Comparison of satire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Comparison of satire - Essay Example First, his characters were chosen to represent types of people or some generalized aspect of human nature. In Tartuffe, he had characters that portrayed man's distrust of others and the pretentious side of men. The religious hypocrite in the play as well as the proud gentleman was examples of Moliere's building of a character for a satire such as Tartuffe. Second, after choosing the type of character, Molire created certain situations which would illustrate the abnormalities of this type of characters. He exposed the character to situations which demonstrated the character's deviation from the normal, socially accepted behavior. By this method, the audience soon became aware of both the nature of the type and the nature of his nonconformity with society. One of the most apparent uses of this technique would be in Tartuffe or The Bourgeois Gentleman. Third, in continuation of the above point, the play ended when the characters have been fully exposed and sufficiently evaluated their abnormalities. In a play like Tartuffe, however, Molire continued the play for an entire act longer than is often thought necessary. The fifth act of Tartuffe contributes little or nothing to the total view of the play and is a deliberate piece of flattery to the king. An excerpt of Scene I Act V: Last, since Molire's aim was to reveal characters in exemplary situations and expose their oddities, he never included any background information on the characters. All we know of the person consists of those basic traits seen operating at the moment on the stage. There was no additional information provided such as the family background or economic status of the characters. Although this type of drama, satire, necessitates a certain faith in the value of society, the dramatist does not necessarily dislike all of the aspects of his particular contemporary society. Laughter results from the unusual behavior of man that is really happening in the society. Moliere's play had controversies about its criticisms of the traditions and beliefs of religious people. As a result, he had problems in having permission to perform the play. Tartuffe's character according to Moliere was not a living example of the religious faith instead Tartufee was a religious hypocrite. The play presented different types of religious people such as those who pretend to be faithful (Tartuffe), those who are traditional Christians (Orgon) and those who believe that God wanted the people to enjoy all the good things in life such as flesh, power and luxury (Cleante). Moliere depicted the character of Orgon as a believer that men are born with the original sin and that men are bound to be