Lies and Deception as Tools in Plays / Drama
Uploaded by magicninja on Dec 22, 2004
Lies or Deceptions: A Central Role in Plays
In art as in life, lies or deceptions play a central role. Lies can have good intentions or bad intentions. Lies also serve as a function to justify certain behavior and sometimes to protect a person. Lies are powerful and can have an unintended affect. In A Doll House, The Important of Being Earnest, and The Misanthrope, lies and deceptions play a central role. In each play, the "deceiver" has his or her motives for the lies/deception in which it can or cannot be justified.
Although lies are stereotyped as being a "bad" thing, sometimes they are told to protect a person. In Henrik Isben's A Doll House, Nora was the deceiver in the play. Nora did not actually tell a lie, she just kept the truth from her husband. She had "done something indiscreet" to save her husband from dying (663). Nora borrowed money from Nils Krogstad without her husband's consent. At the time, Torvald's life was in danger and she had nobody to go to; her father was "too sick at the time" (663). Nora did not tell him about the money because she knew that "with all his masculine pride," it would be "painfully humiliating for him if he ever found out he was in debt to [Nora]," a woman who happens to be his wife in that matter (663). Not only did Nora borrow money without Torvald's permission, she also forged her father's signature in order to get the money from Krogstad. Her deception was revealed when Krogstad sent Torvald a letter, which stated everything that Nora had done. Nora had good intentions for doing what she did because she "loved [Torvald] more than all this world...a way a wife ought to love her husband" (684). She did this for her husband's sake and had no benefits for herself. In the end, instead of a "thank you," she was instead called "a hypocrite, a liar...[and] a criminal" (684).
Sometimes fabrications are used with no harm intended. In Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, lies were used either to go somewhere or to get out of something. Jack had "invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest" in order to get up to town (769). Jack's "brother" always "gets into...