William Shakespeare 's Most Beloved And Performed Works

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.

In the play, The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare, there is a recurring theme of people hiding their real identity. First, there are cases of deception, such as Tranio pretending to be Lucentio, Lucentio pretending to be a Latin tutor, Hortensio pretending to be a music tutor. More complex than these obvious examples of deception are Shakespeare’s clever uses of psychological masks. Several characters in the play take on roles that do not agree with their personalities. The psychological masks that they wear are not immediately apparent to the audience, or even to the characters themselves, until they are unmasked through the course of the play. Shakespeare mostly uses this device with the characters of Katherina, Bianca,

I think Hamlet by using his mad façade hides his real intentions and motivations from his enemies and people that will give away information,

“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 Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a selfish Scottish thane becomes over-ambitious and commits several murders in order to gain and stay in power. After the murders, Macbeth evades suspicion by hiding his guilt and intentions, therefore deceiving others into thinking that he is innocent. Other characters including Lady Macbeth, the witches and the Scottish thanes also use their appearances to hide the truth and deceive others. With these examples, Shakespeare shows that appearances can be deceiving.

2016: Many works of literature contain a character who intentionally deceives others. The character’s dishonesty may be intended either to help or to hurt. Such a character, for example, may choose to mislead others for personal safety, to spare someone’s feelings, or to carry out a crime. Choose a novel or play in which a character deceives others. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the motives for that character’s deception and discuss how the deception contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

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

As Claudius is appearing to be the honorable judge of this duel, in reality he is the mastermind behind the whole thing. The plan to use the poisoned sword and the poisoned wine is the perfect example at how Claudius deceives and manipulates, which ends up in his death at the end of the play.

One must always be weary of the truth because it is quite often manipulated to serve the needs of any person who requires that the truth be on their side. Quite often, the only way to discern the truth from the fiction is by way of a deceptive act, because an act of deception always exposes both its self and the truth to be two quite different things. Nowhere is this more true than in William Shakespeare's, Hamlet. One of the major themes in the play is in fact, deception. This central theme is expressed throughout the play in three major forms: the fear of being deceived, the act of deception, and the ultimate result of the deceptive act. The first facet of the deceptive

Claudius is devout to his country. He cares for the people of Denmark. His only desire is to maintain complete control and will avoid any confrontation that could possible jeopardize his status as king. He uses diplomacy to diffuse any issues rather than violence. For example he sent a letter to the uncle of Fortinbras requesting that he stop the army of Young Fortinbras that plans to attack Denmark. Claudius would much rather celebrate gaily about his succession to the throne: “The king doth wake tonight and take his rouse.” (1.4.9)

Throughout time the act of accepting the truth has been a struggle for several thousands of generations, these struggles have formed something that we know now as deception. The subtlety of deception has been inserted into characters traits and plots to add depth and characters in all sorts of literature. To add a certain depth and mystery to plays, novels, movies, and other forms of entertainment, characters would use deception to add a sense of ambiguity to their works. These literary techniques have been used for decades, in fact in biblical times it was used to teach and highlight the significance of truth and total honesty as supposed to lies and deceit. Over the course of his life Shakespeare has created several plays that emphasized the impact and importance of deception.

Deceit is explored through Hamlet's antic disposition, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's attempt to reveal information about Hamlet to the king. While, secrecy is explored through the king's undisclosed

Deception and disguise are two key themes in Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'. As in most comedies, Twelfth Night celebrates different forms of disguise and deception in order to make the play more entertaining. It also develops a strong connection between the main plot (with Viola, Orsino, Olivia, and the others) and the sub-plot (involving Sir Andrew, Sir Toby, Malvolio, and Maria). Disguise and deception appear in many different ways throughout the story.

Deceit and lies are rampant in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet. It can be seen in the characters’ actions and words, as well as what they fail to say and do. It comes in various types of relationships -- between husband and wife, parent and child, siblings, and between lovers. Nearly every character in the play either deliberately spins a web of their own lies, uses another person for their trickery, or is used in another person’s deceitful plot. Each has different motives for their deceit -- to maintain power, to achieve their goals, to attain vengeance, or simply because it is necessary to function in this twisted society -- but all of them face a tragic ending no matter their initial intentions. In this play, deceit is so uncontrolled, intertwined, and multidimensional that it becomes impossible for either the characters or audience to ascertain what is true.

Disguise in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night has many purposes. Even though disguising one's gender is a common theme in Shakespeare, some say it is instates bonding and allows a way for it to happen. It is known that it is used as a necessity for survival. In Twelfth Night, Disguise and Identity is shown in feelings, appearances and decisions. Disguise is an occasionally seen force which drives one’s mind into believing in something unrealistic. Disguise and Identity get mixed up which causes confusion. Both factors are compared in the meaning of Truth.