# Tartuffe — Character guide

> Key figures in Tartuffe by Molière.

- [Tartuffe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tartuffe_se/characters/tartuffe.md): Tartuffe enters the household as a beggar turned spiritual adviser, and by Act I his influence over Orgon has already reshaped the family's plans and affections. His genius is a kind of double speech: to Orgon he is all 
- [Orgon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tartuffe_se/characters/orgon.md): Orgon is a wealthy bourgeois whose devotion to Tartuffe has become the organizing principle of his household, overriding his wife's judgment, his son's protests, and his daughter's wishes. His flaw is not stupidity so mu
- [Elmire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tartuffe_se/characters/elmire.md): Elmire moves through the household with the ease of someone who sees clearly and speaks carefully, whether deflecting Tartuffe's advances or managing her husband's temper. Her famous tactic of hiding Orgon under the tabl
- [Dorine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tartuffe_se/characters/dorine.md): Dorine is the household's sharpest tongue and clearest eye, a servant whose loyalty licenses her to mock her betters to their faces. When Mariane despairs over being married to Tartuffe, Dorine's response is not comfort 
- [Mariane](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tartuffe_se/characters/mariane.md): Mariane is a dutiful daughter whose father's sudden plan to marry her to Tartuffe throws her into a paralysis of grief and indecision. Her scene with Valère is a comedy of mutual wounded pride: each offers the other perm
- [Damis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tartuffe_se/characters/damis.md): Damis is the household's impatient conscience, convinced that if he can just catch Tartuffe in the act and tell his father plainly, the scales will fall from Orgon's eyes. He hides in a closet, bursts out with the news o
- [Cléante](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tartuffe_se/characters/cleante.md): Cléante moves through Orgon's house as the one man unimpressed by Tartuffe's rolling eyes and torn kerchiefs, greeting his brother-in-law with level-headed questions while everyone else either fawns or fumes. His calm is
- [Madame Pernelle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tartuffe_se/characters/madame_pernelle.md): Madame Pernelle sweeps through her son's household like a one-woman inquisition, scolding Elmire's gatherings, Dorine's tongue, and her grandchildren's very existence before flouncing off with her maid. Her devotion to T
- [Valère](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tartuffe_se/characters/valere.md): Valère enters the play already promised to Mariane, only to hear that Orgon has pledged her to Tartuffe instead. Rather than fight for her, he tests her with a bitter, self-wounding suggestion that she simply marry the h
- [Mr. Loyal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tartuffe_se/characters/mr_loyal.md): A bailiff who serves an eviction notice on Orgon.
- [The Officer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tartuffe_se/characters/the_officer.md): A royal officer who arrests Tartuffe at the end.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tartuffe_se/characters