ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Le Tartuffe to identify the characteristics of mendacity in the play and the questions it raises around this subject. Whilst recognising that Tartuffe is a unique specimen. It locates the character within a particular literary tradition and compares the play to three other comedies written thirty years after Molière's play. The chapter provides the protracted evolution of Molière's text in order to stress how Tartuffe cannot be interpreted as a singular and fixed character but one that underwent various re-workings by Molière in the different versions of the play he presented. It indicates the way in which the character of Tartuffe uses the truth for his charade; this is a strategic and varnished view of the truth. The chapter underlines a religious hypocrite is troubling because he employs religion and God's truth to conceal unholy thoughts and actions. Hypocrisy, as defined within a specifically Christian framework, was much commented upon in French sermons and moralising tracts.
