Theme of Appearance vs Reality

One of the primary themes in literature and drama examines the issue of appearance versus reality, often in terms of some delusion held by a character or characters. William Shakespeare explores this theme in various ways in many of his plays, and explorations of the issue can be found in Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew. The theme is embodied in both plays in the way certain characters play-act or pretend to be someone they are not, which links the questions of appearance versus reality directly to the drama itself. In the drama, actors pretend to be other people and act out versions of reality before an audience, and both the exploration of the question of what is reality and the way that exploration is presented rely on the contrast between illusion and reality.

Both plays are also love stories, and aspects of love are examined as they relate to the question of what is real and what is illusion. In The Taming of the Shrew, This play features two couples, one couple openly in love, the other couple openly battling their way to the feeling of love without knowing that is what they are doing. The two males are pursuing the sisters, Bianca and Kate, and both relationships are complicated by the conditions placed on the two young women by their father. Lucentio loves Bianca, and though he wants to woo her, he will have to wait for Kate to be married first, as her father states:

Gentlemen, importune me no farther, For how I firmly am res

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Unto a madbrain rudesby, full of spleen, Who woo'd in haste and means to wed at leisure. I told you, I, he was a frantic fool, Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behaviour (III.ii.11-16). Twelfth Night concerns love, but it is love as both illusion and reality, with the characters often unable to tell the difference. Some characters believe they are in love when they are not, or believe they love one person when that person is really someone altogether different. The reaction of other characters is often telling, though in truth they cannot always tell what is real and what is illusion any more than can the lovers. Sir Andrew Aguecheek is a foolish knight who has come to woo Olivia, with a passion that is not to be taken seriously. His friend Toby Belch uses it as an excuse for playing pranks. The passion Olivia develops for the disguised Viola is another case of illusion, since Olivia does not know that Viola is a girl and not a boy. Orsino, the Duke, expresses the view that love is an illusion, one that has disappointed him in the past: O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou! That, notwithstanding thy capaci

Category: Literature - T