Disguise and Deception in Drama - Research Paper Example

Disguise and Deception in Drama A popular form of entertainment in the Middle Ages and into the society of the Victorian enlightenment was the concept of the morality play. As they became more refined with the passage of time, these were generally humorous plays written primarily to entertain the ‘common man’ at the same time that they attempted to instruct him on some element of social life. This is the approach taken in plays such as “The Shoemaker’s Holiday” written by Thomas Dekker and “The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus” created by Christopher Marlowe. Both of these plays contain a great deal of humor, particularly to the society already intimately familiar with the accepted social norms and expectations held in common. However, both of these plays also directly address the question of morality, or perhaps immorality would be a better term, of deliberate deception. Within Dekker’s play, more than one character pretends to be someone or something different from what they really are. They are only able to achieve a state of true happiness when they are relieved of their disguises to the great amusement of the king. Marlowe’s story focuses more on the darker elements or consequences of deception as his character perpetrates a number of cruel tricks to fulfill his own sense of amusement, fooling both himself and others until he finally comes to realize the true horror of his own doom. Although the course of events is much different from Dekker to Marlowe leading to necessarily differing conclusions regarding the consequences of deception, both playwrights convey to their audiences that disguise can be an effective tool of accomplishing one’s goals yet is not able to maintain deception for long. Within each of these plays, disguise and deception is seen as the only means by which the characters can achieve their own personal inner desires from life. In both plays, the characters adopt disguises as the only means by which they can accomplish their intentions. Dr. Faustus has lofty goals in mind when he practices to deceive as he wishes to become the most knowledgeable and powerful man in the world despite having already achieved a global reputation for his intellect. At the opening of the play, he is confronted with the option of gaining all the power and knowledge he wants in exchange for his soul. This offer is made to him by Mephistopheles, the devil’s representative, who appears to him in the disguise of a Franciscan monk at Faustus’ request. This disguise enables Faustus to imagine that he is serving a higher purpose in dedicating himself to the dark arts because he seems to be talking to a holy man even though both individuals know otherwise. Although he deceives himself into thinking he wants this knowledge in order to bring about a better world for all mankind, Mephistopheles makes attempts to convince him not to go through with the plan. He does this by pointing out that even though he is appearing on earth, in front of Faustus, he is always suffering the torments of hell because he has been separated from the presence of God, which he once enjoyed. “Why this is hell, nor am I out of it / Think’st thou that I, who saw the face of God / And tasted the eternal joys of heaven / Am not tormented with ten thousand hells / In being deprived of everlasting bliss?”1 Although the lesser devil makes every attempt to deal with Faustus honestly and in a true light, Faustus insists upon disguising the terrible and ignoring the truth. This action within the first few scenes establishes not only Faustus’ inner character, but his willingness to disguise the truth from himself. He convinces himself that his goals are high, for the betterment of all mankind, but they are quickly revealed to be avaricious in that he hopes to conjure servants that will bring him wealth and make him the king of Germany. It is tempting to blame the devil’s servant Mephistopheles for the deception of Faustus, but Faustus is instead deceived by the mystical visions of Cornelius who tells him “[t]he miracles that magic will perform / will make thee vow to study nothing else”2 while the evil angel distracts Faustus from thoughts of repentance to “think of honour and of wealth”3 instead. Although he is given plenty of warnings to repent from his decision, from the way in which his own blood congeals against the decision to the advice of the good angel, the devils’ provide him with a disguise of instant wealth and knowledge that easily overcome his misgivings and he accepts the deal. However, even the knowledge that he is given is disguised as complete when it is, at best, only half of the story. This is symbolized early in the play when Faustus considers following religion and reads from the Bible that all men sin and that all sinners will go to hell, but neglects to see that God will forgive all sin if it is asked of him. Through this means, Mephistopheles is able to disguise the truth from Faustus that the high knowledge he sought is now forever lost to him until and unless he repents of his deal with Lucifer in order to return to God. This idea is found in Mephistopheles’ behavior when Faustus presses him for an answer regarding who made the earth. Rather than answering, the devil leaves, signifying that higher truth of this nature is now unavailable and Faustus has no direction to go now but down. The knowledge that Faustus gains through his association with the devil is then described before the next direct action takes place as being primarily intended to satisfy Faustus’ own curiosity, but does not appear to better mankind in any way. He is described as having taken a journey in a chariot pulled by dragons in order to measure the cosmos, but this, too, seems to be something of a disguise of his actions as he is truly simply touring the known European kingdoms. If the information about Faustus’ travels to learn astronomy are taken to be true within the context of the play, this progression begins to suggest the fall of his spirit from high matters concerning heaven and the universe, to increasingly low matters as he arrives in Rome on a great feasting day. Within the play, it is revealed that the celebration is to honor the Pope’s