Moliere's Tartuffe

In Acts I and II of "Tartuffe," MoliFre seems to critique the characters on both sides of religious hypocrisy those like Tartuffe who perpetrate it, and those like Madame Pernelle and Orgon who allow themselves to be taken in by it. Tartuffe is the consummate religious hypocrite, using religious posturing to take advantage of his hosts while pronouncing judgment on everyone else for minor infractions. Pretending to be holy, righteous, self-critical, and self-sacrificing, he is instead grasping, conniving, critical of others, and duplicitous. Before he even appears in the play, the other characters say enough about him to reveal the truth about his feigned piety and his exaggerated efforts to appear sincere.

Tartuffe alone is not solely responsible for the impact of his own hypocrisy, however, and MoliFre delights in ridiculing equally the victims of his charade, Madame Pernelle and Or

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