Molière’s Tartuffe: A Foucauldian Reading

The present study discusses Foucault’s concern with the nature of power in human society. As the concept of power is a major challenge in communal societies, he believes that there is no longer a single dominant power. The play portrays this challenge for obtaining power and the resistance it faces that can be best analyzed in a philosophical term. The paper shows how various orders of power are at work in a house which is very similar to a battlefield. As a classical play, one may think that the father is the head of family and has the final say but it is obvious that different members of the family, even their servant resist this kind of power. So, the paper analyses the status of power structure in a classical play.