The Themes Of Deception In William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

“Hamlet” and “Twelfth Night” are two Shakespeare plays of complete opposites. Due to one being written as a tragedy, and the other as a comedy, many comparisons can be drawn between the two plays, on themes and motifs that develop throughout the plays. One of the themes that is easily recognisable in the early stages of both plays, is that of deceit and disguise. In “Hamlet”, we learn early on that Hamlet decides to act as a madman in order to try and weed out a confession from his uncle about the murder of his father. Although he does not actually reveal to any other characters his plan until Act 1 Scene 5, when he tells Horatio that he plans to “put an antic disposition on”, the audience can recognise very early that Hamlet is going to show some kind of deceptive characteristics in order to execute his plan.

In William Shakespeare's comedic play, Twelfth Night, a recurring theme is deception. The characters in the play used deception for a variety of purposes. Viola's use of deception involves her disguising herself as a man in order to obtain a job with the Duke of Illyria, Orsino. On the other hand, Maria, Olivia's servant, writes a letter to Malvolio in Olivia's handwriting to make Malvolio act foolishly because of his love for Olivia. While some use deception as a means of survival, others use deception to trick others and make them act foolishly.

Romantic desire is struggle ingrained within William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, strained by the nature of homosexual love. The depths of human sexuality are explored in Twelfth Night through the relationships between Duke Orsino and Viola as Cesario, Olivia and Viola, and Sebastian and Antonio. Twelfth Night represents homoerotic love in both radical and conservative ways, while furthermore questioning the boundaries of gender and disguise depicted by the relationships featured in the play. Shakespeare’s work is profound, since the play acknowledges homosexual love without punishment, and challenges if love is truly determined by gender, while also upholding

Different types of love and marriage play a significant role in Shakespeare’s twelfth night, whether unrequited like with Antonio and Malvolio; or something seemingly unattainable like with Duke Orsino. Love is prevalent as one of Shakespeare's central theme emphasized in the Twelfth Night. With that, we see Shakespeare communicate different interpretations and feelings regarding the subject. He does this with the medium of melodramatic characters. However, this essay will solely elaborate on the character Duke Orsino and his exploration of love. Through Orsino’s actions, Shakespeare conveys several messages still applicable today, some of which are about the fine line between superficial love and genuine love, love's incoherency, and love's

Character deception in The Taming of the Shrew is used largely, and Lucentio one of the main characters in the play uses deception throughout some of the first few acts. Lucentio, upon seeing the beauty of Bianca ‘falls in love at first sight’ and wishes to conjure a plan to woo her. Tranio (Lucentio’s best-friend) assists

In William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, love as the cause of suffering is one of the most prominent theme of the story. Even though this play ends in love and wedded bliss, Shakespeare also shows us that love can also cause pain. The characters often view love as a curse, something that is thrust upon you and you cannot easily or willing escape. Examples include Malvolio’s love for Olivia, the love triangle between Olivia, Duke Orsino, and Viola as Cesario, and Antonio’s crush on Sebastian. There are countless occasions where unrequited love for another results in heartbreak and sorrow.

In William Shakespeare 's play 1 Henry IV, deception is a recurring theme. Main characters King Henry IV, Hotspur and Prince Hal deceived people to benefit themselves. Were these characters deceiving their subordinates to gain power or were their choices and actions political strategy geared toward gaining honor and maintaining the well-being of the nation? All three main characters deceive people to gain power which can be seen as an act of malice and disloyalty but also as a political strategy. King Henry deceives King Richard II into believing that he is on his side while he is secretly planning a rebellion, Hotspur does the same to King Henry by deceiving him into thinking that he is on his side while also secretly planning a rebellion and Prince Hal deceives the kingdom’s people into thinking he is this wild child so they will be more impressed with him when he becomes the mature prince and adequate potential leader he was expected to be all along. All of this deception brings up the question, do the characters use deception purely for their own benefit or for the benefit of the greater good? Shakespeare 's use of deception for power shows these three characters true intentions, for King Henry IV deception is used to gain power to benefit the kingdom while on the other hand, for Hotspur deception is used to gain power for his own benefit and the benefit of his family while in Prince Hal’s complicated case, deception is used both for his own benefit and ultimately the

Malvolio’s lack of self-criticism or self-awareness makes him vulnerable to Maria's plan to ridicule him.

