Deception in Shakespeare's Othello Essay

Deception is defined as “the act of tricking someone by telling them something that is not true”. In the play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, deception is always present and things are not always what they appear to be. In this great work of literature, the three witches; the Thane of Cawdor; and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are the very embodiments of trickery and show us the true effects deception can have on man.

     One may readily perceive the theme of Shakespeare’s “Othello” as deception. Deception appears many times in Othello, but in almost every incident the degree of deception is different. Deception is to “deceive another, illusion, or fraud” (Webster’s New World Pocket Dictionary 69), which is seen as a wrongful act. However, deception may be used to protect someone from getting hurt therefore being used with good intentions.

Deception is defined as a crafty procedure or practice meant to deceive or defraud. People tend to view this as a sinister action. No matter how sinister it can be, it can also be utilized to gain information and knowledge. How a person uses deception varies among different people. Generally, the more clever people tend to utilize deception very efficiently. Odysseus masters deception in the Odyssey by disguising himself. Odysseus isn't alone for Athena also uses disguises. With that being said, disguises allow Odysseus to succeed in killing the suitors.

Deception is defined as a misleading falsehood. One is usually deceitful when there is a need to conceal the truth, or create a scheme to reveal the truth. This statement can be applied to the play Hamlet, where Shakespeare creates a society that is built upon deceit. Each character in the play experiences or enacts on some form of deceit in order to expose the truth or obscure the truth. There are no characters in the play that feel the need to be straightforward and seek the truth. As a result, the characters feel the need to continually be deceitful to cover up their past errors. Shakespeare displays various examples of deceit in the play such as dishonesty, antic disposition and betrayal. Through these forms of deceit, Shakespeare

"Deceiving: To mislead by false appearancec or statement; delude," according to dictionary.com. There are a few manipulative characters in the play that can easily be described as deceiving, but I believe Hamlet takes the cake for this title. After the ghost of his dad tells him how he died, Hamlet becomes increasingly paranoid and even goes out of his way to plot revenge. In order to go through with his plan, he had to pretend he was "insane" so they wouldn't get suspicious of his behaivour. Another example would be the play he put on to see if King Claudius was guilty of murder. When introducing the play to the Queen and King, they were very happy to see improvement in him, they were not told of the contents of the play and were unaware of what was going to happen.

Deception is the act of deceiving; it takes the shape of an underlying theme in each of the texts. It is a common occurrence in literature such as Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘On Chesil beach’ but in almost every incident, the degree of deception is different. Deception is performed by all characters to different extents and purposes, depending on the context of the situation. Othello displays deception between colleagues, whereby Iago uses deceit to cause carnage in the lives of his associates. Tennessee Williams illustrates deception within a family in his play A Streetcar Named Desire, as the main protagonist Blanche, lies to her own family about her sinful past. Finally, Deception is conveyed in Ian McEwan’s

As much as humans want to believe and trust others, hesitation occurs due (to) a certain act called deception. All humans have the ability to be deceptive, although some more than others, there are too many who become a victim as a consequence of metaphorical blindness. In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, blindness to the truth results from the antagonist’s acts of deception derived from desire and jealousy which ultimately leads to the death of several innocents. Iago uses his desire for the lieutenant designation to create his acts of revenge which consequences in a very severe manner in Venice and Cyprus. As a machiavellian villain, he

In the play, evil intentions destroy what we know of a pure heart as well as trust and genuine honesty by this falsehearted deception. The agony of the tragic play is captured in a nutshell when Othello admits to Desdemona “when I love thee not/chaos is come again.” There is some misunderstanding of tragedy of love between the two characters. Trust is misplaced, honesty smeared out and finally, lives are ruined by denigrating fabrications and outright lies (Lupu, Jeffrey and Westmaas-Jones 12). The tragic cautionary of Shakespeare offers a supreme warning over jealousy which is referred as “the green eyed monster with doth mock the meat it feeds on.”

