Examine the use of disguise, deceit and imagery in ‘The Taming of the Shrew'.
...dentity surfaces. TRANIO: “Sir, what are you that offer to beat my servant? VINCENTIO: “What am I sir? Nay, what are you, sir? Oh immortal gods! (Act V Scene 1, lines 56-57) Together, they deceive the whole Paduan community by faking their real identities; their only moral justification in doing so is in the name of love, excepting the Lords excuse, which is clearly immoral and unjustified. Lucentio and Tranio not only deceive Baptista and the whole Pauduan community, but they even betray their friend Biondello, saying that they have exchanged identities for good reason. They tell a pack of lies of how Lucentio killed a man in a duel upon arriving in Padua and must protect his identity this way. LUCENTIO: “I killed a man” (Act 1 Scene 1, line 231) …“Tranio here, to save my life, Puts my apparel and countenance on” (Act 1 Scene 1, line 227) Biondello believes them and agrees to keep their secret of lies, continuing the deceit throughout the play. From this we can see that Shakespeare highlights the theme of trust within society and how easily it is to lie to one another, he also looks at how we manipulate others to help our own devious actions. This is depicted in how Biondello is gullible from being persuaded to follow Lucentio’s plan, even though he is unaware of being deceived himself. Shakespeare raises the question as to whether we should have any trust in those that are deceiving others, because they could just as easily deceive us too. The competition between Bianca’s suitors continues as Hortensio reveals his plan to Petruchio. He also deceives everyone just like Lucentio and Tranio, assuming the disguise of a music teacher. HORTENSIO: “offer me disguis’d in sober robes, To old Baptista as a schoolmaster, Well seen in music, to instruct Bianca” (Act 1 Scene 2, lines 131-133) He does this so that he may live behind the walls of Baptista's house and be close to Bianca, as well as Lucentio. His plan is almost identical to that of Lucentio's. The similarities between Hortensio and Lucentio show that we, as emotional beings driven by lust, are quite willing to deceive, backstab and lie to achieve requited love. Shakespeare also shows us that are one failure is our lack of individuality; being creative enough to find another solution to get what we want other than hurting others will prove our worthiness for love. Returning to the main storyline, the taming of Kate, Petruchio is planning to woo her no matter what it takes. He says he will use lies by telling her that she is beautiful when she is not and will contradict her every word. PETRUCIO:“Say that she rail, why then I’ll tell her plain She sings as sweet as a nightingale. Say that she frown, I’ll say she looks as clear as morning roses.” (Act 2 Scene 1, lines 170-173) Petruchio does not use disguise to reach his desires he instead relies on deceit. He also has bad morals and only plans to wed Kate for her large dowry, showing that he is not only deceitful but greedy too. For example, he tells her that she plays music elegantly, when she makes horrid sounds with the lute, and that she is beautiful, when in fact her appearance is rather shrewish. Petruchio also admits to the audience that he is deceiving Kate into believing that he is a cruel man. He is doing so to cure her of her shrewish nature. Petruchio plans to continue to deceive her until she acts like a true, obedient, loyal woman. He is not actually a madman or an angry character. His devilish actions are false and part of his plan to tame Kate. “This is a way to kill a wife with kindness”. He is deceiving her of his true nature so that she will become a lady. However, as he deceives her, he is also subtly deceiving the audience to believe that he is the person of whom he acts. He continues to let the audience in on his little deception and his little plan, but does not allow Kate to see his honest persona. To complete the final deceit against Baptista and to marry Lucentio and Bianca, Tranio convinces the Pedant to impersonate Vincentio and complete the match between them. TRANIO: “His name and credit shall you undertake” (Act IV Scene III, line 107) …“Go with me to clothe you as becomes you” (Act IV Scene III, line 121) The Pedant agrees to impersonate and deceive Baptista and the rest of the characters so that his false son, Lucentio, may marry his beloved Bianca. Tranio also continues to deceive Baptista as Lucentio, while he and the Pedant further continue their trickery. The Pedant impersonates Vincentio and makes the final match between Lucentio and Bianca. They successfully deceive Baptista into believing that these two poor commoners are the wealthy men, Lucentio and Vincentio of Pisa. Many characters in the play invent characters to trick others, by doing so they can then change their fake personalities to suit their needs. In this case, Shakespeare makes Lucentio appear like a sophisticated, well-educated schoolmaster in order to infiltrate Baptista’s house and then woo Bianca. To conclude the different sections of disguise and deceit within The Taming of the Shrew, we can see that there are three important issues that come up time and time again. These are: betrayal, lies and manipulation. I have examined these themes thoroughly during the book and realised that nearly all of the characters are at fault somehow from their actions. I also discovered that all of the characters contributed to the deceit and they all helped continue the line of mistrust. But, the bottom line is this: the problem lies not with the characters, but with the restrictions and boundaries of society itself. If social class, status and wealth had not of affected any of the characters in the play, and they were all equal, then there would be no need to neither change their appearance nor hide their true identities. The rules and restraints of society were the catalysts that sparked the flame of deceit and betrayal among them, not themselves. In the second part of this essay I am going to look at the imagery used by Shakespeare during The Taming of the Shrew. He uses imagery as a means of portraying the behaviour and attitudes of every character in the play. In particular, the relationship between Kate and Petruchio. Their relationship is a very conflicting and intense one, commonly involving turbulent arguments between them both. During these violent quarrels is where some of the most powerful descriptive imagery is fea...