About the play:
Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite was produced in three-act version in 1664, in an altered form in 1667, and in its present five-act form in 1669. It has remained in the repertory almost continuously since its completion and has been performed more often than any other play by Molière. The play Tartuffe, which added a word to the French language (has become synonym of the word hypocrite), drew adverse criticism from various members of the church. In Tartuffe. Molière ridiculed excessive piety which is easily taken in hypocrisy. He did not attack religious persons but only hypocrites.

Tartuffe is obviously concerned with religious hypocrisy. While it is unwise to place too much emphasis on contemporary conditions, it may be helpful to look at historical events that clarify the play.

The most likely target of Molière's satire is the Company of the Holy sacrament, a secret society formed in 1627 and by 1660 influential throughout France. Its purpose included the repression of heresy, the promotion of charity and missionary work, and the improvement of morals. In implementing the last of these aims, the society maintained "spiritual police" who spied upon the private lives of others. As one critic said of the group: " They had for their agents fanatics who to save souls said recoiled from nothing, ' sanctifying by the purity of their intentions' what simple folk would call dirty actions."

 Molière read Tartuffe to several persons before it was first produced in 1664, and the society immediately organized an attack upon it. The controversy became so heated that Louis XIV forbade further performances.  Molière revised the play in 1667, hoping to remove some of the objections, only to have it withdrawn again. By 1669, when still another version was presented, the opposition was largely gone.

Whether  Molière has the society in mind is not of great importance. It is clear that he was thinking of groups like the society who create conditions under which hypocrites can flourish.  Molière, through the ending of the play, indicates that  France would be better off without such groups, and that the king is able to tell truth from falsehood without their aid.

As in all   Molière's  works, the balanced view of life is upheld in Tartuffe. To  Molière, true piety does not demand the abandonment of pleasure but the right use of it. The truly devout try to reform the world by actions that set a good example rather than by pious speeches or, as it is put in the play, "They don't espouse the interests of Heaven with greater zeal than does Heaven itself ."

Another favorite topic with  Molière is the forced marriage. In part ,this motif is convention inherited from past drama, especially  Roman comedy  and commedia dell'arte, in which plots frequently turn on the attempts of fathers to arrange marriage for their children without regard to suitability. Molière argues in this play that most of the evils of marriage can be traced to forced unions .In Tartuffe ,as elsewhere , he suggests that such marriage are apt to result in adultery. But in this play , marriage is entirely secondary concern. The main theme is hypocrisy.