Cymbeline and Deception
Cymbeline, also known as The Tragedy of Cymbeline or Cymbeline, King of Britain, is a drama written by William Shakespeare that is based on the stories of the ancient Celtic British King Cunobeline. Shakespeare concentrates on deception in Cymbeline by creating characters who not only lie but also treat others deviously in order to meet their desires. Imogen, Iachimo, and the Queen, for example, lie with the intention of gaining love, confidence, or fortune, and so make others regard them badly. The major issue driving the characters' deception is social class - they intend to be or want to attest to why they belong to a particular social class. As such, social stratification is a central problem within the context of Cymbeline. In Shakespeare's England, social stratification was a big deal, and this fact is exclusively reflected in the play. For instance, the primary argument against Posthumus marrying Imogen is that the former's social class is not "good enough." Throughout the play, Posthumus' social class is mocked especially by Cloten and Cymbeline. In fact, Posthumus is an orphan who had been taken care of by Cymbeline since childhood. As well, Imogen seems to notice the social class difference, but she does not care. Because of their deceitful characteristics, the characters develop conflicts with others, indicating how the fascination of social class demands a degree of falsehood that eventually turns out toxic to the development of relationships.
The Role of Music in Cymbeline
The entire play is characterized by music, which shows up in a significant manner. For instance, when Posthumus' ghost family appears in the scene, it announces itself in musical form. The music in this context prepares a scene for the ghosts to appear and converse with Jupiter and offers the audience a random musical interlude. The play deviates from Shakespeare's typical application of music and songs as part of the play's drama or dialogue. In Cymbeline, the author keeps the music separate, probably to signal its significance in this context. It is likely that through the play, the author intends for the audience to reflect on the Roman or Greek drama, where music would play amid pieces of actions. The entire play might be perceived as a musical score, which happens to be pretty appropriate in reinforcing the notion that there is a higher plan to the entire issue and that the final objective is harmony. By far the song "Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun" as sang by Guiderius and Arviragus over Imogen's dead body is probably the most efficient and favourite song in Cymbeline. The song is made significant is the fact that the princess is not dead in the real sense, although the two characters are not aware of it. As such, everything they say about death is factual: it will visit everybody – even young lovebirds – and if anything, death means the end of suffering for the dead individual. Similarly, there is some magical event going on: Imogen is not gone for real in this context. The words in the brothers' song may be actual, yet there is a looming possibility of rebirth causal to the whole event. The moment is both magical and sombre in this play, a perception that sums up the entire Cymbeline (Hassel and Simonds 105).
The Relationship between Social Stratification and Deception
Reverting to the central problem of Cymbeline, the play portrays the ordinariness of a father to define his daughter's future husband without being questioned, especially in this context where Imogen's father is a king (Cymbeline). In this regard, Cymbeline decides that Imogen's future husband is Cloten, who happens to be the queen's son. On the contrary, Imogen loves Posthumus, which leads her to disobey her father and marries the love of her life. The act is a solid proof that Imogen, unlike his father and others in the play does not value social class. The king expresses his discontent with Imogen's decision, where he professes, "Thou took'st a beggar; wouldst have made my throne / A seat for baseness" (Shakespeare 178-179). The throne is very precious to Cymbeline and is infuriated with her daughter for her willingness to hand over the throne to Posthumus, a man Cymbeline regards as a beggar. The King perceives that Posthumus does not deserve royalty, unlike Cloten whose class is higher and seems like the most suitable choice for succeeding the throne. Besides the fact that his daughter disobeys him, Posthumus' social status offers the king another reason to get infuriated. Cymbeline perceives that an individual like Cloten, who lacks moral principle, would have inherited his throne. Due to her father's glorification of social stratification, whose ideologies she does not believe, Imogen eventually gets deceitful, destroying their relationship with Cymbeline. However, it is Cymbeline's obsession with social stratification that an atmosphere develops, where his daughter has no alternative but to be deceitful. Upon realization that Posthumus and Imogen had secretly married, Cymbeline banishes Posthumus, who travels to Italy to join his friends, and meets Iachimo, a Frenchman.
Iachimo's Deception and its Consequences
As well, deceit is portrayed through Iachimo in the occasion where he lies to Posthumus about sleeping with the king's daughter, Imogen. Iachimo possesses a misleading perception that he can grab the attention of any woman. As such, he makes a bet with Posthumus, swearing that he can lure Imogen into sleeping with him, and if he wins, Posthumus should surrender his ring. Imogen is so sure to succeed that he postulates, "I'll make a journey twice as far, to enjoy / A second night of such sweet shortness which / Was mine in Britain, for the ring is won" (Shakespeare 1225-1227). Upon his return, Iachimo confidently tells Posthumus that he deserves the ring since he has won the bet. In this case, Iachimo seems not perturbed by sleeping with Imogen. Instead, he is only concerned about the ring, since by repossessing it from Posthumus, Iachimo perceives that it will raise his status. Iachimo knows that apart from being banished from Britain, Posthumus status is faring well in life. Considering that Imogen is faithful to Posthumus, Iachimo feels the urge to snatch the woman away from Posthumus. However, upon discovering that the woman cannot sleep with him, he opts to lie about it to Posthumus, by declaring that he could travel double the distance he did, to sleep with Imogen for the second time. However, Imogen did no sleep with him in any instance, and it is clear that Iachimo is only deceitful. He even proceeds to relate how sweet and short their night with Imogen was, which seems to suggest that nothing ever actually transpired between the woman and Iachimo. Iachimo even hands Posthumus a bogus letter as well his bracelet to convince him that Imogen had been unfaithful, which compels Posthumus to contemplate on killing his wife. Nonetheless, Iachimo discovers that deceitfulness does not make him a better man. In fact, having lied about sleeping with the princess, Iachimo is overwhelmed by guilt and seems as if his manhood has declined. He laments his deeds since he wanted to demonstrate to Posthumus that he was better and resulted in lying about what transpired regarding the bet. As such, the act does not make him seem any better than Posthumus, and he suggests that his vengeance almost diminishes his manhood, and only resulted in more issues because he was deceitful. The repercussions were the destruction of the relationship between the two lovers: Posthumus and Imogen.
