all the manners, all the jargon of the churchmen who fooled the simpletons. And Molière’s satire is directed not so much against the outright tricks of Tartuffe the fraudster, but rather against the hypocrisy he has internalized. Moliere shows what the mask of piety is for, how conveniently and simply the formulas of Jesuit morality cover up and justify egoism, self-interest, and crimes. Conscience and hypocrisy are incompatible things. Hypocrisy justifies everything with clever sophisms. However, these sophisms are quite primitive. Tartuffe mastered them without difficulty.
Moliere's comedy exposed the emptiness of church morality. Supporters of banning the play justified their demand by saying that abuse of piety is the jurisdiction of only the church. It is clear that this was just an excuse, and if there had been an exact line between true piety and abuse, then perhaps there would not have been such a fuss about the production. But Moliere proves that the bigot uses the formulas of the so-called “true piety” preached by official Catholicism. Tartuffe justifies his red tape with holy arguments; Orgon is disarmed with holy humility when Damis exposes Tartuffe’s dirty deeds. Orgon himself is poisoned by holy sophistry. For example, he only gives Tartuffe a box with dangerous documents in order to get a loophole for his conscience and boldly deny involvement in the storage of this box if necessary. Moliere shows that holiness opens up so many ways for transactions with conscience that it drowns out a person’s natural morality. This is the main accusatory power of comedy and the reason for hatred towards it.
Moliere developed the character of Tartuffe in a new, bold way, proving the originality of his comic talent. He brings the hero onto the stage only in the second scene of the third act. Tartuffe does not appear during the first two acts. However, his characterization is fully given in the speeches of the characters. Tartuffe, in fact, was exposed before he entered the stage. The viewer is easily convinced who in the comedy is the bearer of prudence and who is the blinded victim. From the speeches of Dorina and others, we learn the whole story of Tartuffe, an arrogant, homeless stranger who infiltrated someone else's house and became its absolute despotic master. This despotism blinds Orgon and his mother. They take Tartuffe's despotism for “holy” intolerance. And this intolerance becomes disgusting to the viewer, regardless of whether it is feigned or not. Here the understanding of human morality preached by Moliere is revealed: tolerance for the natural passions of man, humanity in broad meaning words.
The importance of Jean-Baptiste Moliere in world literature is very difficult to exaggerate. He combined in his work the best traditions of French folk theater and advanced ideas of humanism and created new look drama - high comedy, thereby opening new page in the history of not only French, but also world theater. Moliere outlined the paths for all subsequent development of drama. His work served as a kind of bridge between two great cultural eras - the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. The pre-Moliere comedies of the first half of the 17th century were of a very superficial, entertaining nature, devoid of any socio-moral issues. Moliere brings to the fore not entertaining, but educational and satirical tasks. His comedies are characterized by sharp, flagellating satire, irreconcilability with social evil and, at the same time, sparkling healthy humor and cheerfulness.
The significance of “Tartuffe” for the playwright himself can be judged by how long and stubbornly he defended the play, how much mental and physical strength he spent confronting those who took up arms against it. More than once he became the object of slander and dirty gossip from enemies who were affected by his work. In the preface to the comedy, Moliere emotionally exclaims: “...Isn’t...the perversion of morality stuck in our teeth?” “We see villains who, everyday hiding behind piety, blasphemously force him to be an accomplice to terrible crimes.” “Tartuffe” served Moliere as a literary weapon, the target of which was the vice he hated, which became a real social disaster in the conditions of absolutism and counter-reformation.
The relevance of this work is due to the fact that interest in the work of Moliere and in particular his comedy “Tartuffe” has not waned to this day, as evidenced by the variety of books and monographs by theater and literary scholars, as well as scientific articles and publications dedicated to Moliere that I found on the Internet .
The purpose of the work is to select the materials necessary to analyze the problems and issues raised by the comedy “Tartuffe”, and present the results obtained in course work.
The topic I chose to write my work had not been developed by anyone in the literature before me, despite the numerous works of Molière authors. The novelty of the work is expressed in an attempt to rethink the most core ideas of these authors and, based on them, express their understanding of the images and problems raised in the comedy.
Was used by me critical literature various French and Soviet researchers. Among them are such authors as I. Glikman, G. Boyadzhiev, V. Multatuli, S. Artamonov, S. Mokulsky, M. Bulgakov. Since Mikhail Bulgakov devoted most of his monograph to detailed description biography of the playwright and did not analyze his work, I used it when writing the first chapter.. The remaining authors were engaged in a thorough study of the works of Moliere, and in particular the comedy “Tartuffe”, and were widely used by me in the second part of the work.
The first author to whom I turned, G. Boyadzhiev, referring in his statement to A.S. Pushkin, points out the colossal convicting power and social significance of the play: “Characterizing the greatest creations of poetry and drama, Pushkin wrote: “There is the highest courage: courage inventions, creations where a vast plan is embraced by creative thought - such is the courage... of Moliere in Tartuffe.” This “highest courage” of genius was in the discovery of Moliere in modern society evil power of religious and moral hypocrisy, the “broad plan” of the comedy was the playwright’s understanding of the enormous social significance of the topic, and its encompassing “creative thought” was the pathos of satirical denunciation, which remains to this day in the image of Molière’s hypocrite.”
The famous literary critic S. D. Artamonov agrees with his thought: “The fundamental meaning of the comedy “Tartuffe” was so deep, the strength and breadth of generalization were so significant that Moliere’s comedy turned into a powerful statement against the feudal-Catholic reaction as a whole.” The same author, but in a different book, talks about the value of comedy for society: “The name “Tartuffe” entered the world’s speech as a general denunciation of hypocrisy in all its manifestations, meanness and depravity under the guise of decency, ostentatious, deceitful piety, all insincerity, falsehood "
A similar thought is expressed by the next researcher V.M. Multatuli: “With his comedy, Moliere nailed pillory any hypocrisy and, in particular, that which uses religious dogmas and insists on the sinfulness of man.”
Another Moliere researcher, I. Glikman, speaking about comedy, emphasizes the following: “Tartuffe” is a play of great satirical capacity and relevance... It was about the main vice of an absolutist society - hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is not just one of the human vices, but a vice that in the 17th century became the sign of the era, the essence of the absolutist monarchy."
Russian theater critic S. S. Mokulsky also draws attention to the close connection of the play’s problematics with religion: “The fact that Tartuffe is directed against a certain group of reactionary clerics does not in any way remove the question of the deeper, philosophical meaning of the comedy. By denouncing the vile methods of the Society of the Blessed Sacrament, Moliere also denounced the reactionary role of religion in French private and public life. Without abandoning his favorite theme - the image of the bourgeois family and the exposure of all prejudices that hinder its development, Moliere connected this topic with the new task posed in Tartuffe: the exposure of religious hypocrisy and bigotry.
The practical significance of the course work is that it can serve as a basis, a fulcrum for further research in this area of literature, in the main issues relating to Moliere’s comedy “Tartuffe”.
The course work includes an introduction, two chapters, which in turn consist of: chapter 1 - of two subchapters, chapter 2 - of three; conclusion and list of references.
Moliere did not fight for any of his plays as much as he did for Tartuffe. Molière began to formulate its idea in 1663, “when the writer had many occasions to experience various manifestations of the wildest hypocrisy.”
On May 12, 1664, during a court celebration (“Entertainment magical forest") Moliere staged his new three-act play "Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite". With this comedy he wanted to respond to the machinations and malicious attacks of the members of the so-called. “The Society of the Holy Gifts” is a secret powerful organization created for the purpose of persecuting heretics and freethinkers, under the guise of charity and religious propaganda, regardless of their social status and position. Sectarians penetrated rich houses, monitored their inhabitants, subjugated their will, thus keeping public consciousness within the strict framework of religious dogma. The play deeply offended clerics and churchmen, who saw in it a caricature of the entire clergy. The king himself approved of Tartuffe, but under pressure from the church elite he still banned it. The “Society” was not satisfied with one ban; it longed for the physical destruction of the writer, calling him “a demon in a bodily shell,” “an out-and-out atheist,” who conceived and staged the play “to disgrace the church,<...>show it in a funny, despicable and disgusting form,” for which he deserved to be burned at the stake.” But Moliere was not the kind of person who could be intimidated by such threats - he decided to fight to the end and achieve permission for the production. At the end of August of the same year, he wrote his first petition to the king, in which he defended the right to “entertain people by correcting them,” which corresponded to the true purpose of comedy. Alas, the request remained unsuccessful - the king did not want to spoil relations with clerical circles.
After the death of Queen Anne of Austria, who patronized the Society of the Holy Sacrament, Moliere decided to try his luck and again took up Tartuffe. But, sensibly assessing the strength of his opponents, he was forced to slightly correct the play. “First of all, he renamed Tartuffe Panyulf, then stripped Panyulf of his spiritual attire and turned him into a secular man. Then he threw out many quotes from the Holy Scriptures, softened the sharp parts in every possible way and worked hard on the ending.” In the finale, the deceiver was punished (unlike the first version, where he remained unpunished) thanks to the intervention of the king. Louis XIV, leaving for the war in Flanders, gave verbal permission to publicly show the play. On August 5, 1667, the premiere of “The Deceiver” took place to a full house. “...It was a huge success. But the next day, a bailiff of the Parisian parliament appeared at the Palais Royal and handed Mr. Moliere an official order from Guillaume de Lamoignon, the first president of parliament, to immediately stop the performances of “The Deceiver.” Not intending to come to terms with this state of affairs, the playwright and his actor friends sent a second petition to the king, in which he asked for protection from “the authorities and might oppressing him.” This request also remained without consequences (although the monarch promised to consider the issue of production after his return to Paris).
The fury of the writer's enemies increased. The Archbishop of Paris, in his message to parishioners, forbade the performance, reading or listening of comedy, both publicly and privately, under threat of excommunication. Louis XIV, as the first parishioner of the Paris diocese, did not dare to contradict the archbishop, and “Tartuffe” was again buried for a whole year and a half. Only at the end of 1668, when a temporary peace was established between Catholics and Protestants, the king banned the activities of the Society of the Holy Sacrament. On February 6, 1669, the long-suffering “Tartuffe” was resurrected, and this time finally. Moliere finalized the comedy and on February 9, the performance that the Parisian public had so eagerly awaited took place in the crowded Palais Royal theater. From a long, grueling five-year struggle, Moliere emerged victorious. “Tartuffe ran thirty-seven times during the season, and when the report was compiled at the end of the season, it turned out that the Miser gave ten and a half thousand livres, Georges Dandin - six thousand, Amphitryon - two thousand one hundred and thirty livres , "The Misanthrope" - two thousand, "Rodogun" by Pierre Corneille - a strange figure of eighty-eight livres, and "Tartuffe" - forty-five thousand.
For 5 years, Moliere corrected, edited, and amended the play, three times - in 1664, 1667 and 1669. - it was presented to the audience. In the first edition, the comedy had three acts; it apparently ended with the way the third act of the story that has come down to us ends last option"Tartuffe". In any case, it is not justice that triumphs in it, but hypocrisy; the bigot does not bear any punishment. Moliere made Tartuffe a clergyman and forced him to accompany “his dirty actions” with quotations from the Holy Scriptures. It is not surprising that the comedy has so excited religious circles.
In the second edition, preparing the play for production in 1667, Moliere expanded it to five acts, dressed Tartuffe in secular clothes, changed his name, as well as the title of the play itself - everything should have said that this was a completely different comedy. An important strategic step was to change the ending. Now the deceiver received what he deserved: “When the fraudster Tartuffe, aka Panyulf, was already triumphant and ruined honest people and when it seemed that there was no longer any salvation from him, salvation nevertheless appeared, and it came from the king.” Thus, the naive playwright hoped to provide the comedy with the protection and patronage of Louis XIV. However, as we already know, these measures did not help bring her to the stage. In the third - the only edition that has come down to us - Moliere returns the main character to a religious appearance and calls his creation “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver.”
