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Theme of deception in much ado about nothing
Theme of deception in much ado about nothing
Theme of deception in much ado about nothing
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Shakespeare's Use of Deception in Much Ado About Nothing
In the Play ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ the role of deceit is an
important one that is played to its fullest. The play is based upon
deliberate deceptions and numerous schemes that are used to manipulate
the thoughts of nearly every character and the characters deceive
themselves by putting on a different public facade instead of showing
their true feelings and personalities. The play also involves an
elaborate arrangement of trickery to achieve a humorous effect that
perhaps portrays deceit as something that is not necessarily corrupt,
but rather as a means to an end.
The first example of deception in Act 1, involves Beatrice and
Benedick. Although the main plot focuses on the drama between Claudio
and Hero, Beatrice and Benedick are vital characters that provide some
of the wittiest dialogue in the play. They are more worldly and both
of them protest that they never intend to marry. This makes the
audience enjoy even more, their rapid acceptance of each other’s
affection when they are tricked into falling in love with each other.
In the opening scene, Beatrice begins a sequence of insults by asking
Benedick why he is talking as no one listens to him. He responds "Lady
Disdain! Are you yet living?" and she replies by asking how could such
disdain die when Benedick is there to feed it? Through the dialogue of
these two characters, the audience can sense that there was once a
relationship between these characters, romantic or not, that went
awry.
This is proven in Act Two when Beatrice says ‘Indeed, my lord, he lent
it me awhile; and I gave him use for it, a double heart...
... middle of paper ...
... brother hath a daughter’. Leonato proposes that Claudio marries
Antonio’s daughter as a way of redeeming himself, although it is Hero
that will marry him. At the wedding the women come out wearing masks
to hide their identities, believing that he is about to wed Antonio’s
daughter, Claudio asks ‘Sweet, let me see your face’. This is a great
scene because it builds up excitement within the audience, as they
know that Hero will be the one to marry him instead. When Hero
unmasks, Claudio is overjoyed to witness ‘another Hero!’
In ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ deception is used tactfully to manipulate
the thoughts of nearly every character. It is ironic and a comical
essential in the play that nearly every character is too distracted by
trying to deceive other characters to realise that they are being
deceived themselves.
1. William Shakespeare, the most popular playwright of all time, experiments with comedy, mystery, betrayal, romance, and tragedy in his play, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The author uses a variety of characters from different social backgrounds to give us an elaborate picture of deception. From the opening line of "Who’s there?" the reader gets the impression that people are not what they seem in this play. The interrelationships between the royalty and people of the court are well-developed to illustrate the major and minor similarities and differences between the characters. Shakespeare reveals the deceptive nature of man and the ruin it causes through his use of foils. [Many of the other essays did not follow the directions and used the definition of foils as the introduction. This writer understood that the essay was to be about the use of foils in the play. The introduction, therefore, is about the play, and it leads up to a thesis which briefly states the function (meaning) of the foils within the play. The thesis, in other words, does not simply state that the essay will discuss foils in the play, but rather that the essay will show how the foils help reveal the deceptive nature of man and the resulting ruin. This is, I believe, also the only writer who alludes to "Who's there?" and thereby nicely connects the essay -- and thus the foils -- to much of what I emphasized in class discussions of the play.]
Deception is a key theme in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The characters must use deception to obtain good things, escape bad situations, or to play cruel hilarious ticks on other people. One example of deception is when Viola clothes herself in men's clothing in order to obtain a job under the Duke of Illyria, Orsino. During another scene Sir Andrew, Fabian, Maria, and Sir Toby Belch trick Malvolio into making a fool of himself. A third example of deception is when Feste the jester disguises himself as Sir Topas and taunts Malvolio. Each of these scenes and characters helps depict the different uses of deception.
An act of dishonesty carried out by haste can result in very unlikely consequences to an individual’s life. Firstly, the dishonesty of Friar Lawrence in choosing to marry Romeo and Juliet without the knowledge or permission of their parents, results in undesirable after effects. Secondly, the sudden cessation of support from Juliet’s Nurse, to continue the relationship of Romeo and Juliet causes harm to Juliet’s feelings as a young lover and contributes to their fatality. Finally, Romeo’s haste to marry Juliet to prove his intentions, accounts for a future filled with even more hasty decisions. In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the dishonesty of Friar Lawrence and Nurse and the haste of Romeo and Juliet, results in the deaths of the young lovers.
