Preview

The Truth About Lies

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1260 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Truth About Lies
Emily Transtrum
March 20th, 2012
Honors English
Block 2
The Truth About Lies Lies are perpetually told in order to conceal the truth, for a hope that the lies told will delight and bring happiness and joy. In reality lies can only bring one thing, trouble and nuisance. The lies are displayed in tragic love tale by Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. In this play lies destroy the lives of not only Romeo and Juliet, but all the people around them. The destroying power of lies is shown by the lies told from Romeo to his family, from Friar Laurence, a dedicated priest, to his fellow men, and from Juliet, to her parents and her lover. Romeo, the main male role in this play, tells his lies one right after another. One example of his concealing nature is when his dear sweet friend, Benvolio, was trying to figure out why Romeo was quite glum, Romeo talking in his sweet riddles again, says, “Not having that which having makes them short” (Act I Scene i). In this instance, Romeo just doesn’t come out and tell Benvolio the truth. Even the slightest lie humans tell, trouble will eventually catch up to them. The morning after the wonderful Capulet party, Romeo never comes home with his friends that he departed with. After his secretive meeting with Friar Laurence, Romeo’s other close friend says, “You gave us the/Counterfeit fairly last night” (Act V Scene iv). Romeo completely ditched his friends, and then proceeded to lie about where he was. People, who tend to lie to their friends, bring trouble in the form of losing their friends. When talking to Balthasar in Mantua, Romeo says, “Tush, thou art deceived/Leave me and do the thing I bid thee to do/Hast thou no letters to me from the Friar” (Act V Scene i). In this case, Romeo flat out lied and sent his servant, no less, Balthasar, away so he could finish up his secret relationship with Juliet. Humans, as a whole, owe their fellow workers the decency of the truth. Romeo lies to Balthasar again, when he is just about to go

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Lies are told every day by you, me, and even your close loved ones. Everyone lies at some point in their lives. The simple true is we all lie. While reading the “Ways We Lie” by Ericsson’s it was very clear that lies are being told more than the truth. She explains many different types of lies being told from the smallest of lies to protect the emotional state of others, to the extreme lies being told and merely ignoring the plain facts of lies that cause real pain.…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In "The Ways We Lie" by Stephanie Ericsson, Ericsson talks about how lies exist in aspects of our life every single day. She describes the different ways that humans lie and justifies why people doing so. These lies discussed in this article include the white lies, facade lies, lies of omission and lies that focus around stereotypes. White lie is a common way that people lie to others, because the lie would be better than the truth. Sometimes, the truth will cause more damage or dangerous than a simple harmless…

    • 91 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet is without doubt one of the most well-known love story. Throughout the five acts of the play, one tragedy follows another, with the famous suicide of Romeo and Juliet as a tragic conclusion. Throughout the play, it may seem that Romeo caused these events to unfold, however it is unjust to say that he bears all responsibility for the tragedy. The decisions, actions and circumstances that other characters made and faced have also contributed to the tragic outcome. Nevertheless, it is also in the hands of fate that destined the immature deaths of Romeo and Juliet…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another significant factor in the play is the Romeo is very impulsive. In Act 2, Scene 2, Romeo proclaims to Juliet that he does not care about the dire straits he would be in if he were caught on Capulet property with Capulet's only daughter. He quotes: With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls; For stony limits cannot hold love out, And what love can do that dares love attempt; ttherefore thy kinsmen are no let to me. Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet, and I am proof against their enmity. This…