"Tartuffe" is Moliere's first comedy in which certain features of realism are revealed. On the whole, like his early plays, it obeys key rules And compositional techniques classic work; however, Moliere often departs from them (for example, in “Tartuffe” the rule of unity of time is not fully observed - the plot includes a backstory about the acquaintance of Orgon and the saint). In the comedy, there is an organic interweaving of various artistic and comedic means: it combines elements of farce (for example, in those scenes where Orgon hides under the table, kneels with Tartuffe, or is about to slap Dorina in the face), comedy of intrigue (the story of the casket with important papers), comedies of manners, comedies of characters (Orgon, Tartuffe). This is precisely where the genre innovation of the work lies.
In creating the play, Moliere first of all sought to show hypocrisy, dressed in religious garb and masking its base and vile activities with the principles of Christian morality. According to the playwright, this is one of the most tenacious and dangerous vices of his time, and since “the theater has enormous potential for correcting morals,” Moliere decided to use sharp satire and ridicule the vice, thereby dealing a crushing blow to it. He highly valued truthfulness in relationships between people and hated hypocrisy. “He considered it his artistic and civic duty to crush the vermin of hypocrisy and hypocrisy. This idea inspired him when he created Tartuffe and when he courageously defended it.” Moliere based the plot on his observations of the above-described sect of religious people, nicknamed the “cabal of saints” (“Society of the Holy Gifts”), and the image central character was composed of typical features inherent in sectarians.
And yet artistic power Comedy lies not so much in the life-like authenticity of the plot; What is much more important is that Moliere was able to raise the image of Tartuffe to the level of such broad and voluminous typicality that the latter went beyond the boundaries of its historical time and acquired an enduring global household name.
In Tartuffe, Moliere castigates deception, personified by the main character, as well as stupidity and moral ignorance, represented by Orgon and Madame Pernelle. By deception, Tartuffe cheats Orgon, and the latter falls for the bait due to his stupidity and naive nature. It is the contradiction between the obvious and the apparent, between the mask and the face, precisely this opposition, which Moliere so insisted on, that is the main source of comedy in the play, since thanks to it the deceiver and the simpleton make the viewer laugh heartily. The first - because he made unsuccessful attempts to pass himself off as a completely different, diametrically opposed person, and even chose a completely specific, alien quality - which may be more difficult for a zhuir and a libertine to play the role of an ascetic, a zealous and chaste pilgrim. The second is ridiculous because he absolutely does not see those things that would catch the eye of any normal person; he is delighted and brought into extreme delight by what should cause, if not Homeric laughter, then, in any case, indignation.
In Orgon, Moliere highlighted, before other aspects of character, the poverty, narrow-mindedness, and limitations of a person seduced by the brilliance of rigoristic mysticism, intoxicated by extremist morality and philosophy, the main idea of which is complete detachment from the world and contempt for all earthly pleasures.
Wearing a mask is a property of Tartuffe's soul. Hypocrisy is not his only vice, but it is brought to the fore, and other negative traits strengthen and emphasize this property. Moliere managed to synthesize a very real concentrate of hypocrisy, highly condensed almost to the absolute. In reality this would be impossible.
“Tartuffe” exposes not only, or rather, not just stupidity and deceit - for all of Moliere’s main comedies expose these moral categories as a whole. But in every play they take various shapes, vary in detail and appear in various fields public life. Tartuffe's lies, which took the form of feigned righteousness, and the stupidity of Orgon, unable to unravel the rough game of the rogue, manifested themselves in the religious field, which was especially vulnerable in the 17th century. One can argue for a long time about whether the play is indirectly directed against religion itself (Moliere himself categorically denied this); however, the only thing that cannot be denied and on which the opinions of all sides agree is that the play is directly directed against rigorism and against what is today called integratism.
The action of the comedy takes place in the house of the wealthy bourgeois Orgon, an honest Christian who fell under the influence of a mysterious (until the third act) character he met one day in church, and was blinded by the latter’s extraordinary piety and piety. Orgon settles this man, the saintly Tartuffe, in his place and allows him to dispose of everything and everyone. Moliere builds an intrigue around the stubborn egoism of the father-owner and tyrant, which Tartuffe unceremoniously and skillfully twists to suit his whims. What's going on? Orgon is a middle-aged and clearly not stupid person, with a strong will and a cool disposition. Why did he allow himself to be fooled like that? This question runs like a red thread throughout almost the entire play. A curious answer to this is given by the German literary researcher Erich Auerbach: “... The grossest deception... also sometimes succeeds, and this happens when deceptions and temptations... satisfy their [the deceived] secret desires.<…>If Tartuffe gives Orgon the opportunity to satisfy his instinctive need - to sadistically torture and terrorize his family, then Orgon loves Tartuffe for this and is ready to go into his network for this.”
Isaac Glickman sees the reason for the manic attachment of the head of the family to the saint in the possessive nature of character and egoism: “As a typical owner, Orgon cherished his “property”, increased its value, raised its prestige, dealt with those who encroached in one form or another at her."
On the other hand, Orgon was brought up by Madame Pernel in the harsh rules of fear of God and submission to authorities, one of which he saw for himself in the person of Tartuffe. Conservatism and rigidity of views and thinking hinder his ability to judge things sensibly and give them a more or less objective assessment. Orgon’s blindness is so strong that even gross blunders in Tartuffe’s words and behavior, which clearly contradict the very concept of righteousness (gluttony, sybaritism, boasting, greed), are not capable of tarnishing him at all; Orgon finds an explanation for everything and in every possible way whitewashes his “saint.”
For the scales to fall from his eyes, Orgon needed to see with his own eyes that everyone at home was right. He “received his sight” as quickly as he had previously fallen into the nets laid by Tartuffe. The illusion dissipated - Orgon could not help but believe his own ears and eyes. And if after this he gains a sober view of the world, then his mother needed an even greater shock to see the true face of the vile swindler.
Moliere does not explain the reason for Orgon's fanatical devotion to Tartuffe, probably because it is unimportant. Comedy needs orgone so that against its background the image of the main character, or rather, his leading character trait, becomes even clearer and sharper.
