The next two acts of trickery are two of the most important scenes in the play- the overhearing scenes. Leonato, Don Pedro and Claudio- with full knowledge that Benedick is in earshot, have a ‘very loud’ conversation about how Beatrice was deeply in love with Benedick. Benedick would not have believed in this deception were it not for the fact that Leonato was participating, because he knew that Don Leonato was mature enough not to joke about those kinds of matters. When Hero, Margaret and Ursula play the same trick on Beatrice, “My talk to thee must be of how Benedick is sick in love with Beatrice…” Is what Hero says to her gentle-women. In saying that Benedick is head-over-heels for her, they make sure to include the fact that Benedick would never tell of his love.
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?
Optical illusion and misconception are tools that are used to mask the truth and enhance a story. In “The Ways We Lie”, by Stephanie Ericsson, she touches on how individuals in society often fabricate the truth in order to achieve a good sense of life. In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, fabricating the truth plays a prominent role in this drama and is continuously shown through the actions of Guildenstern, Claudius and Hamlet. These characters use dishonesty not only to create suspense in the play but also to create suspense in their every day lives. Guildenstern’s sympathetic needs are often confused with his sense of anger and wickedness.
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.
This provides the audience with a little more humor in the plot. The main form of deception that happens between them is by neither of their doing. The plan is harbored by Don Pedro and his men. The men speak amongst themselves of Beatrice’s love for Benedict knowing that he is nearby listening in. Hero and the other women do the same thing to Beatrice while she is standing nearby.
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.
The use of slapstick by Wilde produces a contrived and absurd plotline that is in every way unrealistic. The lack of morality in the characters defines how undeveloped they are. For example, Algernon uses the aphorism, "The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain" highlighting his ignorance and casual selfishness. Each one of the characters is in some way lacking either true morality or even awareness of reality. Gwendolyn in particular is fond and proud of her education yet in the end she easily forgives Jack for lying to her throughout the play underlying a sense of stupidity.
Cherry seems to become more nutty when she falls for Lewis. But that’s what the audience wants to see, the normality of people turning mad because of love. Nowra is trying to cut out the fact that these people are really insane and hid it with the fact that love is what is important in this play, for people to understand that love makes you mad whether you are or not. As Julie says ‘Love is hallucinating without the
He talks to himself about many things, but the main theme is theduality in any situation, meaning how something bad can so easily be turnedto good, and vice versa. While he seems to be focusing his entire speech tohimself on this idea, Friar Lawrence so easily contradicts it only a fewscenes later, when he marries Romeo and Juliet. By marrying the youngcouple, Friar Lawrence is not even following his own ideas, because eventhough marrying Romeo and Juliet is a good act, doing it so hastily makes it abad one. This ties in to another, closely related one of Friar Lawrence’sideas, which is that a good action done in a bad way can form a bad action, ashe says: “Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied…” (II.ii.17). This againshows that the good act of marrying Romeo and Juliet, if done wrong bydoing it too quickly, can become bad act.
He is saying that is might not be wise for loving him, but he swears it won’t be stupid for he is going to be “horribly” in love with her. The word choice of “horribly” emphasizes a sense of awkwardness because he doesn’t know the first thing when it comes to love. It also gives a bit of that comical side to Benedick’s character, even in the name of love, he still can’t forget about the competition between him and Beatrice.