Satire In Moliere's Tartuffe

Have you ever read a story blindly and just couldn’t understand it so you made assumptions about it? That is what happened to me. I recently read Tartuffe by Moliere, after my first read of the story, I thought it was not relatable, virtually impossible to ever happen, and just not funny. However, after understanding the cultural background, the life experiences of the author, and the author’s purpose for writing these stories, I now see this literary work as a strong satire that is relatable and very well could happen to anyone today. After reading Tartuffe for the first time I was deeply confused by what was happening in the story. I didn’t understand how Tartuffe, a man that was found on the streets had gained so much influence and power over Orgon and his family. Orgon a man who served the king just was so easily influenced just let Tartuffe have a say in his family matters just because he is some holy figure or held tremendous importance. Then in the story I just felt that …show more content…
Moliere wrote this story as a satire. Which means he wanted to add humor to touchy subjects. The subjects that Moliere satires in Tartuffe are hypocrisy and religion. Understanding this made me changed my mind about the story because I found it extremely humorous. In the story Tartuffe was supposed to be some Holy and spiritual person, but turns out to be a crook, thief, and liar when supposedly that is what he stands against. Then Moliere satires religion by basically making fun of the fact that people will use religion to gain success or power. Orgon wasn’t a poor man and he had to have some power to have known the king. So Tartuffe saw this and used religious tactics such as being humble to con Orgon and almost take his power and land. What made this even more funny was to find out the this made people mad , but Moliere keep doing touchy subjects anyway in his stories and