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The Merchant of Venice depends heavily on deception to thicken the plot and create the general atmosphere and mood of suspense shrouding the story line. Trickery involving appearance and reality is present throughout the majority of the play, and is embodied by most part of the subplots and parts of the main plot, and plays an integral role in binding the main action with the side orders. Via the intertwining plots, the array of ways deception is catalogued before our eyes. There is disguise, there is cross-dressing, and then there is the less subtle theme of hypocrisy.

The matter of appearance and reality in The Merchant of Venice is presented both literally and metaphorically, and from these two differing ways of presentation, we learn that the truth is often belied by looks. The most prominent example that we can draw from the text is...