When Damis tries to reveal that Tartuffe has tried to make Orgon a cuckold, Elmire does not either affirm or deny the accusation, but merely puts forward the proposition that a wife should not always be running to her husband with tattle (particularly when her husband probably would not believe her). Here, at the close of the third act, Orgon is revealed in his total absurdity. This is the turning point of the drama and the last two acts will be devoted to forcing him to see his own mistakes.
Orgon's absurdity is almost unbelievable, and it shows how completely he is deceived by Tartuffe's hypocrisy. The reader, to fully appreciate this scene, must understand that during the accusation, it is traditional to have Tartuffe assume a most pious attitude, and in some productions he would be reading piously from his prayer book during the entire accusation.
In asking Orgon to believe all the dreadful things about him, he is adopting a basic religious attitude in which the saintly person over exaggerates his own sins. Here, the irony occurs because Tartuffe is guilty of all the crimes he confesses to, yet Orgon refuses to believe him and immediately turns on his son Damis.
In an age in which rational behavior was extolled, this irrational behavior of Orgon's is the height of madness. As Cléante said earlier, even the religious man must, at times, exhibit good common sense and have a practical side to his nature. Orgon, in his enthusiasm for his newfound religion will not even listen to his own son; he angrily disinherits him — an act which might suggest a saint who would deny his family for the sake of spiritual values. However, driving one's son from the house and cursing him can hardly be called the acts of either a religious man or a sane man. Finally, as Orgon plans to sign away all of his property, partly to vex his own family, we see illustrated for us the extent of his religious fanaticism; in other words, such absurdity as can hardly be believed.
