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? how does deceit function in the world of the play, and how does it help the play comment on life in
Hamlet: Sanely Ingenious or Genuinely Insane? Sanity, Insanity or feigning madness. William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the price of Denmark, has always been interpreted in numerous ways; whether he is mad or pretending to be so. After reading Shakespeare's Hamlet we all have this question in our minds and wondering about the true personality of Hamlet, was he actually going mad because of all what he faced? Or was it only a plan to achieve his revenge from his uncle?
Hamlet’s feigned madness The greatest debate about Shakespeare’s Hamlet is whether Hamlet was faking his madness or not. A person who is insane does acts of extreme foolishness or irrationality while being unaware that he or she is performing such out of the box acts. Hamlet could not have possibly been insane as there is evidence throughout the play that he can control his actions and choose the moments when his ‘madness’ appears. Hamlet uses this “antic disposition” (Hamlet I.v.172) to throw off the other character such as Polonius and Claudius and gain the upper hand in the grand scheme of things. If it weren’t for Hamlet’s supposed insanity then the King would have seen that Hamlet knew the truth about the old King’s murder and would have had him dealt with immediately.
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.
This, to the audience, will seem ridiculous and unnecessary creating a subtle sense of humour. Nearing the end of Act 2 we learn about Viola’s plans for her disguise in order to appear less vulnerable. She then goes on to say ‘thou shalt present me as an Eunuch to him’ which will yet again appear an overdramatic act to the audience. In act 3, Sir Toby Belch is introduced into the play. Shakespeare’s wit and word play used even for simply just the names of the characters can build up laughter.
/ Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.” (IV.iv.20-23). This proves the influence Lady Macbeth had on him, for him to be so altered and uncaring at the end of the play is merely the result of all the pressure and mental abuse she put on him while convincing him to become so destructive and
Much Ado about Nothing was written by William Shakespeare as a comedy, but it could have very well been turned into a tragedy comparable to Othello. In Othello, Desdemona becomes a leading part of Iago’s plot to take down Othello for not giving Iago the job that he wanted. At first Iago insinuates and makes innuendos to Othello that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio, and Othello doesn’t believe Iago. Othello says “Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore, Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof; or, by the worth of mine eternal soul, thou hadst been better have been born a dog than answer my wak’d wrath”(3.3.360-364). Desdemona accidentally drops a handkerchief that Othello had given her.
He insults Polonius calling him a Whore-Monger. After this exchange Polonius remarks “Though this be madness, yet there is method in't” (II, II, 204). Meaning that Hamlet could be mad but that there seems to be intent behind his madness. When Rozencranz and Guildenstern visit Hamlet he receives them kindly until he learns they are spying for his mother. He then increases his feigned madness.
Many of Shakespeare’s characters in “Macbeth” were complete hypocrites; they manipulated and tricked innocent others into believing that they were friends and then killed them. This play demonstrates that people are not always what they appear to be on the outside and not everyone can or should be trusted. The people that you may think are your closest and dearest friends may turn out to be your biggest enemy. Lady Macbeth is an extremely hypocritical and manipulative character. She may very well be the underlying cause of all evil in the play; she tricked King Duncan, used her husband, and made her guests believe that, rather than feeling guilty for his crime, Macbeth was sick.
In the book Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, the entire plot of the play stems from multiple tricks that characters play on each other. Shakespeare is suggesting that tricking people is not right or wrong, for the outcome of the tricks can be beneficial or destructive, or just plain harmless. One example of how deception might be bad is when Don John, bitter about being the “backup Prince,” used trickery to get revenge. When he learned about Claudio’s feelings for Hero and their plan to marry, he was provided with great opportunity to strike everybody at once. Don John decided to spoil Claudio’s love for Hero and sabotage their marriage.