However, this doesn’t pertain to just people in the real world, it also occurs in the world of Shakespeare. The audience quickly finds that just like in their everyday life, fictional characters can also play a different role to achieve what they truly desire. Consequently, these characters develop a sense of dishonesty throughout the story and this dishonesty eventually leads to the destruction of their plans. Just like a weak foundation of a building, a weak personality will eventually crumple in ruin. In order to capture the recurring theme of dishonesty, William Shakespeare uses the death of King Hamlet to force a façade of security and responsibility on the major characters in his play, Hamlet.
By hiding his hatred for Antonio and making light of the pound of flesh, Shylock succeeds in his deception. The next deception is the elopement of Jessica and Lorenzo; a deception in this instant against Shylock. Lorenzo doesn’t care about the consequences to Shylock a... ... middle of paper ... ...eceit when they elope. Deception and intrigue were very common in Shakespeare’s times. He writes about deception as it is what he saw around him and also because it holds his audience’s attention especially when the audience know a character in the play is deceiving another but the other character is not aware of this.
Shakespeare uses this phase to remind the audience that though events, things and people may seem good or bad. However, after careful examination, they turn out to be opposite. This evokes a sense of anxiousness to the audience to see the meaning behind the phrase. This particular phrase Shakespeare has used is more than just a quote in the play, it is different to the other quotes as it covers the main theme of the play. As every fair doing is done by foul actions, and foul actions are done for fair doings.
In many literary works there is a general idea that appearances may be deceiving and that not everything is the what it seems to be. Most writers use this idea to help create conflict within this story; among these writers is William Shakespeare. In one of his more popular plays, Othello, Shakespeare gave the character Iago a two sided personality. Iago pretends to be a friend of Othello by giving him helpful tips and advice; however, he is secretly trying to sabotage Othello’s marriage. He tricks Othello into thinking the worst about Cassio and that he is having an affair with Othello’s wife Desdemona.
Many stories, such as Othello by the famous playwright William Shakespeare, have characters that may seem flawless on the outside, but when imperfections are portrayed, the truth is exposed. The character Othello, from the tragedy Othello, is portrayed as faultless in many ways in the beginning. However, as the story goes on, many unattractive qualities are revealed through Othello’s actions. One flaw of his is that he is too trusting. Othello believes Iago’s lies and so unable to trust from then on.
The difference between these two characters, however, is that Hamlet is somewhat mad, even though he does act mad for most of the play. King Claudius is not innocent whatsoever. Moreover, when Claudius attempts to regain some innocence, he is unable to repent for his sin. For most of the play, Hamlet does indeed pretend to be mad. The audience can understand that Hamlet is only pretending because Shakespeare leaves clues in characters’ lines.
In the ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, Shakespeare has used deception as a primary mode of operation since it can be seen through the fact that the entire play revolves around this single idea. Given so much importance it doesn’t seem abnormal yet simply a way of life for him. Although the integrated characters in Shakespeare’s plays aren’t psychologically complex but they are known to be additive characters since they have basic motivations. The specific design of his plays affected the emotions and intellect of his audience ultimately pointing to a larger human concern. This paper analyses all prominently embraced themes such as deceit, love and patriarchy which are found and resolved in the play as the characters begin to discern the truth.
However, with a greedy ear, we still watch the play, waiting in anticipation as to whether Othello will discover the sinister plans of Iago. We are more interested in the journey of the downfall of Othello not so much the plot. Iago, such an important and fundamental character to the play is often incorrectly cast as just being pure evil. His success can mainly be attributed to his sagacious temperament and masterful wit. However, Iago's achievement also hinges on his ability to exploit the character's innate weaknesses.
This idea is contrasted in Act 2, Scene 2 where Hamlet addresses the notion of, “O what a rogue and peasant slave am I! It is not monstrous that this player here, but in fiction, in a dream of passion could force his soul to his own conceit… his whole function suiting with forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!” In this excerpt, Hamlet is talking about how he wishes that he could be like other actors because those actors can bring false emotion to their face and make it so convincing that it, in turn, evokes that same emotion into the audience. Shakespeare’s uses these two different soliloquies in order to provide an original idea into how the actions and portrayals of a character's emotions add a new dimension to the
"The Taming of the Shrew." The Riverside Shakespeare 2nd ed. Ed. Dean Johnson et al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.