Lost Identities

Having a sense of identity is what separates humans from one another, but sometimes along our path in life, we can lose ourself.  Shakespeare's plays include many instances of manipulation, both good and bad, where the character begins to question who he or she really is, as well as other characters in the play.  The path to discovering oneself ends in either a joyous occasion or in a tragedy that the characters may not see themselves, but the audience is aware of their transformations the whole time.  Whether it ends in love or bloodshed, the true colors of each character is found by the end of the play.

1) In a Midsummer's Night Dream, fantasy is the primary factor in the loss of identities of the characters.  The driving force in this play is love, and the loss of identity can be seen in the humans when Demetrius essentially ignores Helena's obvious love for him, and Hermia ignores Demetrius' advances as well.  In the fairy world, Titania feels unacknowledged because Oberon appears to be paying more attention to the boy.  In the end, magic resolves all of these tensions.

2) In Hamlet, his father dies at the hand of his uncle, making Hamlet's mother go from appearing virtuous to becoming an evil person that drives Hamlet's impressions of others that he comes into contact with.  Because of this traumatic event, we begin to see Hamlet questioning himself and what is really the cause of his suffering and madness.  Is it the love he has for Ophelia?  Is it because of his mother marrying his uncle?  To justify the killing of Polonius?  In the end, we see a shift in him where he is not concerned solely about himself and his family, but with others; he finally has peace with himself for this.  Laertes avenges his father's death by killing Hamlet, and Hamlet avenges his father's death by killing Claudius.

3) In Twelfth Night, the disguises mask the true identities, as well as the genders, of the characters.  Viola disguises herself as a young man, Cesario, in order to seek service with Duke Orsino because Olivia is very consumed with herself and her own problems.  Olivia eventually falls in love with Cesario, not knowing that he is actually a she, Viola.  Orsino, originally tricked into thinking that she was Cesario, still accepts Viola as a woman when her true identity comes to light.

4) In Othello, Iago manipulates Othello into thinking that his wife, Desdemona, is an unfaithful woman.  He becomes more and more jealous and angry about this as Iago keeps telling him falsities.  At the end of the play, Othello ends up killing her because of her 'misdoings,' and then finds out that Iago had been tricking him the whole time.  Iago's true colors are shown to Othello at the end of the play and realizes all of the people who have been killed because of his manipulation.  Othello can't handle how his changed identity from a stoic, brave soldier to a cold-blooded killer; he ends up killing himself in the end.