recent political victories in foiling the coup attempt of a German rival named Bruno. Faustus again resorts to disguise to accomplish his desires as first he and Mephistopheles disguise themselves like a pair of cardinals in the Pope’s service in order to free Bruno and then disguise themselves in a cloak of invisibility as they watch the Pope condemn these same two cardinals to the dungeon for having released the prisoner. One of the most amusing and yet cruel examples of Faustus’ kind of deception can be found in the banquet scene immediately following. In this scene, Faustus and Mephistopheles attend a special banquet being given by the Pope to some important guests. As they attempt to carry out their meal, Faustus grabs the Pope’s dishes out of the air and moves them about, intending to emplace terror in the heart of the ecclesiast. As the Pope crosses himself in automatic symbolic protection, Faustus warns him (with a necessarily disembodied voice) not to do so again. Faustus tells the Pope “Well, there’s the second time. Aware the third; / I give you fair warning. / [The POPE crosses himself again, and FAUSTUS hits him a box / of the ear; and they all run away.]”4 While Faustus seems to feel himself beyond the reach of the Pope’s curses, Mephistopheles encourages him to leave. This suggests that even though the devil and the man are disguised to be the most powerful individuals in the room, Mephistopheles at least recognizes the truth that God remains more powerful giving the Pope, as God’s representative, real power that Faustus doesn’t consider. Appearing before the German emperor, whom he had once wished to replace, Faustus again uses disguise and deception to impress the court. Rather than producing what the emperor has requested, Faustus conjures up spirits that resemble the conqueror Alexander and his lover. He also uses disguise and deception to punish a knight in the court who had questioned his abilities. His parlor tricks carried out in Vanholt, and the illusions he pulls off during his journey there, are revealed to be little more than simple disguises as well. The only substantial trick pulled off in these scenes is the delivery of some out of season grapes to the bored Duchess by the demon Mephistopheles, so the trick isn’t even pulled out of Faustus’ ‘great’ power. In revealing this progression of Faustus’ pursuit of knowledge and greatness, it is seen that his fame and abilities are as much a disguise of the truth as his invisibility had been to the Pope. Faustus remains unaware, until the final moments of the play, of what a joke his life had become and of how petty his powers truly were. He was a mere magician and jester in life, slowly losing any sense of prestige or honor as he degenerated into base tricks that had no meaning other than his own momentary amusement or to assert his own importance in the eyes of people he would likely never see again. The central disguise of the play is the disguise of the truth from the eyes of the main character who thought he was fooling the world. The role of disguise is a tragedy in Marlowe’s play, but it is the key to happiness and success in Dekker’s play. “The Shoemaker’s Holiday” focuses on the desire of two young people to get married against the wishes of their responsible elders. Because it is only through disguise that these two young people are able to get together, any brief summary of the play becomes quite complicated. The play opens as the Earl of Lincoln speaks with the Lord Mayor Ottely of London about the affection that seems to have arisen between Lincoln’s young cousin Rowland Lacy and the Lord Mayor’s daughter Rose. The first hints of disguise are revealed in this scene in the context of inner worth. Society deemed that landed gentry such as the Earl of Lincoln and all their relations were worth a great deal more than the common type of man represented by the Lord Mayor. As such, the Lord Mayor deems it improper for his daughter to marry Lincoln’s cousin because Lacy is too far above her station in life. At the same time, though, Lincoln himself calls into question this assumption that accidental birth into a given station automatically makes one man worth more than another as he details the spendthrift habits of his cousin: “He did consume me more in one half year and make him here to all the wealth you have, one twelvemonth’s rioting will waste it all. Then seek, my Lord, some honest citizen to wed your daughter to.”5 In this statement, he suggests that nobility is disguised in the hearts of men rather than in their breeding, but the Lord Mayor seems to feel the Earl is simply trying to dissuade the match on the more typical grounds of class snobbery as he refers to the man in an aside as a fox who is subtly trying to chase away the common girl from the match. This attempt at disguise on the part of the Earl is confirmed when he speaks privately to Lacy, warning him not to join his blood with this ‘churl’ or common man. As the plot is laid out, it becomes clear that Rose has been sent away from the city to keep her away from Lacy and Lacy is about to be sent into France, leading a portion of the king’s army into battle there. However, Lacy is already planning to foil this plot as he hands over the charge of the army to his cousin Askew as he has “serious business for three days which nothing but my presence can dispatch.”6 Following the army’s departure out of town, it is made clear that Lacy did not leave with them as might have been assumed from the action in the first act as Rose’s maid Sibil enters the scene in Act 2 to give Rose a description of the frightening being that sent his love. “I scant knew him; here a wore a scarf, and here a scarf, here a bunch of feathers, and here precious stones and jewels, and a pair of garters – O, monstrous! Like one of our yellow silk curtains at home.”7 As the two women talk, it seems clear that this costume is intended to conceal Lacy’s identity from those who would be watching for him in London as he goes about attempting to discover Rose’s whereabouts. This interpretation of the costume thus described is then confirmed by Lacy himself in the second scene of this Act as he marvels at the lengths to which a man will go to pursue the woman of his heart. “How many