What happens in Act III of Tartuffe?
Act III begins with Damis, Orgon's hot-headed son, resolved to confront Tartuffe and reveal his true nature before Orgon can set up the disastrous marriage between Tartuffe and Mariane. Dorine tries to hold him back, suggesting that Elmire—Orgon's wife—should handle the situation more delicately. Elmire agrees to speak with Tartuffe in private, while Damis hides in a nearby closet to overhear. When Tartuffe arrives, he quickly drops his pious facade, showering Elmire with bold flattery and explicit advances, claiming that his devotion to God doesn’t exclude earthly desires. Elmire maintains her cool, deflecting his advances and proposing a deal: she’ll keep his behavior secret if he agrees to give up the marriage plan with Mariane. Unable to hold back, Damis bursts out of hiding and rushes to tell Orgon everything. Instead of believing his son, Orgon is swayed by Tartuffe's dramatic self-pity—Tartuffe admits to being a miserable sinner, which oddly strengthens Orgon's trust in him. Orgon immediately disinherits Damis, throws him out of the house, and, in a final act of misguided loyalty, declares he will hasten the marriage and transfer his entire estate to Tartuffe.
Analysis
Act III serves as the play's structural and moral pivot, where Molière's satire hits its most biting peak. The main technique in this act is dramatic irony turned into farce: the audience witnesses Tartuffe's hypocrisy exposed in real time, only to see Orgon's stubborn naivety immediately defuse that revelation. Molière presents two performances at once—Tartuffe seducing Elmire and feigning repentance for Orgon—transforming this act into a play-within-a-play that examines the power of theatrics itself.
The closet scene exemplifies spatial irony: the hidden witness meant to ensure revelation actually leads to disaster. Damis’s rash interruption turns evidence into a spectacle, allowing Tartuffe, the more skilled performer, to dominate the scene by relinquishing it. His self-punishing confession ("I am a wretched sinner, full of guilt") is a clever rhetorical maneuver, flipping accusation into a demonstration of his humility.
Molière further intensifies the theme of inversion throughout this act: truth is punished (Damis is banished), falsehood is rewarded (Tartuffe stands to inherit), and genuine feelings—Damis's outrage and Elmire's composed concern—count for little against a well-executed display of virtue. The tone shifts dramatically from comedic to something more like tragicomedy; laughter turns sour as Orgon's delusion shifts from mere foolishness to active cruelty. The act concludes not with a punchline but with a sense of dispossession, indicating that Molière wants the audience to recognize the stakes as genuinely perilous.
Key quotes from Act III
“Ah, for God's sake, man, don't take it so to heart. My brother, my children, and my wife might die, and I'd be less upset than I am now.”
Orgon speaks to Cléante in an earlier act recalled here in contrast, but the sentiment crystallises in Act III when Orgon chooses Tartuffe over his own son, disinheriting Damis without hesitation.
“The flesh is weak, and beauty can ensnare even the most devout of souls.”
Tartuffe offers this rationalisation to Elmire as he makes his advances, revealing how fluently he bends religious language to cover carnal appetite.
“Yes, Brother, I am wicked, I am guilty, a miserable sinner steeped in evil.”
Tartuffe delivers this confession directly to Orgon after Damis exposes him, deploying theatrical self-abasement as his most effective weapon against the truth.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Act III
- stratagems
- Clever plans or schemes designed to outwit or deceive an opponent, especially in a difficult or dangerous situation.
- alms
- Money or food given as charity to the poor, often as an act of religious piety or moral duty.
- mortify
- In a religious sense, to discipline or subdue one's bodily desires and passions through self-denial, fasting, or other acts of penance.
- scruple
- A feeling of doubt or hesitation about whether an action is morally right, preventing someone from doing something they otherwise might.