The democracy and nationality of comedy are especially clearly expressed in the beautiful image of the maid Dorina. We can say that she is the main character of the first two acts. Dorina is not just cheerful and witty, she is insightful - she will not be deceived by ostentatious righteousness. She is excellent at human nature, and immediately saw the true face of the saint. Sharp-tongued, the girl is accustomed to freely, without choosing too many expressions, to speak out about what interests her. Dorina is the first to reveal to the audience the repulsive character of the main character, and she does it so vividly and vividly that no one else has any doubts about him, despite Madame Pernelle’s fiery speech.
Dorina is Tartuffe's most implacable enemy; she boldly, in a mockingly sarcastic tone, attacks both the saint himself and everyone who indulges him. Her speeches sound like sound human reason, mixed with rich life experience. But Dorina not only talks, she actively helps to counteract the tricks of the scoundrel, intervenes in inappropriate conflicts that are brewing and directs them in the right direction. Based on some hints in the play, it can be assumed that it is she who is the author of the idea that Elmira soon implements.
Why does comedy need Dorina? Natural restraint and upbringing do not allow the other characters to express certain things out loud as freely and directly as the maid does. Meanwhile, these things must be said, because they contain truth, and simply because they are funny.
Together with Dorina, Tartuffe is also exposed by Cleante. It is called the “mouthpiece of the author’s ideas”: it is believed that through it Moliere resorts to the author’s assessment of the problem being covered. However, not all critics share this opinion. Isaac Glickman condemns Cleanthes for the fact that in the fifth act he “out of a sense of fear seeks ways of reconciliation with the informer in Christ, and in the finale expresses the wish “that he would correct himself, realizing his great sin.” Cleante is more tolerant than Dorina or Damis. He is ready to compromise with the saint in order to avert the danger hanging over Orgon, like the sword of Damocles, because of the ill-fated box. In activity, he is undoubtedly inferior to Dorina - he mainly appeals to Orgon’s reason and Tartuffe’s conscience, eloquently denouncing everyone who “has adapted the sword of faith for robbery, carrying out criminal deeds with prayer.” Here we can rather agree that Moliere himself really speaks through the mouth of Cleanthe. In the comedy, Cleant acts as an inactive reasoner, lover of truth and defender of humanistic ideas. His monologues addressed to Orgon and Tartuffe are full of such indignation and protest, such irony and philosophical depth that Cleanthe turns out to be the most thoughtful and enlightened character in the comedy. He takes a broad view of life and values, first of all, the actions of people, and not hypocritical words.
The image of Elmira is more complex than the image of Orgon or Tartuffe, if only because she is a woman. In his plays, Moliere especially emphasizes the inexplicable, mysterious side of the female image, and in this regard, Elmira is undoubtedly the pinnacle of the playwright's creation. We hear the first assessment of her character from the lips of the indignant Madame Pernelle: “You are wasteful. Dressed like a princess." She is not happy that the young housewife, using her influence on her husband, has changed absolutely everything in the house - from the furnishings to the old, familiar way of life. Now there is an atmosphere of celebration and fun here, the house is buzzing with incessant balls and an influx of guests. Maybe Elmira is a little frivolous and partial to beautiful outfits and to such joys of life as balls and noisy society, but this does not prevent her family from loving her, respecting her and sharing her attitude to life. In her frivolity, she does not exceed the limit and always behaves with intelligence and calm dignity. When the peace and happiness of her family is threatened by Tartuffe, it is Elmira who will undertake to take her away, using all her ability to charm.
Her image comes to the fore in the third act. Without consulting anyone or warning anyone, Elmira makes an appointment with Tartuffe. She knows perfectly well that the vile rogue is in love with her, she is also fully aware of the power that this love gives her. Elmira is going to play on it - that is, use his own weapon against the deceiver. A masterful coquette, she brilliantly plays her role, and Tartuffe, not sensing a catch, falls for her bait. Words full of passion fall from his lips. Another married lady would be offended, outraged to the core, even frightened by them. But Elmira is cut from a different cloth. In a calm, slightly mocking tone, she answers him:
“The confession is ardent... But, no matter how flattering it is,
I'm afraid your speech is a little... inappropriate.
And I thought until today,
That your piety is a strong armor
From worldly temptations, a reliable dam...
No matter how pious I am, I am still a man."
Tartuffe exclaims... and takes off his mask. Elmira achieved her goal. Without a mask he is insignificant, he is completely in its power. And who knows? Maybe she would have been able to bring her plan to a logical and victorious end if Damis, burning with indignation, had not inappropriately intervened.
Fast forward to the fourth act. Here the situation is critically aggravated: Orgon is even more blind than before, Tartuffe is even more powerful, and Mariana, Valere, Dorina, Damis and Cleanthe are in even greater despair. To save her family, Elmira decides to resume the farce, but this time unprecedented in its audacity and risk. She sets up a second date for the scoundrel and pretends to return his feelings - making considerable efforts to overcome her disgust and not arouse suspicion. Her main task is to extract a confession from Tartuffe, which Orgon, sitting under the table, should hear. Elmira is confident in herself, in her strength, she plays again, uses the entire arsenal of feminine tricks, and, finally, she herself confesses non-existent feelings to the person she despises. If Elmira throws at him the words “So that you don’t have to divide your heart’s flame in two - between me and the other,” then only in full confidence that they will force the scoundrel to rip off the mask again.
However, she forgot about Tartuffe's suspicion and lust. Words alone are not enough for him; he needs more “material” evidence. Elmira has fallen into her own trap! She vainly calls her husband for help, coughs, knocks on the table - he seems to hear nothing. But Tartuffe begins to act more and more persistently and impudently. Elmira is at a loss; having found herself in such a delicate situation, she feverishly searches for a way to protect herself from his harassment, tries new and new tricks and pretexts, and already verbally hints to her husband that it is time to stop this dangerous performance. And, as often happens, she arrives at the very last moment: she sends Tartuffe away from the room, supposedly to check if anyone is behind the door. As soon as he came out, Elmira exploded with mocking sarcasm addressed to Orgon: “Are you out? Already? Isn't it early? etc.
This magnificent comic mise-en-scène exhausts the role of one of the most original images created by Moliere.
