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The State Of Lying By William Shakespeare

Decent Essays

The state of lying is a convincing art that not many people can pull off effectively. There are different factors that have to be taken into account in order to consider something as a good lie. In a text, 3 factors that make up a convincing lie are the character and their traits, the situation involved and how persuasive they are. Speech is a thing of beauty as it can be manipulated in many ways to get people to believe you. A character’s traits allow a person to observe their behavior and how they are able to manipulate the language. Odysseus is able to use his cunning to manipulate the language into his favor making the suitors believe that he is indeed a beggar. It’s his traits of being wise and cunning that allows the suitors to fall …show more content…

The person’s ability to sway the language in their way against their opponent allows them to manipulate their minds. There are always liars throughout many texts but what separate them from the exceptional liars are these factors. A character is often considered strong or weak based on the language and behavior during the epic or story. That same language along with the person’s traits, can determine whether that character is a great liar or not. In the Odyssey, Odysseus goes to great lengths to lie and deceive the suitors into thinking he’s a beggar. During the fight against the beggar Odysseus downplays the whole situation by stating “Friends, how can an old man, worn down with pain, stand to a young buck? Its just this belly of mine, this troublemaker, tempts to take a licking.”(Od.377.60-63). Odysseus’ lie sets up how shrewd he is, allowing the beggar king to believe that he could take on Odysseus with ease. Odysseus uses his wisdom brilliantly by trying to obtain some sympathy making him fight someone who is beyond younger then he is. Odysseus knows his character and how wise he is which allows him to use that to his advantage. He uses his physical appearance as a beggar to convince the suitors of how poor he was that he needed to beg. Another character who uses their traits to their advantage is the daughter of Zeus, Helen. Helen, who is the wife of King Menelaus, is the main point as to why the Trojan war even begun. Her disappearance caused King Menelaus

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