    • 589 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Friar lied… He is deceitful… Meddled… That began the awful tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. We can say that Friar seems like an intelligent and reasonable man however have his actions proven that? Friar is guilty because he married Romeo and Juliet in secret, thinking it would resolve the dispute between the two feuding families. He conjures up a ridiculous plan whereby Romeo gets banished from Verona to allow Juliet to meet him in secret. We will explore all of the flaws in this plan and how it affected Romeo and Juliet. What will be examined today are the roles and responsibilities of Friar, his actions and motivations and their direct and indirect consequences.…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a married couple there is always feuding, or other times there is happiness. But that wasn't the case for Romeo and Juliet since they came from feuding family and their love had to be kept a secret it was hard for them to keep in touch. To do so they had to lie to their families to see each other, but at the time they couldn't. So, with suspicions rising it was hard for them to see each other and how to think of a way to be together. This led a certain woman to fake a death to be with a loved one.…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Romeo says he is someone on the guest list just so he can get into the party. The lie that Romeo told started trouble and more conflict between the Capulets and the Montagues. This ongoing fight that got worse with the lie resulted in the death of Mercutio. Due to all the fighting between the two families, Mercutio ended up dying and that was triggered by a lie. This shows that the conflict between the families led to death because many lies were going around and this shows the tragic ending that can happen when people aren’t being…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frankie Younger PHIL 121Q Clark 1.31.17 On Truth and Lying in a Nonmoral Sense In this essay I intend to tease apart a passage from Nietzsche’s essay “On Truth and Lying in a Nonmoral Sense” pertaining to concept formation. I will break down his argument into its core constituents and entertain several readings of his claims, establishing one of them as closest to Nietzsche’s original intentions.…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The relationship between Beatrice and Benedick exposes the truth in a manner that removes the significance of the lies. Whereas Claudio and Hero’s connection still relies on the treacheries as a crucial property to flourish. These juxtaposing relationships illustrate how varied human relations can be when fabrications are at the center. As the play matures the relationships developed at different degrees into opposing situations: one growing stronger while the other was weakened due to the deceptions. In these final lines, Shakespeare is exposing how circumstances can contrast even amongst comparable conditions. While lying ultimately unites one, it almost destroys the other couple. Trickery is depicted as neither wrong nor right through the scope of these…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare in the sixteenth century that encapsulates a lovable cast of characters and a forbidden love that was written in the stars. It is a show that entertained the masses of its time and, despite the intermittently confusing vocabulary, continues to tantalize readers around the world today. One of the reasons that it remains doing so is that of the conversation that is to be had about what happens in the novel. With plot twist after plot twist, the reader is left wondering whose fault everything truly was. The one who is to blame for the outcome of Romeo and Juliet is just that: Romeo himself.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Deception was a common theme among the two plays, and it was used to mask the sorrows one has had to experience in life. Often, one falls into the hands of deception not only to deceive others, but mainly to deceive themselves from the truth they cannot bear to face. It is important to accept the mistakes and forgive, in order to…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet Essay

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the play of Romeo and Juliet, many characters show how they cannot handle the pressure that they are faced with which leads to impulse and action which is taken without thinking it through. Many of the characters show a lack of self-control and exaggerations which leads to broken-hearts and many unfortunate situations which result in deaths and miscommunications.…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lies In Romeo And Juliet

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Which is more powerful, lies or love? In Romeo and Juliet lies seem to be overpowering love in many aspects. More than marriage, lies are what bond Romeo and Juliet. Because of said lies, more fights occur, Romeo is banished, Juliet’s relationship with her parents is damaged, the Nurse and the Friar are both stuck in a circle of lies. The “love” that Romeo and Juliet have is based on lies, their whole relationship is a lie stacked upon another lie, that ruined and damaged other relationships and reputations. Some might say that Romeo and Juliet were bonded by true love, they were actually bonded together with lies in an unhealthy relationship.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why Are Lies Wrong

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The dictionary defines a lie as, “a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.” However, while the intent of a lie is to deceive, that deceit is not always intended to cause detriment to others. Lies can be told for justifiable reasons such as to protect the feelings of others, but more often lies are told for the wrong reasons. For example, lies are mostly told to avoid the consequences of one’s actions such as with criminal activities and academic misconduct. When comparing acceptable and unacceptable reasons to lie, the unacceptable reasons greatly outnumber the acceptable.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miss

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages

    ‘Romeo and Juliet warns against the dangers of holding grudges as well as warning against the consequences of deceit’…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays