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Tartuffe is one of the best-known examples of the charlatan, another stock character of comedy. The audience knows from the start that Tartuffe is a fake. Long before he appears on stage, the audience recognizes that Tartuffe’s pious gestures are so sickening and silly that they make Orgon look like a fool to buy into his scam. In his first onstage appearance, in Act Three, Tartuffe is a lecher who uses religious sentiments to tempt women into his bed. At first, his seductive speeches are merely ludicrous. While Tartuffe only pretends to be religious, he is genuinely convinced of his own physical attractions. This self-delusion turns his words and actions from salacious to sinister. Tartuffe grows even more dangerous through Acts 4 and 5, as he seizes Orgon’s property and threatens him with ruin.

While pretending piety, Tartuffe commits all of the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, gluttony, lust, greed, sloth, and anger. Tartuffe is so arrogant that he dares to approach the King to denounce Orgon, and he is so self-absorbed that he fails to notice the royal officers on his tail. Tartuffe’s arrest is the climax of the play, the moment in which good triumphs over evil.

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