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Disguise In The Taming Of The Shrew, By William Shakespeare

997 Words4 Pages

Disguise. To change the appearance or guise of or to conceal identity or mislead, as by means of deceptive garb (dictionary.com). The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare, had the concept of disguise and deception as a major factor of the plot. All the characters made decisions of how they wanted to portray themselves, but some characters donned different identities to manipulate others to get what they wanted. Surprisingly, most of the disguises worked effectively. Does this mean Shakespeare was trying to prove that outer bearings are what make the person? Or just the opposite? Through the whirlwind actions of characters in his play, Shakespeare depicts that the true person always show through despite the layers of deception.
“The worst of all deception is self-deception” (Plato). Firstly, the induction started off the play by proving that clothing does not make the man. A lord found a drunken, pudgy man, Christopher Sly, out cold on the floor of a bar and as an experiment, dressed him up in expensive clothes and took him to his (the Lord’s) house and told Sly that he was, in fact, the Lord. Sly believed him. “Am I a lord, and have I such a lady?/ Or do I dream? Or have I dreamed till now?/... Upon my life, I am a lord indeed/ And not a tinker, nor Christopher Sly.” (induction, ii, 21). In this scene everyone has Christopher Sly convinced that he was the Lord, he absolutely believed this because he was wearing lavish clothing and offered exotic foods. To him this

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