The two plays deal with similar issues of deception and hypocrisy present in the society and how people wear masks in order to conform to the social norms of their respective societies. Both the authors, Henrik Ibsen and Moliere have made effective use of ‘deception’ in order to bring their ideas and views through to their audience.’ Ghosts’ is a perfect example of a realistic play which attacks the hypocrisy present in the society and in its value systems. Ibsen therefore was 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 which was known as the comedy of manners. As a form of satire, the genre of comedy was aimed at ridiculing human vices and follies in order to bring about a change in the society.
In ‘Ghosts’ deception is used to show the tragic dimensions of the play in order to bring forth the authors intension and purpose. Throughout the play we see different characters using the tool of deception in order to conform to the rules of the society and hide their own follies. The female protagonist of the play, Mrs. Alving is shown to wear a mask in front of the society and her own son in order to hide her husband’s true identity. She does not tell anyone the truth about her husband’s frivolous activities as in those days it was expected out of a woman to maintain her husband’s reputation in society. We get textual evidence of this in Act I when Mrs. Alving is confiding in 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 – fight a desperate fight so that no one should know what sort of a man my child’s father was. …” Later on we discover...
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...s statement she ha made a statement in Act I, “And whatever he controls is well controlled. He would fain show you the way to Heaven; and my son ought to make you all love him.” Thus, we see how again the eldest member of the family is blinded by deception.
Thus here we see how Moliere has used deception in order to show the presence of hypocrisy in the society. As a comedy Tartuffe ridicules the human folly and hence leaves a stronger impact on its audience.
To conclude I would like to say that the two author’s have the same purpose but yet they make use of ‘deception’ in very different ways. Ibsen uses it as a device to show tragedy whereas Moliere uses it as a comic device to satirize his main purpose and present in front of the audience. Thus deception acts as an effective tool to bring out the truths and put an end to all the hypocrisy present in the societies.
The play "Tartuffe", by Moliere, is a work that was created to show people a flaw in their human nature. There are two characters who portray the main flaw presented in the play. Both Madame Pernelle and Orgon are blinded to the farces of Tartuffe and must be coaxed into believing the truth. The fact that Orgon and Madame Pernelle are too weak to see the truth is an important theme of the play.
Deception is present in Tennessee Williams’s drama ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, William Shakespeare’s Tragedy ‘Othello’ and L. P. Hartley’s novel ‘The Go-Between’; the writers choose to use characterisation to explore the theme in depth. Often the protagonists of each text are the primary offenders of deceit, though some supporting characters mislead as well; although Iago is the antagonist of ‘Othello’, he is incomparably the most deceitful character in the entire play. Similarly, Williams uses Blanche to develop the plot by misleading the other characters and even herself at times, though arguably, unlike Iago, Blanche is presented as a character who lacks the motivation to hurt anyone. Conversely Leo, although the protagonist and narrator of the novel, is not the most deceitful character – Ted Burgess and Marian Maudsley not only coerce him into the deceit, but they themselves are presented as masters of the game they play, however, this essay will focus on Leo as he is a unique symbol of deceit; he is unaware of the consequences of his actions.
In William Shakespeare’s play ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, there are many instances of trickery and deception, which seem to surround the whole of the play.
“No matter how you hope, no matter how you try, you can’t make truth out of a lie” (Berenstain 1). Various children programs or books, like The Berenstain Bears, try to discourage children from lying. They attempt to do this by informing them of the consequences lying brings. Every day, countless people find themselves being deceived, whether by their coworkers, friends, or family. While some lies may appear harmless, most do more harm than good. Lying takes on several different modes for which it infests itself into the daily grind. A few of these configurations are white lies, facades, delusion or doublespeak. More than half of the population have become desensitized to deceit, because today lying is prevalent, and doublespeak is predominant
“Tartuffe” was written by Moliere and was successfully performed for the first time in 1664. “Tartuffe is said to stand for so many contradictory things” (Bold). With the passing of nearly six centuries, this play has demonstrated the idea of authority, given examples of how authority can be manipulated, and “is said to be a mere fact of history” (Cardullo). With respect to the modern denotation of the words authority and hypocrisy and key examples given from the text, it could be argued that the play presents specific examples of authoritative manipulation that could be considered a foreshadow to futuristic occurrences such as: producing a counterfeit reputation by using religion
Throughout the history of literature there have always been two sides to every story. There is the good side and the evil side. “Evil is the most serious of our moral problems. All over the world cruelty, greed, prejudice, and fanaticism ruin the lives of countless victims”(Kekes). Shakespeare follows this quite closely we see common victims as well as law breakers. The heroes usually have similar characteristics as one another. For example the heroes are usually brave, muscular, good looking, and fairly popular. On the other hand you have villains. Villains are usually brave as well; however they usually have some kind of deformity such as the villain in spider man. They have different beliefs than that of most other people. These are more modern villains, back in Shakespeare’s time villains were just normal people. Examples of these characters are Lago from Othello, this is a story where Lago makes a plot to take down Othello’s girl because he can’t have her so he makes a plan that will make her lover kill her. Another example of old villains is Claudius from Hamlet. Claudius is the King’s brother. Claudius secretly kills the king, takes his crown and causes a variety of problems. Last is Oberon from Mid Summer Nights Dream is Oberon. Oberon is another villain that causes problems by trying to punish his wife for her disobedience. These three characters are similar yet different. Besides the fact that they are all Shakespeare characters they are still very similar. Two ways that these characters are the same are their place in society and their talking skills, however they are different because of their motives.
