At many times lying is ethically justified. Although it may say in the bible that you shouldn't lie, lying is neccesary in real life to protect people's feelings. It isn't right to lie to cover up something you did wrong, but if you answer a question with a lie it's alright. The main thing is that you're not trying to hurt anyone. For instance, if Margot says, "Jen do you like my sweater?", and all day long I have heard kids talking about how ugly it is, and I think it's disgusting, I might answer, "Yes I love it. In fact, will you let me borrow it?" Margot will oblige and then I would take it and throw it in the garbage, tell her I lost it, and buy her a cute sweater. That way, people won't make fun of her, she'll feel good about herself, and I won't have to look at her ugly sweater, and she'll have a pretty new one that people will compliment her on. It's a win-win-win-win situation. Everyone will be happy. If I told Margot that I disliked her sweater, she might feel bad about her clothing choices, and about herself in general. For the rest of the day she'll walk around embarrassed about her sweater.
Many characters in Much Ado About Nothing also lie. Their reasons for lying are to deliberately hurt someone and to make people happy. In one passage, Borachio and Don John try to make Claudio believe that the Prince is stealing his woman:
DON JOHN
Signor, you are very near my brother in his love. He is
enamored on Hero. I pray you, dissuade him from her. She
is no equal for his birth. You may do the part of an honest
man in it.
CLAUDIO
How know you he loves her?
DON JOHN
I heard him swear his affection.
BORACHIO
So did I too, and he swore he would marry her tonight. (II. 1. 134-140).
They are just lying to mess with Claudio, and that is not okay. In doing so, they are also making the Prince look bad. Yet in other cases, lying is perfectly okay. Don Pedro says, "Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of today,/ that your niece Beatrice was in love with Signor Benedick?" (II.3.72-73). Leonato told him no such thing, but Don Pedro isn't saying it to be cruel to Benedick, he is saying it to make him love her (love is never a bad thing after all). Don Pedro loves Benedick, and he wouldn't try to actually hurt him.
5 comments:
Hi Jen! Nice job in your post using lines from Much Ado About Nothing. I liked your point that "Although it may say in the bible that you shouldn't lie, lying is neccesary in real life to protect people's feelings." I absolutely agree, and lying can be justfied if it protects another's feelings. Another example is if someone has been talked about, and no one will tell them in order to protect their feelings. Happy new year!
by the way, is Philena Faridah your Arabic name?
Nice post Jen. I really enjoyed reading it! I agree with you on the whole sweater part as well as the quote from Don John, Borrachio, and Claudio in Much Ado about nothing. In that case lying is not okay. You had really good support for your arguments and your post was interesting!
Exactly, I think people shouldn't lie to hurt someone, but to spare their feelings. I love the thoroughness of you explaining yourself too. "Don John is just plain messing with Claudio's head and thats just mean."
Post a Comment