Infidelity
Notes on Infidelity
Appearance and Deception
Read the NoteA recurring theme in many of Shakespeare’s plays, and central to Much Ado About Nothing, explores how easily people are deceived not just by the false testimony of others but even by their own senses. Claudio, believing he was deceived by Don John, learned to place no trust in the words of others. With “Let every eye negotiate for itself,”
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Keeping Adultery Hidden
Read the NoteWhether in comedy or tragedy, Shakespeare’s characters advise the prudence of spouses, whether husbands or wives, of keeping their dalliances hidden. Luciana advises the man she thinks is her brother-in-law in Comedy of Errors to tell his wife, Luciano’s sister, nothing. Iago’s observation about the adulteries of Venetian women in Othello, is similar.
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Quotes including the Theme Infidelity
Avaunt! Begone! Thou hast set me on the rack
Read the QuoteOthello
Avaunt! Begone! Thou hast set me on the rack.
I swear ’tis better to be much abused
Than but to know ‘t a little.
Iago
How now, my lord?
He that is robbed, not wanting what is stol’n,
Let him not know ‘t, and he’s not robbed at all.
Othello
What sense had I of her stol’n hours of lust?
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Had it pleased heaven To try me with affliction
Read the QuoteOthello
Had it pleased heaven
To try me with affliction, had they rained
All kind of sores and shames on my bare head,
Steeped me in poverty to the very lips,
Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,
I should have found in some place of my soul
A drop of patience.
Was this fair paper,
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