The two plays deal with similar issues of deception and hypocrisy in society and how people wear masks to conform to the social norms of their respective societies. Both authors, Henrik Ibsen and Moliere, made effective use of 'deception' to bring their ideas and views to their audiences.' Ghosts' is a perfect example of a realistic work that attacks the hypocrisy present in society and its value systems. Ibsen was therefore known as the father of modern theatre. Tartuffe was written by Moliere in the age of reason. During this period writers usually wrote in a common genre known as the comedy of manners. As a form of satire, the comedy genre aimed to ridicule human vices and follies in order to bring about change in society. In 'Ghosts' deception is used to show the tragic dimensions of the work in order to bring out the intention and purpose of the authors. Throughout the work we see several characters use the tool of deception to conform to the rules of society and hide their own follies. The play's female protagonist, Mrs. Alving, wears a mask in front of society and her own son to hide her husband's true identity. She does not tell anyone the truth about her husband's frivolous activities because in those days a woman was expected to maintain her husband's reputation in society. We have textual proof of this in the first act, when Mrs. Alving confides to Manders: “When Oswald was born, I thought I saw a slight improvement. But it didn't last long. And after that I had to fight doubly hard: to fight a desperate fight so that no one would know what kind of man my son's father was. …” Later we discover… halfway through the paper… the statement she made in Act I: “And all that he controls is well controlled. He would like to show you the way to Heaven; and my son should be loved by all of you. So, we see how once again the eldest member of the family is blinded by deception. So here we see how Moliere used deception to show the presence of hypocrisy in society. As a comedy, Tartuffe ridicules human folly and thus leaves a stronger impact on its audience. To conclude I would like to say that the two authors have the same goal but use "deception" in very different ways. Ibsen uses it as a device to show tragedy while Moliere uses it as a comic device to satirize his main purpose and present himself before the audience. Deception therefore acts as an effective tool to bring out the truths and put an end to all the hypocrisy present in societies..