shapes have gods and kings devised thereby to compass their desired loves?”8 Because so many noble men have done it before him, Lacy determines he should feel no shame for hiding his identity in the clothing and position of a lesser man. Thus, for Lacy, disguise serves him as a means of remaining in London, forsaking his duties to the army and thus to the king and his uncle and benefactor, in order to find the girl who has been hidden away from him. Without this disguise, he would be unable to show himself in the streets and would likely be severely punished for neglecting his responsibilities as his uncle has already informed him he is about to be disinherited unless he finds valor in France. Even with this disguise, though, he remains recognizable to Rose which is presumed to be an indication of the love the couple feels for one another. Lacy is not the only character to deliberately employ disguise to bring about his own desires, though. As Hans, he goes to work for Simon Eyre, a somewhat crazy shoemaker that seems to spend his days harassing his staff and his wife in a good-natured sort of way. Lacy finds a merchant who is in some sort of trouble in London and must unload a ship full of cargo at a bargain price. This relationship calls into question Lacy’s basic character again, but it also affords an opportunity for Eyre to make a great amount of money. To complete the deal, Lacy first gets the merchant’s representative drunk and then has Eyre meet them at the tavern disguised as a wealthy merchant in his own right. The details of this disguise are discussed in Act 3, scene 1, as Eyre gets dressed. “Here’s a seal-ring, and I have sent for a garded gown and a damask cassock … silk and satin, you mad Philistines, silk and satin.”9 However, this disguise is soon to become real as Eyre makes his fortune on the merchandise he bought and gains recognition enough among the gentlemen of London to be appointed sheriff. He returns home wearing a gold chain of office that ensures he will gain the respect of his fellow citizens and that makes his wife feel as if she could be a lady. This change brings about a change in her entire attitude, making her more generous and light-hearted than she had been in the past and causes Eyre to act with greater dignity when in the appropriate setting. Thus, for this couple, disguise is the means to a better life by becoming what they had pretended to be. In an unwanted and unsought disguise, the character Rafe returns from the war in France with one leg lame and burned by the sun to a point where he is barely recognizable to the people in the shoemaker’s shop. Although his fellow shoemakers seem to have no difficulty recognizing him, Rafe’s looks are so changed by his experiences and Jane is so distraught by his loss that he delivers her shoes to her unrecognized. “This morning, when I strokte on her shoes, I looked upon her, and she upon me, and sighed, asked me if ever I knew one Rafe … For his sake, said she – tears standing in her eyes – and for thou art somewhat like him, spend this piece of gold.”10 This show of emotion and sorrow convinces Rafe that even though she didn’t recognize him, her heart still belonged to him and he musters up several fellow shoemakers to go and take her from the man who’s pressed her into marriage. Jane still doesn’t fully recognize her husband when they meet in the street, but upon being told who she is and why he appears so changed, she fully accepts him and soundly rejects Hammon in spite of his insistence that she keep her word with him. For Rafe, the disguise was unintentional and unwanted, the separation from his wife unsought, but it served him nevertheless to be able to discover the truth about her feelings for him. In spite of the fact that she was on her way to marry another man, Rafe is confident in going to claim her because of her show of feeling before she was aware of who he was. In many ways, the disguises used in these two plays are thus used to reveal the true nature of the individuals who use them. In Marlowe’s play, Mephistopheles is a demon forced to take on the disguise of a Franciscan monk to make it easier for Dr. Faustus to look upon him. However, Mephistopheles is more a monk than a demon as he consistently tells Faustus the honest truth when he can and simply avoids answering when he can’t. A servant of Lucifer, he can do little to dissuade Faustus from the path he’s chosen, but he does make several attempts to convince Faustus that this existence is greater torture than a simple continuation of the life Faustus has been living. Faustus, on the other hand, takes on the disguise of invisibility first and patterns himself as a prankster next. In spite of all his lofty goals in pursuing this route, these attributes are his most defining characteristics. He makes no great change in the knowledge of mankind, makes no stunning advancements to society for which he’ll be remembered and slowly becomes invisible to those he once wished to emulate. These concepts are revealed in the characters found in Dekker’s play as well. Rowland Lacy is a carefree nobleman who has found little to dedicate his life to up to the beginning of the play. However, falling in love with Rose gives him something to cling to and he does so with everything in him by disguising himself as a simple shoemaker, revealing his simple nature and his kind heart in trying to help his master, Simon Eyre, advance. Eyre disguises himself as a wealthy merchant in order to make the deal that Lacy has set up for him and, in the process, reveals his unique genius in leading men kindly and fairly. Although Rafe is disguised against his will, his lameness reflects his emptiness in life when he returns to find his wife is missing and this disguise enables him to know her true heart before he fights to get her back. While each character takes on a disguise for different reasons, both of these plays reveal that the disguises chosen are often more representative of the individual’s true inner character than their outer social position may suggest. References Thomas Dekker. The Shoemaker’s Holiday. (Oxford University, 1886). Marlowe, Christopher. The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus. Ed. S. Flecher. (Salem Press, Inc., 1996). Read More