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
The murder was driven by lust for the queen and also a desire for power, two factors which remain with the king until the final moments in the play. “Mine crown, mine own ambition and my queen. Can one be pardon’d and retain the offence?” Claudius’ deceiving nature is central to the plot of the play, and is the catalyst for the betrayal of many other characters, such as Polonius, Hamlet and Laertes. Hamlet himself is not immune to corruption, and he himself deceives those around him in his actions and in his words. Following the revelation from the Ghost, Hamlet assumes an “antic disposition”, in order to distract those surrounding him from his suspicious behaviour.
Hamlet in his first soliloquy demonstrates his disgust that his mother has allied herself in love and in politics with her late husband’s brother, so soon after his death, “frailty, thy name is woman... to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets”. Claudius is clearly established as the villain in Hamlet, murdering his own brother and then plotting to kill Hamlet. He lies and is deceitful toying with the notion that the appearance of things is not their reality. The audience is privy to the ‘reality’ of Claudius ‘deed’, and of his guilt, through an aside, climactically stating, “then is my deed to my most painted word. O heavy burden!”.
In Shakespeare’s play, “Othello”, the character Iago is no different from those characteristics deceptive individuals. Behind his facade as a trustworthy ensign and friends, Iago multilayered, deceptive and manipulative villain, concocting chaos and causing mishaps to other characters for revenge. Iago uses his deft and astute strategic acts of manipulation to undermine each character’s weaknesses. He exploits Roderigo’s love for Desdemona, Cassio under the guise of friendships, and toys with Othello’s mind by playing on his self-doubt. Evidently, Iago manipulates the people around him by using their weaknesses, Roderigo’s naivete, Cassio’s trusting nature, and Othello’s insecurity, against them.
When inquiring how he could do this Don John describes what he wants as ‘the death of this marriage’ and in reply Borachio, his accomplice, says they will ‘misuse the Prince’, ‘vex Claudio’, ‘undo Hero’ and ‘kill Leonato.’ Although their words are not literal and they’re not really going to ‘kill’ Leonato, using words such as ‘death’ give very negative connotations and make the character sound like the villain he is. When Don Pedro plots to trick Benedick and Beatrice to fall in love with each other he tells Hero that ‘I will teach you how to humour your cousin that she fall in love with Benedick’. Don Pedro uses the word ‘humour’ and in doing so makes his deceptions sound more light-hearted and harmless.
Starting with Professional jealousy. This is a type of jealousy that is shown towards the beginning of the play when Shakespeare writes how Iago is jealous of the character of Michael Cassio in his soliloquy “In personal suit to make me his lieutenant … One Michael Cassio a Florentine. A fellow most damned in a fair wife that never set a squadron in the field.” Shakespeare let Iago have this line so he could show a fury of being beaten to a position a person would have thought was theirs by a man with no experience but was learned. However, it seems as though all professional jealousy seems to revolve around the character of Michael Cassio, but once again it comes from the character of Iago. Shakespeare uses Iago as the character that is gifted with the art of persuasion and deception as Shakespeare has allowed him to deceive the gullible character of Roderigo.
This is some of the proof in the text of Romeo’s impulsiveness. Romeo and Juliet display Romeo’s ill made decisions when Romeo consumed in anger and grief kills Tybalt. Rather than letting the law deal with the murder of Mercutio he takes matters into his own hands and engages Tybalt in a fight killing him in the heat of battle. “Now, Tybalt, take the “villain” back again, / That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul/” (3.1.125-126). This exclamation shows Romeo’s ill made decision making in a time of grief.
As the play progresses, it is evident that Macbeth is tempted by the witches and has become evil by the catalyst of their powers. The reader recognizes the mental weakness Macbeth really has even though he has power in ambition. The varying points of view of a play give the author more power for audience to become involved with the actions on stage. For example, Macbeth in one of his soliloquies says whole heartedly, "I am his kinsman and his subject," about the thoughts of killing Duncan only to be later plauged by vision of "thy blade and dudgeons gouts of blood." This first person point of view allows the audience to know Macbeth's thoughts that no other character in the play can.
Act three scene two, Macbeth is telling Lady Macbeth of another dirty deed he is thinking to precede. He expresses his fear of having Banquo and his sons in his way of becoming king. He tells Lady Macbeth not to worry until the deed is done, for he has
Upon Malvolio’s entrance in Act II Scene V, Sir Toby states “here’s an overweening rogue!” (Act 2, scene 5, line 27) after plotting with Fabian and Maria to punish Malvolio, referring to him as a “little villain” (Act 2, scene 5, line 12). Upon his entrance in the scene, Malvolio states his ambitions for nobility, “To be Count Malvolio!’ (Act 2, scene 5, line 32) to the group. The disdain the other characters have for Malvolio throughout the play is only met with vanity, hubris and patronizing comments on Malvolio’s part, doing very little to conjure any remorse for the character following his downfall later in the play. Malvolio opposes the fun and festivities of the “Twelfth Night” and chastises the characters in the play several times for their celebrations. Malvolio questions their actions in the form of patronizing dialogue by asking “My masters,