Battle Tactics In The War For Love: DECEPTION

The play “Taming of the shrew” contains multiple methods of courtship, but the one that seems most prevalent is the art of deception. In the play, the character of Lucentio chose the road of deception instead of honesty to try and get his woman. The 2012 movie “Think Like A Man”,  one of the main characters Dominic sets out to do the same to get the girl of his dreams, even if he doesn’t match her standards.

Dominic shares many qualities  with Lucentio  They both fell in love at first sight and both pretended to be something they weren’t in order to get closer to the girl. The only difference between the two was their  status. Lucentio was already in a position of power, and so was the woman he was after. In contrast, Dominic was considered a dreamer and didn’t really have any money to his name, but he pursued a successful business woman that made six figures.

Both of these situation lead to hilarious moments and show the audience the blur between the honesty and deception as both men attempt to woo their women. Even in modern times, it is  actually encouraged when attempting to start a relationship with someone to be evasive and cunning so you can get exactly what you want. Both of these formats suggest that in order to be with that special someone, one must use deception to get closer to the one that they love. Honesty is not enough because that alone may not get a person to the place they want to be at to make a lasting impression.

[ACT 1. SC 1., Lines: 196-198]

TRANIO "You will be schoolmaster And undertake the teaching of the maid: That's your device"

Lucentio and tranio begun to hatch their plan to dress lucentio as a schoolmaster while tranio impersonates lucentio so that the real lucentio could get closer to bianca and make her fall in love with him without her father or the other suitors knowing.  Notice the underhandedness of this move just so Lucentio could get closer to bianca. He went as far as to disguised himself as another just for the chance to be alone with bianca. Granted there weren’t many options in lucentio’s case as he had to compete with the other suitors. He even got his friend involved with the lie by having tranio dress up as him so no one would know that the real Lucentio was missing. In this case Dominic from “Think Like A Man” wasn’t far off from what Lucentio did in “Shrew”.

Dom’s manager told him to work valet and get this rich man’s car for him. Long story short he came back with the car and lauren was outside getting in her car, when she saw him she thought that the car was his. Dom took advantage of this and stayed in the other man’s car and drove off to follow lauren to ask her on a date. The defining moment was when Dominic decided to stay in the car. He knew that it wasn’t his car but lauren didn’t and he used that to his advantage. Since he went along with what she believed to become so rich man that he was not he actually got closer to lauren. In both situations Dom and Lucentio felt as though being deceitful and putting up facades were the quickest ways to get closer to a woman. Also take into account that the two happening hundreds of years apart which leaves one to infer that men having been using this tactic for years. This also means that deep down people actually believe that it’s socially acceptable to lie in this sort of capacity.

[ACT 3. SC.1, Lines: 33-39]

Lucentio “HIc ibat, as I told you before, Simois, I am Lucentio, hic est, son unto Vincentio of Pisa. [Sigeia] tellus, disgusted thus to get your love, Hic steterat, and that “lucentio” that comes a-wooing…”

This takes place some time after Tranio became lucentio and lucentio took the role as cambio, Bianca’s latin teacher. He takes this time to try and get closer to bianca by telling her that he is really lucentio and that he loves her and did this to be with. Previously stated both Lucentio and Dom had succeeded through deception to get closer to their love. Lucentio felt as though he was close enough to reveal his true identity and even if she doesn’t reciprocate the feeling immediately he got what he wanted and that was to be closer.  Dominic however chose to stay masked by the illusion he created to get what he wanted.

Dominic and Lauren are on their first date and Lauren asks Dom what he does for a living. Domini lies and states that he is a high class chef in between jobs. This made Lauren pry even further until Dominic began to talk about his dream to have his own restaurant. Dom then apologized because they agreed to stop talking about work but Lauren interrupts him and states that what he said was not work but a dream and she liked to talk about dream. After this exchange you could see that they had become closer. Even if the facade that he put about being a high grade chef was false the dream he shared was true. See the his lie was needed to get close enough to the one he love just so he could show her the real him at that point leaving it up to her whether or not she loved him back, much like lucentio.

If Naysayers stopped to think about it, they would realize that being deceitful and deceptive are all apart of falling in love . Yes it’s dishonest and one shouldn’t lie but it can also means that that person cares enough to try and get closer. It’s just doing so in a bad way. The main goal is to get closer to the one you love and be deceitful is fair game besides it’s been done before for a long time now.