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Taming Of The Shrew And Richard IIi Essay

Decent Essays
A dissembler is described by OED as someone who “dissembles; one who conceals his real purposes under a false appearance; one who practises duplicity; a deceiver; a hypocrite.” As such, the art of dissembling is a prominent concept in many of Shakespeare’s plays, particularly in Taming of the Shrew and Richard III. In these plays, the art of dissembling plays a pivotal part in the characters of each play; albeit, their execution varies from each other. Foremost, in Taming of the Shrew, whilst most of the characters are arguably considered as dissemblers, the most prominent one is Petruccio. As a dissembler, Petruccio uses language as a means to conceal his purpose and achieve his means – marrying a rich woman (and in this case, Kate) and eventually ‘taming’ her. He demonstrates his skill of dissembling when he expresses his desire of marrying Kate. Another example of a mastermind dissembler is Richard Gloucester in Richard III. In the play, Richard, similar to Petruccio, uses language to hide his true nature and achieve his goal of becoming the next king; his dissembling nature is evident in his. From these two dissemblers of Shakespeare’s plays, they demonstrate on how language is used as their tool of dissemblers and how powerful a tool it is in achieving one’s means. Foremost, in Taming of the Shrew, upon first meeting Petruccio, he declares to his colleagues on how “wealth is burden of [his] wooing dance” (1.2.65) and this is regardless of her personality. In this
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