well, for the matter of fact all i had to do was make this up and it worked.... i hope. a central motif in the play is trickery or deceit, whether for good or evil purposes. counterfeiting, or concealing one's true feelings, is part of this motif. everyone seems to lie; good characters as well as evil ones engage in deceit as they attempt to conceal their feelings: beatrice and benedick mask their feelings for one another with bitter insults; don john spies on claudio and hero; don pedro and his 'crew' deceive benedick and beatrice. who hides and what is hidden?
Hamlet also uses his intelligence to be rude and impertinent towards Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with the statement which they did not understand: "That I keep my counsel and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge - what replication should be made by the son of a King." (Act four scene II pg 100) The reference to the sponge reflects the fact that
This quote is an example of the nonsense with which Hamlet hopes to persuade others that he is truly mad. However, there is a lot of logic to this particular quote; these words prove that Hamlet is sane. Through these words depicting the points of the compass, the weather, and birds, he is revealing that the times when he appears mad are in fact chosen by him. When he says “I know a hawk from a handsaw” (Hamlet II.ii.378), he means that he can recognize his enemies just fine and that his insanity has a purpose. Hamlet warned Horatio that he was planning to fake madness, but Claudius and the other character have to believe him mad so that he will be safe to carry out his plan of revenge.
Shakespeare and Marlowe use trickery and deception to present their characters with certain qualities. Prospero is presented as powerful and vengeful at the beginning by conjuring the tempest using magic to trick the characters on board. Throughout the play he becomes wiser and leans the values of forgiveness of those who have deceived him. Faustus is a character that is put in the position of power and doesn’t use it for valid purposes. He’s useless tricks display vanity and indicate his wastefulness to the audience.
Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharp as will. My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,” (III.iii.36-40). Claudius opens his soliloquy in a way that almost makes the reader feel sorry for him. A confession of his own immoral behavior to God that stems from a deep conviction. This is proof that Claudius is in a battle within himself.
In the king’s monologue, Shakespeare’s use of antithesis creates a balanced contrast between Claudius’ real thoughts and lies that he is telling to the people. Such literary device not only emphasizes the contradiction in the king’s character but sets the border between the truth and the lie in his speech. When the king starts with the conjunction “though,” the reader can already be aware of the possible context of the second part of the sentence that will be contradicting with the first part. As Claudius talks about his brother, the contrast between the words “death” and “green” creates an effect of revealing Claudius’ insincerity as he talks about his brother. Also, when he talks about Old Hamlet, he does not call him “my brother.” In fact, he uses the first person plural pronoun “our” as if he tries to redeem himself from this connection to his brother.
Some people use their power in a wrong way, and commit crimes because they want even more power that they already have. The blinding act marks a turning point in the play, because some actions like cruelty, betrayal, and even madness may be reversible, but blinding is not. Gloucester reflects the profound despair that drives him to desire his own death, after being blinded by Cornwall and Regan, “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport” (4.1.37–38). More important, he emphasizes one of the play’s principal themes, the question of whether there is justice in the universe. Gloucester’s philosophical musing here offers an outlook of miserable despair, he
Orgon is able to finally see Tartuffe’s lies and hypocrisy, but it is too late as Tartuffe has accused Orgon of wrongdoings to the King. Yet in the end, justice prevails as the King decides to punish Tartuffe instead of Orgon. It is as the King says, “he sees into our inmost hearts/And can't be fooled by any trickster's arts.” The King recognizes that Tartuffe is a liar and schemer
It is due to his feelings, Orgon rejects any logical explanation of actions of Tartuffe, he is absolutely unreasonable in his judgments concerning Tartuffe because he is guided by his emotions and feelings. In stark contrast, Tartuffe perfectly understands the power of emotions over Orgon and he uses this weakness for his own benefits. Even when Damis, the son of Orgon, denounces Tartuffe’s plans to seduce Elmire, the wife of Orgon, Tartuffe effectively uses his reason and plays with religious feelings of Orgon admitting the weakness of his spirit. Overall, this was a very enjoyable play to read and review. I was thoroughly entertained
The Tell-Tale-Heart by Edgar Allen Poe The dissent of madness. It is for a multitude of reasons it is easy to decide that the narrator in Poe’s The Tell-Tale-Heart is a completely and utterly unreliable narrator. Any and all excuses he makes for himself are truly a joke, in that his madness is not only blatant (to any sane person),but his denial of his own madness is what makes his story and perception of the facts of the event unreliable. The narrator opens his rambling attempting to convince the reader that he is not mad but sharp witted. “TRUE!-NERVOUS-VERY, VERY dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?