Gwendolen wants to marry a man called Ernest, not caring whether he possesses the qualities that comprise earnestness. This is evident as Gwendolen quickly forgives Jack’s deception and Lady Bracknell quickly forgets her earlier disapproval of Jack’s suitability for Gwendolen. Jack, the central character, is initially neither ‘Ernest’ nor ‘earnest’. Through forces at times beyond his control, he becomes both: a symbol of Victorian hypocrisy. Both Jack and Algernon lead a double life, known as ‘Bunburying’, the practice of creating an elaborate deception so as to misbehave whilst maintaining expected social standards of duty and responsibility, essentially, pretending to be earnest.
He appears to be solely interested in women’s sexuality, shamelessly objectifying them. For instance, when Claudio asks whether the world could ‘buy such a jewel’ as Hero, Benedick replies ‘yea, and a case to put it into’. The objectification of Hero as something valuable and desirable (but with no human emotion) is taken further by Benedick; his play upon Claudio’s romantic metaphor is witty but deeply sexist, as he is calling Hero worthless. Whilst a modern audience might see this as derogatory, an Elizabethan audience would have potentially been indifferent; in that age, men were superior; they could be an eligible bachelor, but if they married they would look for a chaste and wealthy wife- talk of ‘buying’ Hero is in a sense quite literal as Claudio would be ‘buying’ into her wealth. On the other hand, Shakespeare hints that this is a façade.
However, Shakespeare presents Benedick’s change in a more positive and light-hearted manner, whilst Macbeth’s change revolves around negativity and wrong-doing as the approach to each individual genre is different, where comedies are humorous and happy, whilst tragedies are gloomy and grief-stricken. INTRO: The opening scene of the play, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, is significant as Shakespeare introduces the genre of the play as a romantic comedy through the comic names given to Benedick and Beatrice by each other. Beatrice nicknames Benedick as “Signor Mountanto”, which uses sexual innuendo expressing their love hate relationship, created by the definition of the word ‘montanto’ (technical term for an upward thrust in fencing). This insulting, but hilarious comment would have only been understood by the Shakespearean audience. Opposing this, Benedick personifies disdain in the form of Beatrice, by calling her “Lady Disdain”, suggesting that she is in fact, the epitome of disdain or contempt.
The characters’ likings change in the play is troubling, where Lysander is intensely in love with Hermia at first and with Helena at another point. “Transparent Helena! Nature shows art that through thy bosom makes me see thy heart” (Shakespeare and Foakes Act II). The aim of the play is not to observe the nature of true love but reasonably to mock misunderstandings that love brings. Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena are destined not to be romantic classics, but somewhat sympathetic figures thrown into perplexing situations of romantic farce.
In Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing, deception is a key theme throughout. There are several main deceptions, beginning with Don John trying to deceive Claudio that the prince woos Hero for himself. When this conniving scheme fails, he embarks on a new master plan, which involves the shaming of Hero at the marriage between her and Claudio. Another key deception, arguably the most important storyline to the play, is the deception of Beatrice and Benedick, who despite their previous feelings about courtly love and romance, gradually begin to fall for each other, under the careful guidance of Don Pedro, Claudio, Hero, Ursula and Leonato. However, throughout the first few scenes, we as the audience are exposed to Beatrice and Benedick’s ‘merry war’ as they exchange witty and sarcastic banter.
This example shows the reader that Aylmer is trying to hide his imperfections by trying to make his wife completely perfect. In the narrative “The Portrait of Dorian Gray,” Lord Henry tempts Dorian to indulge in an immoral lifestyle, carelessly disregarding the feelings of the people he encounter. For example, he seduces a theater perform Sibyl and then soon rejects her. For example, he leads Sibyl into a romantic love and then suddenly tells her to leave his home. Dorian thinks that he can escape from the consequences of his immoral life because the portrait takes the blame for him.
Henry and Roy who both tells a story of their idealistic past, can be grouped together as the ones, who believes in the existence of idealistic love which tends to be fanciful like their own childhood memories. Roy claims that his love is equivalent to “Mozart’s love” which characterises the romance with happy endings. Henry’s depiction of his mother’s devotion has the sense of artificiality, and it’s almost like as if he forces the story upon himself to avoid other alternatives. However unlike Roy Henry understands the contradicting reality in regards to commitment and fidelity “everyone blames women but I forgive them, if they change their love a thousand times a day.. but I think it’s the necessity of women’s heart” Henry is aware and accepts the flaw in the concept of absolute faithfulness. Ruth, who suffers from her inability to distinguish reality from illusion, was a victim of a horrible relationship.
Cassio is simply a handsome, virile man and this makes Othello jealous. Lago’s own wife Emilia is ignorant of his actions, she will do anything he said because she loves him but Iago always uses her rather than treat her as a woman he truly loves. Iago explains that his hatred of Othello is for choosing Cassio as his officer not him as he had expected. However, after Iago has aroused Othello’s suspicions about his wife’s behaviour, Othello becomes inarticulate and ferocious. Also, this is the first time that Othello, not Iago or anyone, just himself been a negative attention to either his nationality or his age, he feels like he is the outsider of them all.
Oscar Wilde’s purpose in writing this passage of the play “The Importance of Being Earnest” is to reveal the idiocy of the emphasis on appearance and rank in Victorian society, which in the case of this passage has led to a fabrication of identity in order to further the character’s interests and allow them to do what they want. Wilde is stating the importance of being true to yourself and to other people, because a lie meant to impress others or to get ahead in society is unsustainable. As illustrated by Oscar Wilde, there is a difference between being funny and being witty. Someone who is witty is “intelligently clever”, whereas someone who is funny is amusing or comical. Wilde uses his wit in order to expose the hypocrisy and artificial nature of his social environment.
Tom likes Daisy not for true love but because she’s makes a good trophy wife. Tom cheats on daisy with Myrtle and he doesn’t care about anyone’s feelings, he doesn’t strive for daisy’s love as he knows that his wealth will keep her. Tom’s money and the lifestyle it offers are what attracts daisy and she is nothing but an object to Tom. Whereas Gatsby longs for Daisy’s love and will do anything to achieve it, this is proved when Daisy kills Myrtle with his car Gatsby loves her so much that he takes the blame for her. Gatsby is a nostalgic person as he says to daisy ‘can’t repeat the past?'...