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Act Five

Summary: Scene I

Orgon explains to Cléante the mystery of the strong-box. In the past, Argas, one of Orgon’s friends, asked Orgon to guard the strong-box before fleeing for his life. The box contains papers that could ruin Argas. Previously, Orgon foolishly told Tartuffe about the box and agreed to leave the box in Tartuffe’s custody. Now, Orgon vows never to trust another pious man. Cléante uses Orgon’s vow as an excuse to lecture him about the need to recognize and honor true piety. 

Summary: Scene II

Damis joins Orgon and Cléante. Damis remains charged up, angry, and eager to cut short Tartuffe’s life. Cléante advises him against settling things by violence.

Summary: Scene III

Madame Pernelle makes her second appearance, as the last true disciple of Tartuffe. The entire family joins her onstage. Orgon angrily lists all Tartuffe’s outrages against him. Madame Pernelle dismisses even her own son Orgon’s eyewitness account as malicious slander. Unable to change Madame Pernelle’s mind, Orgon turns his attention to meeting Tartuffe’s threats. Orgon, Cléante, Damis, and Elmire discuss their chances of success in court. A messenger arrives, and Orgon orders Dorine to put the fellow off.

Summary: Scene IV

The messenger, Monsieur Loyal, is polite, well-spoken, and respectful, so Dorine admits him to the house. But Monsieur Loyal’s fine manners mask his mission as the bailiff who has come to serve Orgon an order of eviction from his property. Monsieur Loyal lavishes praise on Orgon for being a wise and temperate man who would never obstruct the law. Hotheaded Damis threatens violence, and Dorine wishes she could hit Monsieur Loyal with a sharp stick, but Cléante takes the paper from Monsieur Loyal and politely asks him to leave. Orgon sends a curse after the jolly bailiff.

Summary: Scene V

Madame Pernelle rejoins the family and professes herself to be “thunderstruck” and “utterly aghast” that Tartuffe is ejecting the family from their home. Elmire asks Cléante to tell the world what Tartuffe has done in order to drum up public rage in Orgon’s favor. 

Summary: Scene VI

Valère rejoins the action to report bad news. Tartuffe has denounced Orgon to the King and displayed the strong-box with its secret papers, and there’s now a warrant out for Orgon’s arrest. Valère urges Orgon to flee.

Summary: Scenes VII & VIII

Tartuffe reappears, accompanied by a royal officer. Tartuffe gloats at Orgon’s impending arrest, but the officer’s orders are to arrest Tartuffe, not Orgon. The officer then explains to Orgon that the King knows Tartuffe as a rogue who has operated under another name and committed many crimes. Royal officials have been following the imposter to catch Tartuffe in the act. By royal order, the official returns Orgon’s private papers and invalidates Tartuffe’s claims to Orgon’s estate. The King also pardons Orgon for hiding an exile’s documents. Dorine, Madame Pernelle, Elmire, and Mariane rejoice in their release from danger. Orgon begins a verbal attack on Tartuffe, but Cléante urges him not to descend to Tartuffe’s level but to begin anew by thanking the King for his mercies. Orgon agrees and declares that their next duty, after thanking the King, will be to give Valère “the wedded happiness which is his due.”

Analysis: Act Five

Act Five includes new revelations that tie the story together and help explain Orgon’s behavior. The story of the strong-box, which Orgon confesses to Cléante in Scene I, helps the audience recognize the true source of Tartuffe’s power over Orgon: blackmail. Orgon has emulated Tartuffe’s hypocritically pious behavior because it feels safer to be regarded as a foolish disciple than to be labeled a traitor. The revelation that Orgon is being threatened by a blackmailer makes him a more sympathetic character.

The argument between Orgon and his mother, Madame Pernelle, in Scene III shows how the tables have turned. Orgon must now experience what it is like not to be believed, even when the evidence against Tartuffe is clear. Madame Pernelle is as much in stubborn denial as Orgon was earlier in the play. Orgon’s anger at Madame Pernelle marks a transition in Orgon’s adulthood. He puts aside his desire to please his mother and turns his attention to the younger family members and their future. Orgon, Cléante, and the others at last view their dire situation realistically, and they reasonably discuss logical strategies for what to do next. Unfortunately, their newly realistic outlook also makes them recognize that they might not win their battles. Orgon has gained wisdom, but at a terrible personal cost, and he has only himself to blame.

The approaching disasters in Orgon’s life create rising tension in Scenes IV, V, and VI. The family’s prospects grow worse and worse. The character of Monsieur Loyal, a smiling but menacing law officer, adds a note of grim comedy as Orgon faces the end of everything. In Scene VI, Valère reveals his love for Mariane and loyalty to her family by arranging Orgon’s escape from the law. In the same scene, Cléante finally stops spouting moral advice and starts urging Orgon to immediate action. The characters become fully themselves as danger approaches.

The final scene contains the climax of the plot—Tartuffe’s arrest—and its falling action, the officer’s report on the King’s activities. In this narrative speech, a minor, nameless character adds new details that retell the entire plot of the play. The actions that save Orgon and his family have been taking place offstage, without the characters, or audience, even being aware of them. Tartuffe, with all his hypocrisies and manipulations, has only been deluding himself about being in control. In reality, the King, a wise, discerning ruler, has been manipulating events all along. The King acts as a deus ex machina, a common plot device in which a superior power swoops in at the last minute to rescue the hero against impossible odds. Since this is a comedy, the happy ending includes the marriage of the young lovers, Mariane and Valère. The ending is also a precautionary and preventative bow to the actual King and court, the audience members with the power to censor the satire and prohibit the play’s performance.

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