Disguise and deception in Merchant Of Venice, Twelfth Night and Keeping Up Appearances
             A recurrent theme in Shakespeare's plays is the idea that things are not always what they seem. This is one of the major themes of literature, a serious theme even in comedies. Twelfth Night and Merchant Of Venice show good examples of this theme. In these plays we find many discrepancies between what seems to be and what is.
             This theme is used in all sorts of comedies to cause confusion and misunderstanding. Disguise causes confusion and confusion leads to comedy. In Shakespeare's comedies physical disguises are used to help the heroine achieve her goal. Further more deception is used in comedies to bring about humorous situations. Shakespeare's Merchant Of Venice, Twelfth Night, and the British sitcom Keeping Up Appearances all use disguise and deception to add a comedic element to the plot.
             The British television sitcom Keeping Up Appearances is based on a woman Hyacinth who was born into a poor family yet tries to show herself as being someone of a high social class. She goes to great length to disguise herself though her plans never end up the way she expected them to. These disguises cause confusion and misunderstanding especially on the part of her husband Richard. All this leads to a very humorous outcome. In Twelfth Night Maria devises a plan to stop Malvolio's constant prying into her affairs. She devises a note that seems to be from Olivia, in which she confessed her secret love for the steward and asked him to wear yellow stockings and to smile continually in her presence. (Shakespeare Twelfth II.iii.155-161). Malvolio does not realize that he was being deceived, rather he was convinced that Olivia wrote the letter, so he followed the instructions exactly. When Olivia saw the unusual way he was acting she had him locked up and accused of insanity. (Shakespeare Twelfth III.iv.
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