Tartuffe, the main thing character comedy, is collectively, personifying the entire “Society of the Holy Gifts”. This is clearly evidenced by certain details: this is the mask of holiness with which he hides behind himself, posing as an impoverished nobleman, and his secret connections with the court and the police, and the presence of his patrons among high-ranking courtiers. Therefore, the appearance of the saint in Orgon’s house is not accidental. As mentioned above, the young housewife Elmira brought into the family a mood of freethinking, incompatible with official piety, and Orgon himself is associated with former member parliamentary Fronde, political emigrant, enemy of the king. It was these families that the Society agents took control of.
The name "Tartuffe" supposedly comes from the old French word "truffer" - "to deceive". Contrary to the rules of classical dramaturgy, he appears in the play only in the third act. In the first two he appears as an off-stage character; he is not there, but we are talking only about him. Moliere explains this by saying that first he wanted to prepare the viewer for a correct perception of the hero. “The viewer is not deluded about him for a minute: he is recognized immediately by the signs with which I have endowed him.” There is indeed no doubt about the saint from the very beginning: a hypocrite, a scoundrel and a complete scoundrel appears before the public. His base, repulsive nature emerges from family conflict, which opens the play. The appearance of Tartuffe in Orgon's house disrupts the harmony in the family and breaks it into two warring parties: those for whom the deceit and duplicity of the “righteous man” are obvious, and those who sincerely believe in his holiness. Despite the fact that there are only two of the latter, Tartuffe is not particularly worried about the serious hostility of the household towards him. Orgone is important to him. He befuddles him, gaining his attention and then his admiration with an ostentatious performance in the church. Tartuffe is a subtle psychologist; Having once lured the victim into the trap set for him, he uses all the techniques known to him to keep him in a kind of hypnotic state. These techniques allow the scoundrel to cleverly manipulate Orgon, giving him the appearance of free will in making decisions. In fact, Tartuffe only carefully pushes his benefactor to such decisions that are fully consistent with his, Tartuffe’s, insidious plans: he sets him up against his son Damis, whom Orgon kicks out of the house and deprives of his inheritance; upsets the engagement of Mariana and Valera in order to marry her himself and take possession of her dowry; finally, playing on Orgon’s gullibility and fear, Tartuffe receives a deed of gift for his entire fortune, as well as a casket with important political papers. He should be given his due - he knows how to understand someone else's soul, feels the weaknesses of those he deceives, and due to this achieves considerable results.
However, one should not be mistaken about him. Tartuffe may be a skilled manipulator, but he plays his role of the righteous (or even, in La Bruyère’s opinion, the role of the hypocrite) very poorly. He makes gross mistakes through which his essence shines through; he loses control of himself whenever it is difficult for him to cope with the natural inclinations and instincts that overcome him. He loudly declares all-night self-torture and mortification of his flesh, and at the same time he cannot and does not even try to resist the temptation to eat deliciously and sleep softly. “So, apart from Orgon and his mother, no one will fall for his bait, neither the other characters in the play, nor the audience. The whole point is that Tartuffe is by no means the embodiment of a reasonable and cold-blooded hypocrite, but simply an uncouth lout whose feelings are rude and whose desires are indomitable.” But this is precisely the comic effect that Moliere sought. He did not set himself the task of portraying an ideal hypocrite - the comedy of this image is based on the contrast between the role of the saint and his nature.
Each character gives Tartuffe some characteristic. Damis calls him a trickster, an all-powerful tyrant, an intolerable bigot; Cleanthes - a slippery snake; Dorina is an empty saint and a deceitful scoundrel. The maid tells Cleanthe about the power of Tartuffe's influence on the owner of the house. This weasel has taken control of the management of economic affairs, sticks his nose everywhere and freely interferes in everything that does not concern him at all. Damis and Dorina are sincerely outraged that he, barefoot and beggar, has appeared from nowhere and behaves in such an unceremonious manner. Tartuffe rants about the decline of morals in the family that sheltered him and vigilantly monitors the behavior of his family; Apparently, not a single action of theirs and not a single word of theirs can be accomplished without his teachings and nagging. He carefully kept all the guests away from the house in order to avoid unnecessary rumors about his “good deeds” - after all, it could reach the ears of the king or people close to him. Or perhaps the reason lies in what Dorina pointed out to us: “He is simply jealous of his mistress” (i.e. Elmira).
Further - more: Orgon is going to marry his daughter Mariana to Tartuffe. The saint's calculation is simple - the girl has a rich inheritance and for him she is of exclusively business interest. Where did Orgon get this idea from? Many are inclined to believe that Tartuffe was its initiator. It doesn’t take much effort for him to approach the subject that interests him so subtly in conversation that Orgon, having warned his wishes, will make a decision in favor of his favorite or give him what he needs. It is possible that the issue is in Orgon himself, in his psychology of the owner. Here is how I. Glikman develops this idea: “Since the fashion for praying mantises and “saints” appeared in Paris, Orgon wanted to have “his own” saint at his side, who would protect the house... from all sorts of misfortunes.<…>The thought of Tartuffe marrying Mariana seemed tempting to Orgon because in this way he acquired “his” saint forever.”
Tartuffe demonstrates duplicity from the first seconds of his appearance in the play. Seeing Dorina nearby, he deliberately loudly pronounces a prepared speech about the whip and hair shirt with which he allegedly killed his flesh at night:
“Laurent! Take away both the whip and the hair shirt.
Whoever asks, answer that I went to prison
To the unfortunate prisoners, in order to console them
And give them a contribution from my meager means.”
He does not take off his mask even when he knows that his hypocrisy is obvious: appearance holy man, ruddy and portly, does not fit in with what he says. But Tartuffe is not embarrassed by such a contradiction, and even by the fact that this scene will not make the right impression either on Dorina or on other household members. The deception is intended for Orgon, but as for the others, it is enough for him that they create the appearance that they believe.
