The Character of Orgon as a Personification of Mannerist Comedy Anonymous College

Comedy of Manners was a theatrical genre that flourished during the time of the British Restoration of the 17th century. These plays sought to deride the upper social classes by exaggerating their manners and customs. Comedy of Manners used stock characters who were representative of their social class in order to satirize their behavior. Many times, the people watching these plays were the same people being satirized (Cash); furthermore, these performances were known for their sophisticated intellectual wit and heavy use of dialogue. One of the most famous of these plays to appear in France, Tartuffe, poked fun at the upper French aristocrats and their willingness to submit themselves to the Roman Catholic Church. The comedy in the play comes from the character Orgon's complete and total obliviousness to the scheming yet pious-seeming Tartuffe's plans to steal all of his wealth (Baker). The play Tartuffe is one of the greatest examples of Comedy of Manners in theatrical history, and when the character Orgon's actions and role in the play are examined, a brilliant and satirical representation of the aristocracy's religious hypocrisy and blind trust in the Roman Catholic church is revealed.

In Tartuffe, Orgon plays the role of...