I chose to write about the following passage as spoken by Tartuffe on page 173:
For those men that all the women die for,
Love's a game whose object is a high score.
Although they promise not to talk, they will.
They need to boast of their superior skill,
Receive no favors not as soon revealed,
Exposing what they vowed would be concealed.
And in the end, this love is overpriced,
When a woman's honor's sacrificed.
But men like me burn with a silent flame,
Our secrets safe, our loves we never name,
Because our reputations are our wealth,
When we transgress, it's with the utmost stealth.
Your honor's safe as my hand in a glove,
So I can offer, free from scandal, love,
And pleasure without fear of intervention.
In my opinion, this was the beginning of the end to the relationship between Tartuffe and Orgon. I would consider this passage from the story to be the climax of the story, the story went downhill from here for Tartuffe. Tartuffe was desperate for Elmire's love and was willing to go behind Orgon's back to get it. Orgon has taken Tartuffe off the streets and out of poverty, but Tartuffe was willing to put their relationship aside for Orgon's wife. This can seen when he said "When we transgress, it's with the utmost stealth. Your honor's safe as my hand in a glove, So I can offer, free from scandal, love, and pleasure without fear of intervention" (173). Tartuffe is telling Elmire that they can have a relationship together without the family and Orgon knowing, they will hide their relationship from the family and will not have to worry about getting caught.
He leads into this by telling Elmire that people like him have to hide their feelings inside towards other people, "But men like me burn with a silent flame". He however wants to have an affair with Elmire behind the Orgon's back. He reassures her multiple times that their relationship will be kept a secret and that she will be safe.
If Tartuffe would not have made this move towards Elmire and continued on his path of taking Mariane as his wife, the relationship between Orgon and Tartuffe would have never ended. There would have been even more drama between Orgon and the family.
Works Cited:
Moliere, Jean-Baptiste. “Tartuffe.” The Norton Anthology World Literature, Third ed., D, W. W. Norton & Company, 2012, pp. 144–197.
-Patrick
Hey patrick, I liked how you added such significance to this passage as you prove that this scene between Elmire and Tartuffe became the turning point in the story as Orgon finally heard the truth. I liked that you presented a hypothetical idea that if he hadn't told Elmire, he probably would've been married to Mariane and would've been in Orgon's good side.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments on this important passage from Tartuffe! It's a passage in which Tartuffe finally lets his over-confidence tip into his downfall! Here's what I'd like to see moving forward, as we all develop the important skill of doing close readings of literature:
ReplyDeleteIn Close Reading, you are going through a short passage more than once, digging in to understand and make inferences about an author's meaning in the passage. Here's how to approach it. You are analyzing a passage in order to help you USE that passage in expressing an idea you have about its significance:
First Read: Get the General Idea
* When and where does the passage take place?
* What do you know about the character(s) in the passage?
* Can you retell what's happening in your own words?
Second Read: Dig a Little Deeper
* From what point of view is the story being told?
* What interesting words and phrases is the author using?
* How is dialogue used in this passage to further the story?
* How is the passage structured?
Third Read: Put it All Together
* What inferences can you make from your understanding of the passage?
*What is the theme or message of the passage?
* How does the theme of the passage relate to the theme(s) in the rest of the reading?
* How does it relate to other stories you've read, or to other stories from this time/culture/author?
* Describe how the word/ideas of the passage lead you to your conclusion about the significance of the passage