Time and again he would court scandal and conflict because of his own convictions. Ultimately saved by his talent, work ethic, and family connections, his story could just as easily ended up as tragedy instead of triumph.
By he had completed a law degree and was sent to the south of France to serve as a royal bedmaker, a ceremonial position. Commedia takes a few stock figures — the old man, the pedant,the wily servant, the young lover, etc. The dialogue is largely improvised by the actors and the comedy is highly physical.
He became an expert physical comedian who created some of the greatest slapstick performances ever. His next play, Tartuffe , tells the story of Orgon, a bourgeois gentleman, the father and absolute ruler of his house, who has become spiritually enraptured with Tartuffe, a religious adviser who is an obvious fraud to almost all the other members of the household and to the audience as well.
Over the course of the play, Orgon completely destroys his family only to be saved at the last minute by the king. Even before its premiere in , the first version of Tartuffe was already a subject of great concern in the court. The church and the state were intertwined and France was still in a state of recovery from violent religious conflicts.
Powerful religious factions were disrupting society under the pretext of moral reform. Though the king approved the play for performance at court, he heeded protests of devout members of the court and clergy and forbade any further public performance. Next, he wrote The Misanthrope which, mercifully, was a hit.
Determined to get it back on the boards, he rewrote and retitled it The Imposter. Economic class definitely has something to do with it.
Tartuffe concerns the trials of a rich family, that's being preyed upon by a poor , that is, not wealthy , swindler. And, of course, there's Dorine, a servant with a tendency to get herself involved in the lives of the people who, according to her society, are supposed be her "betters.
Priests and other members of the Catholic Church were considered to be part of a totally different class. In Tartuffe , we get to see the interaction of all these different elements: rich men and aristocrats, ladies and their hired help. It's that interaction that shakes things up and gets us laughing — especially when it turns out nobody's really playing the role you might expect them to be playing. Orgon, the rich father, is really a dope; the holy man is a fraud; and the servant girl might just be the wisest of them all.
Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. Previous Next. Genre Society Comedy, Satire Let's break it down now, word by word. What's Up With the Ending?
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