Previous Next

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Insanity

The motif of insanity draws attention to contrasts in the plot between order and disorder, dysfunction and harmony, and extravagance and moderation. In her comically prolonged exit in the opening scene, Madame Pernelle describes her son Orgon’s house as a madhouse—and there’s plenty of evidence of mental dysfunction. She also claims that vicious gossip is driving people half-insane. The protagonist, Orgon, actually has lost his mind. His servant, Dorine, baldly states that Orgon is mad. Cléante describes Orgon as “out of focus.” After Tartuffe takes everything Orgon owns, Elmire accuses Orgon of being bewitched. Eventually, Cléante persuades Orgon to stop being so extravagantly irrational. Mariane and Valère suffer from another form of insanity: youthful passion. Dorine states that they are “as mad as mad can be” and calls Mariane a simpleton. Fortunately, the young lovers find the miracle cure for their madness—getting married. 

Gossip

Madame Pernelle opens the play with nonstop criticism of everyone else on stage, basing much of her criticism on what the neighbors are saying. Dorine talks back to Madame Pernelle, providing more gossip as she does so. Cléante argues for ignoring tittle-tattle and concentrates on living a virtuous life, but he can’t stop Madame Pernelle from babbling on. Dorine tries to talk Orgon out of allowing Tartuffe to marry Mariane by repeating the kind of gossip that will arise if a young girl marries such an old man. Dorine also encourages Mariane to defy Orgon by getting her to imagine the gossip that would be spread about Tartuffe, her would-be horrible old husband.

As Tartuffe tries to seduce Elmire, he assures her of his total discretion. He promises that no gossip will trouble her marriage. Tartuffe’s promise is a thinly veiled reminder that he can ruin Elmire with scandal. Tartuffe also uses scandal as a weapon when he spreads a false story that turns Orgon against Damis. In their attempt to topple Tartuffe, Elmire, Cléante, and Valère gather rumors and gossip from their networks of friends. In this manner they learn that although public opinion favors Orgon and Damis, Tartuffe has the ear of the King. Throughout the play, gossip provides an unseen chorus of commentary that helps place the action in the wider world and thus prepares the audience for the final interventions of the King.

Heaven

Appeals to Heaven appear throughout the play, since the characters assume or expect divine intervention in their affairs. When Orgon declares that Heaven decreed he should take Tartuffe in, Cléante warns that Tartuffe is exploiting Orgon’s love of Heaven and cautions against people who show too much zeal for Heaven’s cause. Brushing aside Cléante’s warning, Orgon believes that Tartuffe is poor only because Tartuffe cares for nothing but Heaven’s blessing.

The most cringe-worthy appeals to Heaven come from Tartuffe in his speeches of seduction toward Elmire. Tartuffe tells Elmire that her beauty is a gift from Heaven that leads people to admire God for creating her. When her fake seduction of Tartuffe leads to his insisting on the real thing, Elmire appeals to the laws of Heaven against adultery. Then Tartuffe assures her that sin can be redeemed in the eyes of Heaven by pure intentions.

Cléante and Orgon appeal to Heaven as Tartuffe moves in for his final grab. Tartuffe invokes Heaven in revenge against Orgon. In her final lines, after the King ties up all the loose ends, Dorine praises Heaven. The frequent appeals to Heaven serve to remind the audience of human self-delusion and folly.

Previous section Themes Next section Symbols

Take a Study Break