2017 Volume 8 Pages 1-17
The theater of Moliere has few feminine characters who assume an important role in the piece. Le Tartuffe, one of the most famous piece, has Elmire, wife of Orgon, Mariane, his daughter, Mme Pernelle, his mother, and Dorine, his servant. Elmire represent a sympathic house wife at a glance, but in the fifth scene of forth acte, she has a dynamic role revealing the imposture of Tartuffe in using the personal pronoun “on” representing not only the indefinite third person, but also the second person and the first person. We analyze her lines in this scene and reveal how she use different significations in these lines. The frequent use of “on” instead of “I”, “we”, “you”, and “they”, produce the distance between Elmire and Tartuffe, and it attribute comical effects to the stage. Elmire is a secondary character at first glance, but, in fact, she has a very important function in the piece.