Tartuffe Stock Characters

In this essay, I will be focusing on the characters Madame Pernelle and Tartuffe. I will be analyzing their personal characteristics, as well as, their interactions with other characters. Also, I will provide evidence as to why they are stock characters and how they are important in the play Tartuffe. Before I get into the analysis, I will first give a brief background of the play Tartuffe and the significance of stock characters. The play Tartuffe was written by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, who was known more commonly by his stage name Molière. Molière was a French playwright and actor, who is known for being one of the greatest comedic playwrights in western literature. His life took place in the 17th century and he helped add a new twist to the tradition comedic plays during this time period. Tartuffe is one of his most famous plays and it is about a man named Tartuffe who disguises himself as a being a very religious man when indeed he is just a hypocrite and a manipulative person. Tartuffe easily earns the trust of Orgon and gets invited into his home. Orgon, as well as, Madame Pernelle take a strong liking to Tartuffe, which allows for him to take control of the Orgon household. The rest of the family can see Tartuffe …show more content…
After doing some research on stock character types it was easy to correctly label Madame Pernelle and Tartuffe with the correct character types. I identified Madame Pernelle as a crone character, as well as, a grande dame character. Because she is an old and mean lady who is hostile toward other characters. Which fits under the crone stock character type, one difference was that they said usually the old woman character is witch like. I didn’t directly see the characteristic of being foolish in these two character types but many literary works include foolish characters. It's a very common occurrence, usually the less intelligent character make for better comedic scenes.