Her silence causes Othello to become in rage with his wife this leads us to believe that Emilia is a liar. Although Emilia doesn’t intentionally lie to Desdemona she fails to tell her that she took the handkerchief as a token to win praise from Iago. This causes conflict between Desdemona and Othello just as it is the reason for Othello’s jealousy.

To deceive is to give the impression that you have good intent to a person, but in reality want to harm them. Zaroff deceives multiple people throughout the story. Rainsford, the protagonist, is deceived into thinking that Zaroff is a kind, welcoming man. Zaroff gives Rainsford a room and a feast after he washes up onshore, but Zaroff was simply baiting Rainsford so he

The relationship of the characters in Othello are shaped by the theme of truth and lies. Othello has trouble believing in his relationship with Desdemona because he considers too many outside opinions. Iago is the center of creating manipulations to alter the truth of the actual information. Therefore, Othello questions his fidelity with Desdemona because Iago plants different information to manipulate Othello’s mind and ultimately disrupt his relationship. According to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Othello wishes to excuse himself—to excuse himself by accusing” (151). Othello has others easily influence his decisions, in which he is incapable of trusting himself. Needless to say, Othello finds it easier to accuse Desdemona of her wrongdoings and for being unfaithful; he does not question Iago’s creditability. In addition, the theme of truth and lies arise from Othello’s inability to understand himself, so Othello initially has Iago dictate. For that reason, Iago is able to tell Othello anything, knowing that Othello does not question him. However, Othello does not see that Iago manipulates him, and Iago’s lies are perceived as the truth, as it contradicts what Desdemona says.

In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, illusions are formed by the lies and deception of the characters throughout the play. Many times, their words and actions are different from their true thoughts. For example, Hamlet deceives his mother by calling her weak and Claudius deceives Hamlet with fatherly affections. Also, Hamlet agrees to accept the marriage of Claudius and Gertrude, but in reality he wants to prove that Claudius is a murderer. Finally, Hamlet acts mad and cruel to his girlfriend Ophelia, when in reality he deeply loves her.

The play “Othello” by William Shakespeare was written in 1604 during the Elizabeth era. Othello is one of the most extraordinary characters in all of Shakespeare’s dramas. He enjoyed unheralded success in the combat zone, which gave him the reputation as one of Venice’s most competent generals. Even though he has great success in the battlefield, he has a dramatic flaw that causes a downfall in his life. The dramatic flaw that causes his downfall is jealousy. This was brought on by a simple persuasion of Iago, the evil character in the play. Even though Iago used extreme manipulation to get Othello to be jealous, Iago did not really have to try very hard to get Othello in a jealous state of mind. Othello was blinded by his jealousy which

For all the dangers and encounters he has been involved in, Othello is still naive when it comes to the corruptness of other people. Othello has a trusting nature in which he gives it all. He put all his trust in Iago during times of war and during his marriage to Desdemona. Everyone considered Iago to be honest, and it would be simply unspeakable for Othello to believe any differently. For example, Othello had told Duke: "So please your grace, my ancient; a man he is of honesty and trust. To his conveyance I assign my wife, with what else needful your good grace shall think, To be sent after me" (I, iii, lines 306-310). Even if Othello were not as trusting or corrupt, he still would not realize Iago was lying.

Othello is a very honorable man with a humble and trusting disposition, despite other character’s varying perceptions of him. When faced with accusations of coercion from Brabantio he remained calm, which is shown through his lack of stuttering and nervous ticks when he spoke. He even admitted to his own faults before the Duke: “Rude am I in my speech, and little blessed with the soft phrase of peace … and little of this great world can I speak more than pertain to feats of broil and battle.” Othello’s ability to admit to his own shortcomings while being accused of drugging his wife revealed his complete trust in both his innocence and the Duke. If he had truly harmed Desdemona he would be wary of revealing any negative aspects of his person.