Tarruffe

In preparation for the upcoming AP exam we have been reviewing books that we read earlier in the year as well as in past years.  We read many interesting novels and plays and in order to better prepare myself I have decided to blog about one that I haven’t had much time to talk about or discuss with my fellow classmates.  I am going to talk about Tartuffe because I found it slightly confusing however it seems to be apt in response to many of the open ended questions we have been going over in class. 

Tartuffe is a satire criticizing many things like wealthy aristocrats like Tartuffe himself.  He is portrayed as a good person by the not so bright people in the play however at the end you realize that he is really not nice at all.  This play also satirizes stupidity through people like Orgon and Damis.  These people are rash and gullible and tend to ruin all of the plans that the other more guileful characters hatch up.  An example of this is when Damis is hiding underneath the table and overhears the flirtation between Elmire and Tartuffe.  Elmire wants to keep it a secret and not make a big deal out of it because she believes it is not worth troubling her husband with it since she doesn’t go along with the flirtation just tries to get rid of him.  Damis doesn’t seem to understand this however as he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed and he decides to run off and tell Elmires husband.  This then proceeds to start the fracas that elmire wanted to avoid by not telling her husband in the first place.

All of this contributes to a theme of the play that you should be careful around people who aren’t very smart because they could get you in trouble.  They all don’t understand this and end up almost being forced to be acquainted with and practically controlled by Tartuffe at the end of the play.  This play also works in another interesting element where he attempts to flatter the king.  At the end of the novel when Tartuffe is about to take over everything and get away with his evil deeds an official of the king swoops in and saves the day, acting on the kings orders of course.  Not only does he stop Tartuffe but he also, being the kind and gracious king that he is decides to pardon orgon for the things that he did that were technically treason even though they were acting for the good King. 

The open ended question is one of the more difficult ones due to the broad nature or it however a believe that I am now all the more prepared after discussing this Play with myself.

Reminiscing on Dorian Gray

The AP exam is quickly approaching and in order to prepare for the open ended question i have been reveiwing a number of novels from earlier in the year.  One novel that i was reviewing that i enjoyed and wanted to look into in more depth was The Picture of Dorian Gray. There are many aspects of the novel that make it the literary classic that it is including the setting, tone and allusion.

The Picture of Dorian Gray was a dreary book about society in London in the nineteen hundreds and how it corrupts mankind.  The setting of the novel does an excellent job of portraying the book's meaning as it is set in rainy, dreary London and many of the most important actions take place at night. This book takes place in the 19th century and is mostly centered on the upper class and nobility. It covers a period of years as there is enough time for people like Basil Hallward to notice that he is not aging at a natural rate. The setting is important to this novel because the climate in London is typically seen as dreary which fits the novel quite well. This time period also fits the novel very well as it is very mysterious to the reader. The fact that it is primarily in the upper class of society also plays an important role in the novel as most of the characters are seen as sophisticated.  

The tone of the novel is also bleak as there are not any happy moments in the novel which gives it a dreadfully negative tone.  The atmosphere relates closely to the setting and the tone as they are very similar since they are both dull and grim.  As I stated earlier I believe that Wilde’s purpose in this book is to show how society in London corrupts man and all of the devices he uses help to support this tremendously.  I thought the book was rather dull however i do believe that it had literary merit as it contained many intricate allusions and motifs throughout the novel.

One such allusion was the allusion to Adam and Eve in the beginning of the novel.  This allusion occured when Dorian and lord Henry were talking in the Garden.  The scene takes place in a garden, like the story of Adam and Eve and it invlolves corruption.  It is at this point in the novel that Dorian makes the change from innocent, young man towhat will become one of the most corrupted characters in all of literature.  After speaking to Lord Henry, the metaphorical serpent, there was a new light in his eyes and when he went back to sit for Basil he was a changed man, eternally corrupted.