To the lush bouquet of the predominant character traits of the saint, another one is added: Tartuffe, among other things, turns out to be a sensualist and a secret libertine. Feeling his strength and complete impunity, he does not restrain his vicious attraction to the mistress of the house. However, even now he continues to be a hypocrite. The conversation begins in the traditional “Tartuffe” style. Left alone with Elmira, Tartuffe begins to “test the waters,” to check whether a response to his feelings is possible. He talks about love, and the pathetic timbres of a church sermon sound in his voice. Moreover, he skillfully weaves heaven and providence into his speech - one gets the impression that this is not a love confession, but a reading of psalms. But, having followed Elmira’s reaction, inspired by her goodwill, Tartuffe slightly lifts his mask. If at the beginning we observed a radical discrepancy between his judgments and behavior, now it begins to be smoothed out by the established temporal correspondence. Tartuffe sits down next to Elmira, puts his hand on her knee (“I wanted to feel the fabric”), touches the scarf on her neck, the words remain the same prayerfully pompous. But the further he goes, the more difficult it is for him to cope with his emotions. Elmira’s irony over his imaginary righteousness stung Tartuffe to such an extent that he forgets himself and finally throws off his mask, admitting that, after all, he is still a man, and not a “disembodied angel.” Continuing to be a hypocrite out of inertia, the scoundrel almost openly persuades Elmira to cheat, assuring her that he will keep the secret of their relationship, and, accordingly, the purity of her honor. Tartuffe reveals here his deeply vicious essence.
The scene ends abruptly with the intrusion of the enraged Damis, who was standing outside the door in the next room and heard everything. The young man rejoices: the scoundrel is caught at the crime scene, and, without hesitation, denounces him to his father. However, he does not know Tartuffe well. The saint has something to lose, and therefore he uses a subtle trick based on the morality of Christian self-abasement. He does not deny his guilt, because denial can give rise to the idea of the likelihood of a crime. Tartuffe, on the contrary, begins to repent and mercilessly flagellate himself. The trick works perfectly - the more he indulges in self-reproach, the more Orgon believes in his purity. And the trickster gets away with it again! Moreover, without losing anything that was at his disposal (namely, a well-fed and carefree life), he acquires what he could only dream of a day ago: Orgon transfers all the property into his name and makes him his only heir.
This event is a turning point in comedy. Orgon is no longer the master of the house. Feeling his strength and superiority over his enemies, Tartuffe becomes impudent, he behaves almost arrogantly. When, during a second, staged date with Elmira, he is exposed, it would seem that a scene of terrible shock should occur. However, Tartuffe, without blinking an eye, moves from meek, sublime words to direct threats. Now there is no need to be cunning and pretend to be righteous. Tartuffe is now terrible, because Orgon can suddenly lose not only his home, but also his freedom. The reason for this is a casket with the papers of a rebel friend, which Orgon personally handed over to the hands of the wicked man.
Tartuffe does not stop there. He returns to the house, bringing with him an officer to arrest his former benefactor. The saint behaves not just impudently, he is arrogant, boorish and cynical - the whole range of his inherent qualities flows out of him like a fountain. He is in a hurry to put an end to this family, but then the well-oiled mechanism malfunctions. Tartuffe himself is arrested. The failed apotheosis of hypocrisy and deception is replaced by the apotheosis of royal mercy and justice.
This was Moliere's idea: evil should be punished, and comedy should have a happy ending.
In this course work, an attempt was made, based on selected materials, to reveal the theme included in the title, to analyze the main images of the comedy “Tartuffe”, to take a new approach to highlighting some aspects of their characters, to reflect in the work one’s view of the problems of the play, to show the meaning , which she had for Moliere, and also provide answers to a number of questions that arise in the process of studying this work.
The comedy “Tartuffe” occupied a very special place in the writer’s work. Moliere's satire was directed against the mannered and pretentious aristocracy, various retrograde oppressors, charlatan doctors, miserliness, stupidity, boasting and arrogance. The turn of hypocrisy has come; and not the one that is found everywhere in secular society- Moliere had already “executed him with laughter” in his plays - and religious hypocrisy, according to the writer, is one of the most common, dangerous vices.
Unlike his literary contemporaries, Moliere is universal in his depiction human types, he tried to cover all classes of the society around him. They are presented in extremely concise, clear images, each of which is a kind of ancestor of all subsequent similar images in literature.
In Tartuffe, Moliere, in the image of a saint, depicted the hypocrisy, hypocrisy, trickery and depravity of the clergy and clerics of his time. The intrigue of the work unfolds against the background of the life and morals of the French bourgeois family. Tartuffe is a type that is both individual and socially generalized, embodying a characteristic phenomenon in the life of society France XVII century. The leading feature of his character is deliberately exaggerated, extremely pointed; Tartuffe is absolute both in his imaginary piety and in his sinfulness. This trait of his is not given in its entirety right away; it reveals itself gradually and the more so the closer to the end. There is no evolution in it, the trait changes, but not qualitatively, but quantitatively - in the finale it is maximally condensed and expanded to a size that embraces almost the entire living space depicted in the play.
There are images in Tartuffe that do not directly participate in central events. These are Cleanthe, who plays the role of a reasoner and observer of the development of events, Mariana Valer’s fiancé, and the silent Flipota. However, each of them has its own purpose in comedy. For Flipota, it is to contrast with Madame Pernelle, for Cleante, it is to express the author’s attitude to the problem (it is not for nothing that he speaks mainly in long monologues), for Valera and Mariana, it is more likely to introduce a grain of romance into the comedy. There are also off-stage characters, but necessary for the writer to create balance in the balance of power around the main character and for the most complete depiction of the conflict. So image of Tartuffe- is not the only hypocrite in the play, and this gives it greater realism and social urgency.
Hypocrisy is the main, but also far from the only character trait of Tartuffe. The rest seem to be layered on top of each other and serve as a background for it, making it sharper, clearer, and easier for correct perception.
Moliere does not combine the bad with the good in the hero. Tartuffe is devoid of internal contradictions, internal development and internal struggle. Everything is clear in it at once and to the end; the character turned out to be somewhat flat and shallow. But it was not by chance that the author conceived it this way, otherwise the goal would not have been achieved, it would have been impossible to identify the commonality that the playwright sought to display in the main character.
