Kent-Drury
English 312 Questions on Tartuffe/18thcentury readings
 

1. Analyze Tartuffe according to what you know about comedy and comic devices.  Can a play be a comedy without being "funny"? Are there scenes in Tartuffe that are funny?  What is the source of the "humor" in the play?
2. Read Cleante's speeches to Orgon in Act I, scene v.  In what ways do they reflect the ideas of the time?
3. Moliere provides us with several female characters.  Analyze the characters of Dorine, Mariane, and Elmire using Rousseau's description of  the Duties of Women (handout).  Who lives up to Rousseau's expectations about women's behavior?  Who does not?  What would happen if all of the female characters did live up to Rousseau's expectations?
4.  Read Moliere's accounts of the difficulty he had bringing Tartuffe to the stage (handout).  What objections had been leveled against the play?  How does Moliere answer those objections?
5. Read Pierre Nichol's objections to comedy (handout).  What would he say about Tartuffe?  How would Moliere answer?
How do Nichol's arguments against theatre and especially comedy compare with modern day arguments against sex and violence in the media?
6. Analyze the student production of the seduction scene.  Compare it with the film version. Which version came closer to the way you had envisioned the scene?