Fair warning: Tartuffe is a nasty little booger and I kind
of want to punch in the teeth. Glad that’s out of the way.
But, one line he says in Act 4 actually stopped and made me
give a moment of pause. “If nothing but Heaven obstructs my wishes, ‘tis a
triffle with me to remove such an obstacle, and that need be restraint on your
love,” is what Tartuffe says to Elmire, and for a second I was little shook
that a bit of wisdom like that just popped right out at me in a play that so
far I haven’t honestly been the biggest fan of. This one sentence I think sums
in one moment just what the problem is with Tartuffe and kind of what is wrong
with lots of people. Heaven isn’t viewed by him as a passage to earn wishes,
but an obstacle to what he wants, which basically means he missed the entire
point of what Heaven is supposed to be. Heaven is the ending point, the place
where sin is vanquished and there is nothing left but goodness and the glory of
God – it’s not an obstacle for us to overcome, we overcome obstacles for it.
Tartuffe is demonstrating how complete of a fool and a charlatan he is by proving
that he has gotten the views of Heaven so backward that it is mindboggling to
me.
Tartuffe is so many people as they search for something
better, for their own wishes – the view Heaven and God as things and ideas they
must remove to achieve full enlightenment, ignoring that the only way one can
enjoy said enlightenment (even though they can’t achieve it) is by accepting
that is part of the bigger picture of God, not a relay race they must win by
avoiding things in the way.
P.S. I commented on Eliza and Caroline's posts.
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