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TARTUFFE

                                          October 30, 2005

Moliere's Tartuffe turned out to be
a pretty quick read... a simple
straight-forward send-up of a con-artist
using religious cant for advancement.

It's so straight-forward, you might
use it as an example of the
problems with didactic fiction: it
could've been a fairly short essay.               Some of the clowning
There's a lot of mildly clumsy                    around early on
dialog that Moliere uses to make                  is fairly funny:
clear that he's not denying the
existance of the sincerly devout.                 An impertinent
                                                  servant has no     "Dorinne"
From the later introduction by Moliere,           problems telling
it appears that he was not sucessful              off the people
at forestalling criticism: he still               she works for,
had to deal with complaints that he               and does her best
was evil, sacriligeous.                           to hold their lives
                                                  together in spite
                                                  of themselves.
     And indeed, the point
     that some may be                                A predecessor
     insincere could indeed                          of Wodehouse's
     open the door to                                "Jeeves".
     attacking all, eh?


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