William Shakespeare's As You Like It As a Study of Perception and Misperception

William Shakespeare's As You Like It As a Study of Perception and Misperception

The concepts of perception and misperception are common themes in many

of Shakespeare's plays and can be found in his comedies, tragedies and

histories alike. Shakespeare explores these often-parallel elements

through several different forms in his work, such as disguise,

mistaken identity and blindness, and events caused by these can lead

to amusing, confusing or sometimes tragic consequences, depending on

the nature of the plays themselves.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines 'perception' as 'the ability to

see, hear or become aware of something through the senses,' 'a way of

regarding, understanding or interpreting something,' and as 'intuitive

understanding and insight.'[1] There is not a separate entry for

'misperception' but it is almost possible to discern its meaning by

figuratively inverting the former definition. However, this is not

quite accurate, for 'misperception' is not 'the inability to see, hear

or become aware of something through the senses' - it is more 'to see,

hear or become aware of something incorrectly.' To misperceive is to

wilfully misunderstand something, to labour under the false impression

that something you have seen, heard or become aware of is

unequivocally correct.

Applying this to plays such as Twelfth Night, King Lear, Macbeth,

Othello and, of course, As You Like It, it becomes clear that the

themes of perception and misperception are central to their plots. In

Twelfth Night, Viola disguises herself as Cesario, a young man, with

the objective of gaining admission into Olivia's court. King Lear has

the concep...

... middle of paper ...

...saman Maus,

Katharine, eds,

The Norton Shakespeare (London: Norton, 1997)

Pearsall, Judy, ed, The Concise Oxford Dictionary - Tenth Edition,

Revised

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)

Shakespeare, William, As You Like It (London: Penguin, 1968)

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[1] The Concise Oxford Dictionary ed. Judy Pearsall (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2001) p.1059

[2] William Shakespeare, As You Like It (London: Penguin, 1968) Act II

scene 1, lines 2-17. All other references are to this edition and are

given in parentheses in the essay.

[3] Act II, scene 1 lines 58-61.

[4] Act III, scene 2 lines 11-18.

[5] Act III, scene 3 line 15.

[6] Act II, scene 5 lines 5 and 16, Act II, scene 7 line 112.

[7] Act III, scene 2 line 131.