Role of Women in Moliere's Play "Tartuffe"

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Role of women in Tartuffe
Moliere's play Tartuffe illustrates the family of Orgon which has a strong connection with Tartuffe whom they believe that he can predict the future and hence, they cannot pursue anything without consulting him (Cardullo 2009). The progress of events throughout the whole event thus leading to the arrest of Tartuffe reveal the various roles of the characters. The play depicts women who can be witty, independent and intelligent through the different roles that they act within the play's plot. Elmire and Dorine displayed intelligent and independent characters while on the other hand, Marianne and Madame Pernelle did not show many wits.
Dorine uses her brain to fight for the role of the women in the society by seeing Tartuffe for the con that he is. Given the low-class role of being a maid in the play, Dorine still manages to take up a masculine role in defeating Orgon both mentally and physically. In a society whereby women are seen as brainless and expected to take care of the family and letting the man make major decisions, she can overcome this by occasionally winning in witty conversations. Through her role, the author has been able to show the society that there is a need to appreciate the contribution that women make in matters that need critical decision making. The fact that some men might choose to underestimate the arguments put forward by women ends them in a situation that could have been avoided by taking the advice from the women. For instance, in this play, Orgon suffers the loss of his property and son for a moment because he did not listen to the women around him. Its only after the arrest of Tartuffe that he realizes what a con he was and he should have listened to Dorine and his wife. Therefore, she played a huge role in displaying the intelligence of women in society. She also helped in propelling the narration and the creation of different themes such as the role of women in the society. Some characters such as Madame Pernelle were revealed through her actions.
As well, Elmire can be termed as the hero in the play. Through her intelligence, she was able to figure out the true aim of Tartuffe and made a plan on how to expose him to his husband. Her plot was made to save the family many agonies that Tartuffe would cost them. The initial plan did not go on successfully, and it led to the banishing of Damián from the family (Smith 2016). However, even though Damian was her stepson, she did not give up in fighting for the remaining family members. She planned on a second plan by letting her husband eavesdrop on her with Tartuffe. Orgon was able to establish the fact that Tartuffe was pursuing his wife, but his efforts to chase him from the family were unsuccessful. Orgon had placed much trust in Tartuffe to the extent of revealing to him the incriminating letters that he had. After the arrest of Tartuffe, Orgon was able to notice all the efforts that his wife had done in an attempt to get the co...