What happens in Act IV of Tartuffe?
Act IV opens with Cléante urging Tartuffe to make amends with Damis and bring peace back to Orgon's home. However, Tartuffe sidesteps the issue with self-righteous talk about Christian forgiveness, clearly showing he has no plans to give up his control. Elmire, determined to reveal Tartuffe for the fraud he is, sets a trap: she convinces Orgon to hide under a table so he can see Tartuffe's true nature for himself. When Tartuffe arrives, Elmire pretends to reciprocate his feelings, teasing him with delays to draw out his advances. Tartuffe, feeling bold, openly declares his love and brushes aside any concerns about sin, claiming that a hidden sin doesn’t count as a sin at all. Orgon, concealed beneath the table, hears every word. Elmire coughs repeatedly—the signal for Orgon to come out—but he remains paralyzed, forcing her to withstand Tartuffe's growing audacity longer than intended. It’s only when Tartuffe reaches for her that Orgon finally emerges, confronting the hypocrite directly. Tartuffe, now trapped, shamelessly reminds Orgon that the house legally belongs to him, having been transferred through a deed of gift. The act concludes with Orgon's illusions shattered, leaving him in a precarious position: he has given his enemy a weapon that is now being used against him.
Analysis
Act IV is the play's mechanical and moral pivot, where comic entrapment and real danger blur together. Molière presents the under-table scene as a play-within-a-play: Elmire takes on both the director and actress roles, while Orgon is an unwilling audience, forced to witness his own gullibility reflected back at him. The recurring coughing motif is a brilliant piece of comic timing—each unacknowledged signal heightens the scene's discomfort, drawing Orgon into Elmire's struggle through his inaction. His failure to respond isn’t just cowardice; it represents the final breath of a belief system crumbling in real time.
Tartuffe's seductive language is meticulously crafted to echo his religious rhetoric. He uses the same intricate reasoning—exceptions, dispensations, the privatization of conscience—that he applies to justify his piety, revealing how devotion and libertinism share a language of self-exemption. The phrase "le scandale est ce qui fait l'offense" captures this inversion: sin only exists when it is seen, creating a theology based purely on performance.
Molière also alters the tone here. The farcical dynamics of the hiding scene clash uncomfortably with the real legal threat that Tartuffe presents by the end of the act. This tonal shift—from bedroom comedy to property law—is intentional. It indicates that the play's satirical aim extends beyond personal hypocrisy to institutional power: how easily a seemingly devout persona can take over a household and, by extension, a state. Act IV concludes not with a resolution but with a revelation of the limits of exposure.
Key quotes from Act IV
“Le scandale est ce qui fait l'offense, / Et ce n'est pas pécher que pécher en silence.”
Tartuffe reassures Elmire that a sin committed without public knowledge carries no moral weight, revealing the purely performative nature of his piety.
“Ah! pour être dévot, je n'en suis pas moins homme.”
Tartuffe brushes aside Elmire's suggestion that his religious devotion should suppress his desire, collapsing the boundary between the sacred and the carnal he has traded on throughout the play.
“C'est à vous d'en sortir, vous qui parlez en maître: / La maison m'appartient, je le ferai connaître.”
Unmasked before Orgon, Tartuffe pivots instantly from seducer to landlord, invoking the deed of gift to assert legal dominance over the household he has spiritually occupied.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Act IV
- perfidy
- Deliberate betrayal of trust or loyalty; treacherous and deceitful behavior toward someone who trusted you.
- suppliant
- A person who humbly begs or pleads with someone in power for a favor, mercy, or relief.
- deed of gift
- A legal document by which a person voluntarily transfers ownership of property or assets to another person without receiving payment in return.
- cajole
- To persuade someone to do something by using flattery, gentle coaxing, or persistent sweet talk rather than force.
- remonstrate
- To protest or object strongly to someone about their actions or decisions, urging them to reconsider.