DORINE from “Tartuffe”

Age: 20–30s+

The maid to Mariane, Orgon’s daughter. Dorine is the least important member of Orgon’s household in terms of social class, but by far the most truthful, clear-headed, and competent. She talks back to her employers and social betters, stating the truth without fear. Dorine is worldly, skeptical, and self-confident. She serves as a foil for her naive, credulous, and insecure master, Orgon, and for his shy, obedient daughter, Mariane.

DORINE

A man whose spirit spurns this dungy earth 

Ought not to brag of lands and noble birth; 

Such worldly arrogance will hardly square 

With meek devotion and the life of prayer. . . . 

But this approach, I see, has drawn a blank; 

Let’s speak, then, of his person, not his rank.

 Doesn’t it seem to you a trifle grim 

To give a girl like her to a man like him? 

When two are so ill-suited, can’t you see 

What the sad consequence is bound to be? 

A young girl’s virtue is imperiled, Sir, 

When such a marriage is imposed on her; 

For if one’s bridegroom isn’t to one’s taste,

It’s hardly an inducement to be chaste, 

And many a man with horns upon his brow 

Has made his wife the thing that she is now. 

It’s hard to be a faithful wife, in short, 

To certain husbands of a certain sort, 

And he who gives his daughter to a man she hates 

Must answer for her sins at Heaven’s gates.