It is in the duality of Orgon, the believing subject, and Tartuffe, the manipulating hypocrite (or impostor), that Moliere takes his digs at the extremes of enthusiastic belief. Tartuffe plays the role of a man whose greedy actions are cloaked by a mask of overwhelming piety, modesty and religious fervor. Orgon is the head of a household who has taken Tartuffe in. We laugh at Orgon because everyone else (except his mother) knows that Tartuffe is a fake. All of Orgon's relatives warn him of Tartuffe's gluttony and of the false nature of his pious proclamations.
In Stephen C. Brandy’s essay, “One of My Babies,” he quoted, “the grandmother’s petty acts of deception are, it seems at first glance merely that- petty acts. Profoundly dishonest, she stops at nothing ...
Tartuffe is a satirical comedic play written by Molière in 1664. It is focused around the family of Orgon and the character of Tartuffe, who has become Orgon’s personal holy man. Before being brought into Orgon’s home, Tartuffe was nothing more than a common beggar who learned how to act pious. Throughout this play, we see Orgon give everything he owns to Tartuffe: his love, his money, his daughter, and even the deed to his house. While everyone else in the household sees Tartuffe for who he really is, Orgon remains blind to it throughout most of the play. Orgon is warned many times by different members of the household, including his own son, yet he only chooses to lash out against those speaking. From early on in the play we as readers are able to recognize that Tartuffe is no more than a hypocrite and Orgon is a blind fool. In the play Tartuffe by Molière there are several different important themes that impact this work,
There is much injustice in the play Tartuffe. This injustice as well as the justice that triumphs often comes through the use of language for the purpose of establishing either law or love. Sometimes a character takes on this language by association with other characters, and other times in reaction to the use of this language by other characters. Regardless of the source, language is a common medium for the expression of justice or its opposite. This language is used by characters as a result of the conflict that a male feels as described by Lacan, which more often that not, results in the expression of injustice. The expression of injustice is language-based because the male, by being exposed to language, is thrust into a world of alienation, and has experienced injustice from his first experience with language.
William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, is a ghost story, a detective story and a revenge story all within one plot. Throughout the play, qualities of all three types of stories are displayed. The ghost story consists of Hamlet Senior and the circumstances surrounding his untimely demise at the hands of the present King, Claudius. He is being tortured in hell until his death is properly avenged. The detective aspect of Hamlet is brought about by Hamlet trying to figure out whether or not his fathers ghost was real and also to what, if any extent, his mother the "virtuous" Queen Gertrude was involved with the murder of his Father. Both Hamlet and Laertes, bring yet another aspect to this most versatile play, by seeking revenge for their fathers death, each in their own way. By viewing the play as either one or all of these different aspects we learn to have different perspectives on the play.
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.
Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is a complex and ambiguous public exploration of key human experiences surrounding the aspects of revenge, betrayal and corruption. The Elizabethan play is focused centrally on the ghost’s reoccurring appearance as a symbol of death and disruption to the chain of being in the state of Denmark. The imagery of death and uncertainty has a direct impact on Hamlet’s state of mind as he struggles to search for the truth on his quest for revenge as he switches between his two incompatible values of his Christian codes of honour and humanist beliefs which come into direct conflict. The deterioration of the diseased state is aligned with his detached relationship with all women as a result of Gertrude’s betrayal to King Hamlet which makes Hamlet question his very existence and the need to restore the natural order of kings. Hamlet has endured the test of time as it still identifies with a modern audience through the dramatized issues concerning every human’s critical self and is a representation of their own experience of the bewildering human condition, as Hamlet struggles to pursuit justice as a result of an unwise desire for revenge.
"I cannot improve on it, and assuredly never shall," said Molière of his satire The Misanthrope, {1} and the critic Nicholas Boileau-Despréaux concurred by accounting it one of Molière's best plays.{2} But the French public did not like it much, preferring the dramatist's more farcical The Doctor in Spite of Himself--a play that, according to tradition, was written two months after The Misanthrope's premiere to make up for the latter's lack of success.{3} In fact, The Misanthrope horrified Rousseau, who thought that its aim was, in Donald Frame's words, "to make virtue ridiculous by pandering to the shallow and vicious tastes of the man of the world."{4} Both he and Goethe after him regarded Alceste, the protagonist, as a tragic figure rather than a comic one.{5}
"It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit."-Noel Coward. The truth can be disguised and deceit can take its place which leads to misinterpretations and misconceptions. In Shakespeare's comedy known as Twelfth Night, the idea of deceit and misconceptions is all throughout the play. In one way or another, the truth is disguised. Shakespeare shows that misconception and misinterpretation don't always end in a good way, but sometimes have happy endings.