Ben Jonson’s play The Alchemist, focuses in on foolish people blinded by their desires and the greedy people who feed off of this desperation for their own benefits. Similar to the other plays we have read and studied, the characters tend to be so captivated by greed and desire that they make easy targets to be deceived and tend to leave not only without what they so desperately craved, but also with nothing or less than they initially began with. It appears that there are two categories that the characters fall into in this play: the deceivers and those who are deceived. The one character who seems from the surface to succumb to neither category is Surly. Surly is able to see into the con men’s tricks from the beginning of the play and he …show more content…
The question becomes, however, is Surly as high and moral as he leads on to be? Jonson’s use of deceptive characters in his play certainly does not leave out Surly, who is actually one of the most deceptive characters of them all. Although from the surface, Surly’s actions in exposing the men for their wrongdoings seem to be to try and protect his friend and to protect others, when you dig deeper than the surface one can notice that Surly’s actions might all be for reasons more selfish than he leads on. Surly, from the surface, seems like a break from the rest of the money hungry, sex obsessed fools Jonson has filled his play with. From the moment Mammon and Surly are introduced, Surly makes it clear that he has his doubts about the two men who swear to help fill Mammon’s every desire and that he will not “willingly be gulled.” (Alchemist 2.1.79) Surly seems to worry for his friend and wants to make sure that his friend isn’t going to be duped and …show more content…
Surly is one of the characters that seems to be neither deceiving nor deceived when you look merely from the surface of the story, but at closer examination there is more to this character than what meets the eye. Although it might seem and one could argue that Surly is one of the more morally good characters, since he is attempting to save his friend and others from embarrassment, tries to save the widow when he overhears Face and Subtle discuss how they merely view her as an object and plan to marry her just for her wealth and because he goes so far as to get the police involved. At second look, all of this could be for a more cynical, personal cause, one could argue that he is doing all of this because he is a cynical man who doesn’t want others to get wealth, or because he is just as greedy as the rest of them especially when it comes to fallen for the widow. One could assume this from his name which is one of Jonson’s main techniques in showing the characteristics of a character. This is why Surly would fall into the category of the deceiver with the rest of the con men. Either way, there is no character in this play that is truly free from desire or
The perspective of evil is also infrared in this play, but it is ignorance of unfolding events that makes potentially good characters loathsome. These characters do not deliberately choose to be on the wrong side of the system, but they are ignorant of events behind the scenes, and this ends up shaping their character. Danforth and...
An exploration of Shakespeare’s presentation of trickery and deception in his play ‘Much Ado about Nothing.’
People often do not realize their differences, but the differences in people are what set them apart from all others. In Paul Coelho’s “The Alchemist” two characters do such actions. The main character, Santiago, and the arguably secondary character, the Englishman, do such aforementioned actions. The two characters meet in a caravan that is traveling across the Saharan Desert. Although they do have some pretty interesting similarities, their differences are what intrigue the reader more.
character Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet fits the description of one who tries to deceive others
He receives the praise of his peers, and is well respected. What could turn a man like this to villainous ways? Only his own ambition, his own pride could have drawn him down the whole dark path. But something, or someone, must have egged him on.
In the book, A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt there are a few people that can’t be trusted by Sir Thomas More, the main character in the book. Richard Rich is definitely one of those men who can’t be trusted and along with Thomas Cromwell the two destroy More’s life slowly but surely and to the point of death. In the end of the book More is executed for high treason and his family goes from being very well off to having to start over. So this book shows that through deceitfulness of two, one can fall.
William Shakespeare attained literary immortality through his exposition of the many qualities of human nature in his works. One such work, The Merchant of Venice, revolves around the very human trait of deception. Fakes and frauds have been persistent throughout history, even to this day. Evidence of deception is all around us, whether it is in the products we purchase or the sales clerks' false smile as one debates the purchase of the illusory merchandise. We are engulfed by phonies, pretenders, and cheaters. Although most often associated with a heart of malice, imposture varies in its motives as much as it's practitioners, demonstrated in The Merchant of Venice by the obdurate characters of Shylock and Portia.
