In the following essay excerpt, Walker explores Molière's treatment of the concept of belief in Tartuffe, including abuse of faith by religious institutions.

The shift from a comedy such as La Princesse d'Elide to one of quite serious content, Le Tartuffe, for a second featured play at the royal fete, may strike us as odd, yet the themes are not too different. Both comedies deal with illusions about love and power, and both show us figures consciously playing roles in situations created by fancy. Le Tartuffe treats these ideas and actions against a background of contemporary reality, however, and the result is a theatrical masterpiece.

On the sixth day of "The Pleasures of the Enchanted Isle" Moliere presented three acts of Le Tartuffe, ou l'imposteur (Tartuffe, or the Impostor) with the rather unlikely seemingly subject of abuse of religious zeal by a confidence man and...