The comedy “Tartuffe” not only has not lost its relevance, today it is perhaps even more topical than ever: you just have to pay attention to the high degree of gullibility of people, which is shamelessly abused by various swindlers and charlatans for the purpose of material gain. Various sects are multiplying and flourishing, poisoning the common sense of citizens with their insane teachings, subjugating their will and consciousness, again with the goal of taking away their well-being. This problem existed during Moliere's time, and it still exists today. On this occasion, S. Artamonov expressed an interesting thought: “He [Moliere] concentrated in his stage hero everything distinctive features hypocrite, showed them in close-up, threw a spotlight on them and made the audience remember them forever and then unmistakably recognize them in the speeches and actions of public figures in life, in the behavior of people around them, sometimes in their acquaintances, maybe even in friends.” .
The value of the play lies in the fact that it boldly and clearly exposed the reactionary role of the clergy and created a generalized image of Tartuffe, which became a household name for hypocrisy and hypocrisy.
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“Tartuffe, or the Deceiver” is a comedy play by Moliere, 1664. In it, Moliere mercilessly criticized the most disgusting human vices: hypocrisy, thirst for profit, meanness, stupidity, voluptuousness, selfishness, timidity.
Plot
The action takes place in Paris, in Orgon's house. A young man named Tartuffe gains the trust of the owner of the house. Mister Orgon looks at the guest as a miracle: young, learned, modest, noble, pious, selfless. Orgon considers the household members who are trying to prove to him that Tartuffe is not at all as holy as he tries to show himself to be ungrateful people mired in sins. The true essence of Tartuffe is revealed only when Orgon imprudently entrusts him with the custody of the rebel treasury and transfers the house and his capital to him. Only the miraculous intervention of the king, who brings justice five minutes before the end (Tartuffe is punished, Orgon is forgiven, his house and property are returned to his family), allows the play to remain a comedy.
Main characters
- Madame Pernelle - Orgon's mother
- Orgon - Elmira's husband
- Elmira - Orgon's wife
- Damis - son of Orgon
- Mariana - daughter of Orgon, in love with Valera
- Valer - a young man in love with Mariana
- Cleont - Elmira's brother, Orgon's brother-in-law
- Tartuffe is a saint
- Dorina - Mariana's maid
- Flipota - Madame Pernelle's maid
- Mr. Loyal - bailiff (fr. loyal, legal). Moliere deliberately gives this name to a man bribed by Tartuffe.
- Officer
Each of the comedy heroes is the bearer of one dominant character trait. In this division of characters into positive and negative, the main features of classicism reveal themselves - literary direction, which does not involve psychological development of characters. The central character - Tartuffe - appears before the reader as a creature devoid of any human dignity. The imaginary saint is the repository of a whole host of vices: he burns with passion for the wife of his benefactor, he does not hesitate to rob the one who gave him table and shelter, and finally, he is not afraid of either earthly power or heavenly court, sinning both before people and before God . Tartuffe’s life motto: “Sin quietly, and you’ll get away with everything!” The vile deceiver in the comedy is contrasted with Mariana's maid, Dorina, a smart girl with a quick tongue. She alone, throughout all five acts, manages to at least verbally resist Tartuffe. The rest of the characters cannot cope with him as a whole family: the head of the noble family, Orgon, is too gullible and stupid to discern the meanness of others; his son Damis is excessively impetuous and hot-tempered; his daughter Mariana, on the contrary, is timid and bashful; his wife Elmira prefers to take a detached position in life and not worry about such trifles as other people's love and meanness. Elmira's brother, Cleant, like most nobles, is honest and smart, but lacks the inner gift of persuasion. Mariana's fiance Valer, as a noble man, does not even think about taking Tartuffe to clean water, because he will thereby interfere in the affairs of someone else’s family. Each of the heroes of the comedy behaves to the very end as if he does not dare to believe in the incredible hypocrisy of the imaginary saint and the impenetrable stupidity of his patron Orgon. When in the finale the family finds itself on the verge of ruin and arrest, only the king’s intervention cuts through Tartuffe’s network of malicious intrigues. In this denouement, Moliere reveals himself as a true classicist: he endows the monarch with a number of virtues - love of truth, insight, heightened senses justice, love of goodness. In a sense, the king becomes God in Molière’s comedy, whose name Tartuffe hides behind in order to achieve the desired wealth and woman.
The comedy genre does not prevent “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver” from organically entering the classic system of works. On the contrary, appeal to the “low” layers literary creativity allowed Moliere to present to the viewer an example of a social comedy, which equally well shows the internal failure of the upper social class and the inexhaustible thirst for life of the lower class (in the person of Dorina and the ruined Tartuffe). The heroes of Tartuffe are not sublime heroes of high classic genres, they are the most ordinary people, living their own small, private life, but this does not make them any less interesting.
Among the classicistic features in Tartuffe is the principle of three unities - time, place and action. Artistic time comedy does not exceed a day. The artistic space is limited to Orgon's house, where, if necessary, all the other characters come - Madame Pernel, Valere, the bailiff - Mr. Loyal, an officer sent by the king. The plot of “Tartuffe” develops in a “single breath”: events follow each other as naturally as possible. At the same time, the composition of the work is particularly original: in the first act, the viewer gets acquainted with a problem called “Tartuffe” from the words of Orgon’s family, in the second he witnesses how detrimental the influence of the imaginary saint is on the life of a noble family, in the third - finally, Tartuffe himself reveals his true essence in front of Damis; in the fourth, Orgon is convinced of Tartuffe’s meanness; in the fifth, the long-awaited denouement begins, starting with a tragedy and ending with a finale standard for classicism - the triumph of good over evil.
Actually, the comedy “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver” is first four actions. The fifth act is more like a tragedy. There is nothing funny in it, and even Dorina’s constantly sounding, mocking voice is not heard so clearly in the fifth act. Mariana's maid is a real mouthpiece of reason in the comedy, not afraid to speak the truth to the face of everyone who needs it. Most of the comedic situations in Tartuffe are associated with artistically Dorina and her caustic comments, revealing the true essence of what is happening.