‘villain’; he is a complex mix of both. In the first part of the play,
Perhaps the most fundamental theme of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is the inherent corruptibility of even a seemingly good man when ambition turns to greed, and Macbeth himself, as one would expect, exemplifies this concept throughout the play. While at the outset he is seen to be loyal to his king, generally considered trustworthy, and displaying numerous other laudable qualities, Macbeth ultimately succumbs to the influence of those around him and becomes unequivocally evil, setting aside all his previously held morals and coming to be driven only by his lust for power. This transition is brought about by a wide variety of factors and plays an integral role in the development of the plot. In his tragedy Macbeth, William Shakespeare employs multiple methods of characterization in order to highlight the protagonist’s transformation from hero to villain as a result of the influences of the people surrounding him, namely the Weïrd sisters, Lady Macbeth, and Macduff, including extensive foreshadowing, a general shift in tone corresponding with turning points in the plot, and the inclusion of long-winded soliloquies to mark a critical change in Macbeth’s character.
Have you ever encountered problems while trying to fulfill a goal in your life? In the book The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, a shepherd boy named Santiago overcomes obstacles to reach his personal legend. Throughout the book Santiago encounters many friends to help him fulfill his destiny. Santiago encounters many problems throughout the story. He overcomes them with the help of his friends and his wife-to-be. These problems shape Santiago into a dignified man of many traits.
Nearly every character in the play at some point has to make inferences from what he or she sees, has been told or overhears. Likewise, nearly every character in the play at some point plays a part of consciously pretending to be what they are not. The idea of acting and the illusion it creates is rarely far from the surface - Don Pedro acts to Hero, Don John acts the part of an honest friend, concerned for his brother's and Claudio's honour; Leonato and his family act as if Hero were dead, encouraged to this deception by, of all people, the Friar who feels that deception may be the way to get at truth; and all the main characters in the plot pretend to Benedick and Beatrice so convincingly that they reverse their normal attitudes to each other.
At the very outset of the play, readers are presented with the power-hungry, self-loathing Duke of Gloucester, defined by his thirst for vengeance and power and by his uncanny ability to manipulate the minds of the people around him. Richard appeals to the audience’s sympathies in his self-deprecating description, when he declares that he is deformed, unfinished, and so hideous and unfashionable that dogs bark at him as he passes by. The imagery he utilizes throughout the opening soliloquy also evokes a feeling of opposition and juxtaposition which speaks to the duality of his nature.The juxtapositions he employs are more than rhetorical devices, as ...
The president. An astronaut. A spy. A movie star. A veterinarian-- Everyone has their lives planned out when they’re a child. People dream of doing the most impossible things; however, most people never even start to pursue that dream. Practicality wins out and people gradually begin to compromise their dreams until it reaches a point where it is impossible. In the Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, a young shepherd boy stakes everything he’s worked for on his dream of discovering a great treasure. On the way, the boy learns some universal truths of the world. Coelho uses metaphors and similes to show that to achieve a dream one must never give into fear and always stay true to oneself and therefore one’s dream.
Macbeth is a character that develops in this play through his desire for power. As the play begins Macbeth is introduced to us as a courageous warrior. He is thought of as a tolerant, decent and intelligent, but when he receives the position of Thane of Cawdor all of these great attributes fade away once he performs an awful act of betrayal. An important emotion for humans is guilt and in this play, it led to the destruction of Macbeth’s downfall. One might think that Macbeth is an all-around awful person after reading about such events, but after looking deeper into the story, it is apparent that he might not have been fully responsible for all of his actions.
...villain. He is motivated by his greed and uses fake sympathy to gain popularity. He killed his brother to gain the throne, however; he feels terrible about it in the end. Shakespeare’s use of villains is interesting and helps to add suspense and strengthens the plot line of his plays.