At the beginning, Benedick’s attitude is negative towards women in general. He swears he will never marry, as he is very critical of women and does not trust any of them not to cheat on him. He seems to oppose with Beatrice in a competition to outwit, outsmart, and out-insult each other. Obviously he has been in some sort of past relationship with Beatrice because when he meets her at the masked ball, she describes him as a selfish pig. We can infer that Benedick has some kind of deep feelings for her because after she insults him he is hurt and says, “Will your grace command me any service to the world’s end? I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on. I will fetch you a toothpick from the furthest inch of Asia . . . do you any embassage to the pigmies, rather than hold three words’ conference with this harpy” (II.i.229–235). This blatantly means that he does not wish to talk to her.
Hamlet is a play by William Shakespeare about a prince named Hamlet who was spoken to by the ghost of his dead father telling Hamlet to kill his uncle Claudius (the new king) because Claudius killed him. The story revolves around Hamlet's dillema of how to kill his uncle while being deceptive enough so that no one finds out about the ghost. This essay will prove how deception is often used in Hamlet for many reasons. Claudius uses deception to protect himself from being prosecuted for his crime of killing the King. No one knows what the deal is with Gertrude because she deceives everybody by keeping to herself all the time keeping everyone from knowing anything. By using quotes from the book I will prove how these two (Claudius and Gertrude) and among a few others , use deception for different reasons and in different ways. A lot of the times it is to protect someone, or themselvs because they believe that the truth will hurt more than their lies.
around at least one or more of these themes, if not all at the same
In the play Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare explores the concept of lies and deceit. The outcome of the play was based on lies and deceit. To some, lies can be portrayed as harmful, but this play shows otherwise. Many lies are used for good in order to help keep harm away. In this play, some lies are made up, some are true, and some are not lies at all but rather a misunderstanding which turns into deception. Lying is a form of deception, but deception does not always involve lying. Lies can ultimately shape a relationship between people even though lies should never be the foundation of any relationship.
They key in Hamlet Is the constant deception to the reader of what is actually being presented is not a reality. This key feature, of Hamlet, affects both the reader and the main character as both are left confused. The deception is used by Shakespeare is quite clever as you would not generally notice it at first the deception used (such as the example which will be given in my next paragraph) until you perhaps do a second reading of the play.
It led to Claudio and Hero getting married. It also led to Benedick and Beatrice to getting married. The first step is that they tricked Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love and after Benedick was realizing how much he loved her, he asked for her hand. They tricked Claudio into marrying Hero because they faked her death after he disgraced at the alter. After they found out she was accused wrongly Claudio pleaded sorry to Leonato and told him he wants to make it up to him. Then Leonato says, “Since you could not be my son-in-law, be yet my nephew.”(5.1.300-301) In this quote they are making Claudio think he’s going to marry Hero’s cousin. What they are really doing is tricking him into marrying Hero. So as the wedding starts and after Claudio agrees to marry her Hero unmasks herself and Claudio realizes she’s not dead and goes on to marry
One may readily perceive the theme of Shakespeare’s “Othello” as deception. Deception appears many times in Othello, but in almost every incident the degree of deception is different. Deception is to “deceive another, illusion, or fraud” (Webster’s New World Pocket Dictionary 69), which is seen as a wrongful act. However, deception may be used to protect someone from getting hurt therefore being used with good intentions.
Shakespeare’s use of diction in Orsino’s speech describes different aspects of desire and deception that is explored throughout the play. When Orsino expels his first few
Iago, a man with a cold heart and no care for any other. Within William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Othello, Iago uses tricks of deceit to ruin the lives of Cassio, Othello and his dear beloved, Desdemona. By using lies of adultery, Iago pushes loved ones and dear trustworthy friends apart. The choices he makes throughout Othello, reflect his dark personality that will eventually come back to him. Iago’s moment of choice, that is quick to ruin the lives of those around him, is when he used his betrayal by Othello to conceive a plan that frames Cassio and Desdemona of having a love affair.
told Othello to give it to his wife. "She dying gave it me, And bid me
The theme of Deception in William Shakespeare’s Othello is one of the most recurring and powerful theme in the entire play. It was deception that was the fuel of the plot which leads to the classic downfall of the ‘hero’, common in Shakespeare's tragedies. Iago, most oftenly referred to as ‘honest’ Iago, was one of the greatest examples of a deceptive individual. Iago uses his great strength in lying and multi layered personality to exploit each character's weakness to bring about their downfall. He uses Roderigo’s love for Desdemona to take advantage of him, misleads Cassio by taking advantage of his trusting self, and uses Othello’s personal insecurities to bring about his downfall.
In any piece of literature, the author choses specific element that will act catalysts for most events that occur. This catalyst often directs the piece and creates a cohesive atmosphere in which the plot can thrive. In the play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses the concept of deception as the driving force behind the tragedy and its characters’ actions.