Anti-clerical ideas occupy a special place in Tartuffe. Under the guise of the main villain of the comedy hides the image of a cunning and greedy monk who only hides behind faith to commit his villainies, well known to many (both Moliere’s contemporaries and people of the 21st century). Initially, Tartuffe was a priest, but under the influence of dissatisfied religious people, Moliere changed his image to a secular one, making the hero simply a “pious man.” According to Dorina's apt remark, Tartuffe is not the only such deceitful public character: Madame Pernelle's acquaintance, a certain old woman Oranta, does not sin simply because she is already past the age when she could do it. Orgon's brother-in-law, Cleanthe, behaves in the comedy like a true believer: he periodically tries to operate with basic Christian principles, allowing him to expose the hypocrisy of Tartuffe and the stupidity of Orgon. But the latter is too blinded by the imaginary holiness of his idol, and the former is too cunning to fall for the bait of an honest man.
Question No. 8. Ideological artistic analysis Moliere's comedy "Tartuffe".
Question No. 7. The work of Moliere.
Moliere comes from a wealthy, educated family. When Moliere was 15 years old. His father insisted that he go to Sarbona. Moliere graduated from the Faculty of Journalism successfully, but when he was 19, a very sharp turn took place in his life; he became “sick” of the theater. A theater from the provinces toured Paris. Moliere left home for 10 years and remained in the provinces. Performances were given either in the threshing floor, or in the knights' hall, or somewhere else. Moliere returned to Paris at the age of 30. Gradually, Moliere began to write plays and comedies, and he himself acted as a comic actor.
One of the earliest comedies was “funny primps” - comedies-lessons, characters for the first years of Moliere’s stay in Paris (a lesson for wives and a lesson for husbands), the comedy “Georges Dandin” was written in the same vein. Its hero, a rich farmer, a relatively young and ambitious man, decided to marry a noblewoman at any cost. And he makes his dream come true. An impoverished noblewoman marries the wealthy Georges. When she gets married, she begins to settle scores with Georges Dandin - for her he is an ignoramus, an ignoramus: she vents her dissatisfaction to her husband and believes that lovers should have compensation for their victims. She cuckolds her husband at every opportunity. The image of the main character is drawn in a special way. This is a person prone to self-reflection: he first of all blames himself. This makes him simultaneously vulnerable, unhappy and increases the reader's attitude towards the hero. “You wanted this yourself, Georges Dandin.”
“Amphitryon” occupies a special place in Moliere’s work. Husband of Alcmene (mother of Hercules). No one encroaches on her honor and beauty, she was a faithful wife. Zeus falls in love with Alcmene and decides that she should belong to him. Zeus took the form of Amphitryon. The comedy “Amphitryon” was a work of both gallant and ambiguous: it depicted Louis 14 in the image of the resourceful Zeus. The king was flattered by this work, and this comedy went on. In the first years of his stay in Paris, Moliere and his theater enjoyed the sympathy of the king; the king attended performances and especially loved comedy-ballet.
For example, “The Imaginary Sick” - the main character is a man who has only one illness - unthinkable suspiciousness. He dies all day long without harm to his health. Only the maid understands that this is a pretense. She figures out how to cure an imaginary patient in one go: he needs to be initiated into an eastern doctor. At the end of the comedy, a whole group of doctors enters the patient’s room; they are armed with professional weapons - tweezers. All this guard dances and sings, dedicating the patient to the Ta-to-shi clan, that is, to the enlightened doctors. In Macaroni language – French + Latin. These dances were comedy-ballets. The century of Louis 14th was the century of ballets, quite unique. The king, queen, princes, and ambassadors dance in these ballets. The courtiers contemplated.
The king's favor was so great that he was twice the godfather of Moliere's children, highlighting sumina, but Moliere's children did not survive.
In the 70s. royal reverence came to an end, this is due to the comedy “Tartuffe”. When the first version came out, there was an immediate ban. The comedy was seen as a satire on the authority of the church. The second option also did not pass, followed by a ban. And in order to ensure the economic stability of the troupe, he writes the comedy “Don Juan” in 40 days, then creates the third version of “Tartuffe”.
Moliere died practically on stage: performing as the main character of “The Imaginary Invalid” and finished the play, the pain was genuine, and after that the curtain was closed and he was transferred to his house.
They could not find a single priest for Moliere to confess, but when the priest came, Moliere had already died.
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Based on this, the church refused to bury him in the cemetery; he was buried in the cemetery, but not in sacred ground.
high comedy by Moliere. The play "Tartuffe"
Moliere's next comedies develop in the traditions of “The School for Husbands” and “The School for Wives”. The plot outline is typical: an elderly man finds himself an orphan and tries to raise her as a wife according to his taste, but she finds herself a young lover. In such plays the canon of high comedy is formed. These are five-act plays in verse, and they portray socially typical characters. Moliere creates examples of high comedy in 1664 - 1670.
The play “Tartuffe” existed in three editions. The first of them was delivered in 1664. on the occasion of the name day of Anne of Austria. In this play, the Queen Mother saw an attack on her “Society of the Holy Sacrament,” which spread ideas of piety, but in fact served as a secret investigation. Moliere began to be persecuted, and he was forced to create a new edition of the comedy, which was published in 1666. The main character from a priest becomes a nobleman, the most acute moments are softened, and three acts are added. The third edition of the play was staged in 1669. The play turned into a kind of debate about Tartuffe and the nature of hypocrisy. As a result, Tartuffe did not appear in the first two acts. Only opinions about him and morals appeared in which Tartuffe could have appeared - blind submission to authority, inability to determine the truth.
Orgon, in his friendship with Tartuffe, looks at the external manifestations of his holiness. The maid Dorina plays an active role in the intrigue. Tartuffe becomes the manager of Orgon's house. Moliere shows doublethink when a person's actions diverge from his true nature. At the root of Tartuffe’s philosophy is undisguised self-interest and the ability to control the destinies of others. The only obstacle for him is publicity. All his actions are motivated by some good intentions. Tartuffe's behavior is that of a kind of provocateur. He causes a certain reaction with his actions, and he can only be caught with the help of human experience. But at the end of the play, Tartuffe turns into a political force. Moliere introduces a happy ending for censorship reasons, but doublethink cannot be eradicated. This was the first attempt at political comedy, which did not take root during the time of Louis XIV.
Question No. 8. Ideological and artistic analysis of Moliere's comedy "Tartuffe". - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Question No. 8. Ideological and artistic analysis of Moliere's comedy "Tartuffe." 2017, 2018.