Righteous Tartuffe and Poems

  1. Is Tartuffe in fact anti-religious, or does it only attack corruptions of religion?

I don’t know if you are meaning to ask if Tartuffe himself is ant-religious or not, or the poem as a whole… I want to say though, that both are more so to the corruption of religion.   I think that Tartuffe may want to do his best at being the most righteous that he can be however he himself is seen by many in the poem as a “bigot’ and Dorine refers to him as a fraud.   The insults from many in the play are extensive.   It seems that many are under a mutual understanding that Tartuffe is a hypocrite and I would say slightly ruins to face of religion for the rest of them.   In Scene 3, Tartuffe is totally hitting on Elmire and is trying to cop a feel, “Feeling your gown; what soft, fine woven stuff!’.   When previously he was preaching to Dorine that she was showing too much of her bosom.   I think that Molière is poking fun at religion and the self- righteous through his play and Tartuffe himself.

  1. In what respects is Hugo’s Satan a heroic figure? How does Hugo’s account differ from Dante’s?

I wouldn’t agree that Hugo’s Satan is a heroic figure… but I guess in a way,   after his 10,000 year journey he finally found hell.   Hugo and Dante differ in many aspects, but I would say the one that sets them apart the most is what they describe hell as.   Dante has many different levels, while Hugo mentions that is incredibly dark and lonely.

  1. Discuss and compare the images in any two poems assigned for this week.

I found it somewhat difficult to interpret these poems, for they all seemed to be so depressing.   I can understand why they would be, for the writers all faced some trail and writing must have been an escape for them.   I think that the two poems that I liked the most however, were Leopardi’s “To Sylvia’ and “The Village Saturday’.   Both seemed similar (ironic, they had the same author), in a way that they portray the young, youthful, and beautiful younger ones, and then in a more depressing tone say, “hey, it won’t always be like this’.

“My child, enjoy the season,   I will not tell you more; but if the day Seems slow in coming, do not grieve too much’ (Leopardi line 46-48).

One thought on “Righteous Tartuffe and Poems

  1. swhoke

    I like how you used the specific scene from “Tartuffe” that I was thinking when I read the question, it was very suggestive and pointed at the hypocrisy blatantly. Excellent post.

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