"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive" Examine the themes of deception and self-deceit in Twelfth Night.

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“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive” Examine the themes of deception and self-deceit in

 Twelfth Night

The comical play, Twelfth night, which was written by Shakespeare, is a classic example of seventeenth century humour, wit, deception and self-deceit. In the play we see how twin Viola and Sebastian are separated, and they both think that one another is dead;

        “My brother, he is in Elysium”  (Act I i line 1)

 but are reunited in disguise, in a land of madness and delirium, called Illyria. This essay will be covering the themes of deception and self-deceit. Self-deceit means when a character is lying to his or herself, and deception means something that is intended to trick someone into believing something that isn’t true. Two examples of these are, when Viola dresses up as a man and starts to believe that she really is a man, and when Maria makes everyone believe that Malvolio is really mad and is possessed by the devil.

In this act we see a lot of self-deceit, for example, as Viola arrives onshore, she dresses as a man, making herself think that she is a man. This is the first case of self-deceit we see in the play. She dresses as a man to get close to Orsino because he doesn't want to see any women,

        "I have heard my father name him. He was a bachelor then." (Act 1 ii                                                                                      line28-29)

but she starts to belive that she really is a man.

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The audience sees this as a harmless act of disguise, for the moment, although deceiving shouldn’t hurt people. We also see displays of deception as well for when Viola walks into Illyria, and meets Orsino, and later Olivia, they believe that she is a man. Orsino and Olivia are deceived in this act, which will affect their relationships towards her in the end of the play. The audience know this is so she can get close to him.

In act two we meet Viola’s identical twin brother, Sebastian, who thinks Viola is dead, and Malvolio persuses Cesario with ...

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