The Queen's Deception and Motivation
On the contrary, unlike Iachimo, the queen is not overwhelmed by any guilt for her deception. In fact, she relates to Cornelius about her feelings towards Cymbeline, which Cornelius confesses afterwards to the king: "First, she confess'd she never loved you, only / Affected greatness got by you,not you: / Married your royalty, was wife to your place; Abhorr'd your person" (Shakespeare 3412-3415). Cornelius reveals to the king that the queen did not love him for real and that her only reason for marrying Cymbeline was for his royalty and material possession. Throughout the play, the king is convinced that the queen's love for him is real, which ultimately turns out to be false as the queen deceitfully wanted power and wealth. The act relates to another instance of deceitfulness with the intent of highly esteeming social status. In his address to the king, Cornelius proceeds to postulate that Cymbeline's daughter with the queen was "as a scorpion to her sight; whose life, / But that her flight prevented it, she had / Ta'en off by poison" (Shakespeare 3419-3423). These lines portray that the queen was never concerned about Imogen's welfare, and she was in fact, "a scorpion in her eyes." The only reason the queen is concerned about Imogen is the fact that her marriage to Cloten is the gateway to her son becoming the new king. Having failed to marry off Imogen and Cloten as well as secure her place on the throne, the queen plans to poison Imogen and Cymbeline, but the druggist switches the potions when he realizes the evil plot. The queen even gives the potion to Pisanio, a servant and a friend to Posthumus with the intention of cutting off any ties between the two. As such, it is clear that the queen was driven by social stratification ideologies, which influenced her to become obsessed with such cravings for a higher social power that she was ready to end the lives of Imogen and Cymbeline.
Cloten's Perception of Social Class
Cloten also appears to perceive that his social class, as a prince, makes him impressive. For instance, in act 1, scene 1, he says, "Every Jack-slave hath his bellyful of fighting, and I must go up and down like a cock that nobody can match." (2.1.21-23). However, everybody knows that Cloten is just his mother's tool of achieving power and wealth. In these lines, the term "cock" is slang for a stupid person, meaning that Cloten ignorantly insults himself. His mother intends to use him deceitfully in her plot to acquire her selfish needs.
The Impact of Social Stratification on Deception and Relationships
In conclusion, social stratification is the central issue in this Cymbeline. As well, this problem seems to attract a high degree of deceitfulness among the characters as portrayed by the queen, Iachimo, and Imogen. For example, due to her father's glorification of social stratification, whose ideologies she does not believe, Imogen eventually gets deceitful, destroying their relationship with Cymbeline. As well, with the perception that Imogen is faithful to Posthumus, and that the latter is doing fine despite the banishment, Iachimo feels the urge to snatch the woman away from Posthumus. He thinks that doing so will make him a better man than Posthumus. He lies to Posthumus that he had managed to sleep with Imogen, which makes Posthumus contemplate upon murdering his wife. On the other hand, the queen is driven by social class, which influences her to become obsessed with such cravings for a higher social power that she was ready to end the lives of Imogen and Cymbeline. Similarly, social stratification gives Cloten and Cymbeline a level of self-importance, such that they perceive Posthumus as a low class who does not deserve to marry the princess. Cymbeline does not seem to consider moral principle when he chooses his daughter a suitor. Instead, he prefers Cloten, a prince, to Posthumus, an orphan, since the social classes of both of these two individuals differ by a significant margin. As well, Cloten perceives that being a prince guarantees him to have an advantage of Posthumus, whose social class is relatively low. However, he overlooks the fact that his mother is just using him as a tool to acquire the things she thirsts for. Social class plays a significant part in portraying how the characters become deceitful and define how the play concludes: they each intended to acquire wealth, power, love, or self-confidence. The repercussions of their deceitfulness are the negative perceptions of other characters in the play. Eventually, the appeal of social class a degree of falsehood that turns hazardous in the development of relationships.
Works Cited
Hassel, R. Chris, and Peggy Munoz Simonds. "Myth, Emblem, and Music In Shakespeare's Cymbeline: An Iconographic Reconstruction." Shakespeare Quarterly, vol 46, no. 1, 1995, p. 105. JSTOR, doi: 10.2307/2871164.
Shakespeare, William. Cymbeline. Westminster, Constable [U.A.], 1902
Shakespeare. "Cymbeline (Complete Text): Open Source Shakespeare." Opensourceshakespeare.Org, 2003, http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=cymbeline&Scope=entire&pleasewait=1&msg=pl.