Much of the first half of the Twelfth Night is about disguised identities and general misconceptions about who is actually who. The play opens on a note of melancholy and death, Orsino grieving because Olivia refuses to love him and Viola and Olivia mourning the deaths of their brothers. It is following a shipwreck that Viola disguises herself as a male, ensuring that confusion will be part of the plot. The idea of masquerading as a member of the opposite sex is a familiar device and the “complications, artificial as they may appear, are an essential part of the play’s complete development.” (Travers 308) It is interesting to note that unlike other comedies such as “The Tempest”, Shakespeare does not create an older generation who prevent the young lovers from being together; instead it is the perplexity about gender and that keeps them apart. Sebastian, Viola’s identical twin, is the solution to all of the problems, though his appearance does add to it for a short while. Viola, dressed as Cesario, is mistaken for Sebastian by Antonio, and is asked for the money that he gave to Sebastian. However, this type of confusion adds to the comic nature of the plot as the audience is aware of the concealed identities. Order eventually comes from the chaos, disguises are shed and identities are revealed. The appearance of Sebastian ensures that the marriage will be possible for the main characters; Viola is free to marry Orsino and Olivia marries Sebastian, although she

Almost notably, the perception of madness and spying plays the most influential role in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. However, when looking closely at the play, it can be argued that the central theme of this tragedy is acting. How Shakespeare presents and lays out the actors and acting makes it a framework for madness and spying. Shakespeare points out the theme of in the dissimilarities of his characters, the deceits that individuals take for granted and the presentation of the `play within a play '. This intertwined deception allows certain characters to manipulate the actions and thoughts of others such as Hamlet does. This tragedy is one great puppet show, "I could see the puppets dallying". (Act III, scene II).

In our adaptation of Twelfth Night by Shakespeare, The Catch a Catfish miniseries we used the same plot and theme of deception and identity fraud we saw in the play. How we adapted this was having Omar showing his love towards Liv but it does not go as he has planned so he decides to get one of his friends Violet to pose as a her twin brother who is off at college to woo Liv to get back at her for dumping him. After Violet transforms into her brother for the prank and things start getting intense between the two we have Toby, Olivia’s cousin looking into the situation and begins to think something is weird about the whole scenario so he decides to call Catfish the show to figure out whether his cousin is getting pranked or not. After several

In Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night or What you Will, the characters are involved in a plot complete with trickery, disguise, and love. Each character is defined not by his or her gender or true identity, but by the role they are forced to take because of the complicated situation that arises. Unlike their gender, the speech the characters give an insight to their true personalities. In the Twelfth Night, the character Duke Orsino uses flowery and over-dramatic language, long poetic sentence structure, and melodramatic metaphors to display his overemotional romantic nature despite the different emotions in his various speeches.

Comedy, in the Elizabethan era, often included themes of wit, mistaken identity, love, and tragedy, all tied up with a happy ending. These themes are prevalent in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, a comical play that explores the pangs of unrequited love and the confusion of gender. Love is a powerful emotion that causes suffering, happiness, and disorder throughout the play. The play also demonstrates the blurred lines of gender identity, which ties into the modern day debate on sexuality and gender identity. The main characters in the play, Viola, Olivia, and Orsino are connected by a love triangle, each person pursuing an unrequited love. Suffering from love and the fluidity of gender are the prevalent themes explored throughout the play and intertwined with Viola, Olivia, and Orsino.

Twelfth Night or What You Will is one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies. It has been performed hundreds of times and adapted into a number of modern films. The main plot of the play follows Viola, a girl who is rescued from a shipwreck and enters into the service of the Duke Orsino disguised as a man. Rising quickly in his estimation, Viola begins delivering messages of love on his behalf to Olivia, a noble woman who has no interest in Orsino’s advances. Over the course of the play Olivia falls in love with the disguised Viola, Viola falls in love with Orsino, and Viola’s twin brother Sebastian, who supposedly died in the shipwreck, returns. Following Sebastian’s return the twins are mistaken for each other, leading to both

Maria and the conspirators decide to mislead Malvolio into thinking that Olivia is in love with him. Maria decides to lead him on by writing a letter, but means to be from Olivia. This love letter is meant to instruct Malvolio to do actions that Olivia despises. Maria is able to mislead Malvolio because she has the same print and seal as Olivia. Shakespeare is able to trick the characters and create many portrayals of them.