Chapter: SCENE III

  ELMIRE, MARIANE, DAMIS, CLEANTE, DORINE


  ELMIRE (to Cleante)
  You're very lucky to have missed the speech
  She gave us at the door. I see my husband
  Is home again. He hasn't seen me yet,
  So I'll go up and wait till he comes in.

  CLEANTE
  And I, to save time, will await him here;
  I'll merely say good-morning, and be gone.

 After Orgon leaves to recover his composure, Dorine immediately begins to attack Mariane, who did not stand up to her father and openly refuse to marry Tartuffe. Mariane defends herself by saying that she has lived for so long under her father's strict control that she can't oppose him now. Dorine then begins to paint a picture of what it will be like to marry Tartuffe. She is realistic enough to reject Mariane's idea that she will kill herself rather than marry Tartuffe or disobey her father; such talk is sentimental drivel. When Mariane protests that she knows of no way to defy her father, Dorine then begins to depict all of the horror of what it would be like to be Madame Tartuffe. Mariane is then so horrified of the possibility of having to marry Tartuffe that she is in total despair. Dorine consoles her by promising that they will find some line of action to prevent this absurd situation. Valere, Mariane's betrothed, arrives and asks Mariane if it is true that she will marry Tartuffe. Mariane responds that it is her father's wish and innocently says that she does not know what to do. Valere interprets this as meaning that she is not seriously opposed to the marriage and then he insultingly advises her to enter into the marriage. Mariane then thinks that Valere no longer cares for her. The two then enter into a ridiculous lovers' quarrel until Dorine can no longer stand it. Just as Valere is about to leave, she drags him back, then stops the departing Mariane and forces them both to admit their love for each other. Dorine's advice is to pretend to go along with Orgon's plan but to keep postponing the wedding until something can be devised. She says that she is going to enlist the help of anyone she can find.

