Tag Archives: lies

Inception…?

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Andy Chu

Although I have not finished the entire play yet, my favorite part of the story has been Act II, Scene 3 and Act III, Scene 1 when both Benedick and Beatrice were tricked into falling in love with one another. The separate scenes where the men purposely lied with Benedick eavesdropping and where the women duped Beatrice were very well written.

It was funny to observe and compare all the techniques that were used during the conversations — the men created exaggerated stories about Beatrice’s passionate love for Benedick, such as how Beatrice is up “twenty times  a night” (2.3.134) while scribbling the words “Benedick” and “Beatrice” over and over again. Later, the women worked together to basically beat down Beatrice’s self-esteem and stress how horrible she was for the way she acted towards a great man like Benedick. According to Ursula, “for shape, for bearing, argument, and valor” (3.1.96), Benedick was the best in Italy and Beatrice was too busy filled with scorn.

The question I pose is, did Beatrice and Benedick really fall in love with each other because of what they heard? Or was there already attraction before that?

I believe that Don Pedro, Claudio, Ursula, and Hero all played an important role in getting the relationship to progress at a faster pace. However, I don’t think they were the ones who can get the credit of planting the seeds of attraction. Despite the insults and the disdain they often showed one another (especially on Beatrice’s part), I sensed chemistry between them from the very beginning. Before Benedick ever appeared in the play, Beatrice was already denouncing him as a soldier/man of poor quality. Typically, women and men who find no interest in someone could care less about how another person was if they weren’t at least a little bit interested. Despite her insults, Benedick still alluded to Beatrice’s beauty during his discussion with Claudio early in the play.

Any thoughts or comments?

Posted in Much Ado About Nothing | Tagged , | 2 Comments

“A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma…”

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Andy Chu

Hi everyone. My name is Andy. Looking forward to a fun semester with all of you.

After reading the Induction and first two Acts of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, it feels like NOTHING is what it seems. Almost everyone is lying in one way or another such as Lucentio dressing as a poor Latin tutor and Horensio covering himself with a cloak to portray a musician. Like the characters within, even the entire play itself is sort of in a costume, disguised as a play within a play.

With this motif of disguise prominently displayed throughout the beginning of the story, I think Shakespeare is building all these lies to a ridiculous point just so the revelation will be that much more dramatic. Although I don’t know what will happen later on in the play, I would assume that Tranio disguised as Lucentio will eventually be exposed as well as Petruchio’s insincere marriage proposal.

Keeping all of this in mind, I want to focus on Lucentio and the manipulation of his identity. Why does he pretend to be Cambio the Latin tutor? Do you think it was necessary for him to act as someone else to try and win Bianca’s love? You can argue that disguising as a tutor allowed him to get closer access to Bianca but at the same time, didn’t it make the pursuit even more challenging? Wouldn’t courting Bianca as a wealthy, clean-cut young man be more attractive than as an ordinary poor tutor? Above all else, how do you think Bianca would feel if Lucentio wins her love and then tells her that he was deceiving her the entire time about who he really was?

Feel free to share your thoughts or add onto anything I mentioned!

Posted in The Taming of the Shrew | Tagged , | 7 Comments