What happens in Act I of Tartuffe?
Act I opens in the home of Orgon, a wealthy Parisian bourgeois, where the domestic tension is already bubbling over before Tartuffe even steps on stage. Madame Pernelle, Orgon's mother, storms through the house, issuing blunt judgments about each family member — she criticizes Elmire for being too welcoming to visitors, calls Damis a fool, says Mariane is too quiet, and claims Dorine the maid is too loud and disrespectful — before proclaiming that the household’s only true virtue lies with Tartuffe, the pious guest Orgon has taken in. The family tries to protest, but Madame Pernelle dismisses them and storms out, leaving the others to commiserate. Cleante, Orgon's sensible brother-in-law, tries to bring some reason into the discussion. When Orgon returns from a trip and learns that his wife Elmire has been unwell, he reacts to each piece of news — no matter how troubling — with a single obsessive question: "And Tartuffe?" Dorine's dry repetition of this exchange underscores both the act's central joke and its underlying horror: a man so consumed by his devotion to a fraud that he becomes blind to the needs of his own family.
Analysis
Molière constructs Act I as a masterclass in in absentia characterization: Tartuffe dominates every conversation yet never makes an appearance, with his influence measured solely by the distortions he creates in others. Madame Pernelle's opening tirade serves as an inverted moral compass—her blunt certainties are so misguided that the audience begins to adjust its own judgment against hers right from the first scene. Molière employs her as a comic mirror, reflecting back the very gullibility that the play will examine in depth over the next four acts.
The exchange between Orgon and Dorine stands out as the act's sharpest craft move. Set up as a running gag with increasing stakes, it operates on two levels simultaneously: as farce (the mechanical repetition of "Et Tartuffe?" elicits laughter through its rhythmic delivery) and as a psychological portrait (each repetition heightens the audience's discomfort with Orgon's neglect of paternal instincts). The humor is effective precisely because it also evokes fear.
Cleante's role here serves as a tonal counterbalance—his rational prose contrasts intentionally with the heightened rhetoric of the believers. Molière keeps him sympathetic but somewhat dull, a strategic choice: the play suggests that while reason is necessary, it is not enough to resist the allure of false piety. The act concludes not with resolution but with anticipation—the audience is primed to witness the monster everyone is discussing, and Molière makes them wait.
Key quotes from Act I
“Et Tartuffe? / Le pauvre homme!”
Orgon's reflexive response each time Dorine reports a detail of Elmire's illness, reducing his wife's suffering to a prompt for expressions of tenderness toward Tartuffe.
“Il est, de mes amis, le plus grand hypocrite — Non, il est un saint homme, et doit être écouté.”
The family's competing verdicts on Tartuffe, voiced in rapid succession in Act I, establish the play's central epistemological conflict: who has the authority to name what they see?
“C'est un homme... qui... ah! un homme... un homme enfin.”
Orgon's stammering, rapturous attempt to describe Tartuffe to Cleante, his syntax collapsing under the weight of an adoration that exceeds language.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Act I
- dissembler
- A person who hides their true feelings, intentions, or character behind a false appearance; a hypocrite who pretends to be virtuous while secretly being corrupt.
- censure
- Strong, official or public disapproval and criticism of someone's behavior or beliefs, often delivered as a formal judgment.
- impost
- A tax, duty, or tribute imposed on someone, used here figuratively to mean a burden or obligation unfairly placed upon a person.
- cabal
- A small, secretive group of people plotting together against someone in authority or against another person's interests.
- dupe
- A person who has been tricked or deceived into believing something false, especially by a clever or cunning schemer.
- dotard
- An old person whose mind has weakened with age, causing them to be foolishly gullible or easily manipulated by others.
- pique
- A feeling of wounded pride or irritation caused by being slighted or treated with disrespect.