I was actually looking forward to seeing Catfish because of it's popularity in modern day culture. As a fan of the MTV television series based off the documentary, I was curious to know the story of identity deception that started the whole phenomena. Even before watching the film, I knew I would find similarities between Catfish and one of Shakespeare's plays. Since Shakespeare used deception so often as a theme in his plays, it was only logical to assume that I would connect the documentary to a play I was familiar with.
All's Well That Ends Well was the play that I immediately knew I could compare with Nev's story. In All's Well, Helena deceives Bertram in order to get the thing she wants most in the world: his love. She goes through with the bed-switching plot in hopes of becoming pregnant and therefore forcing Bertram to love her. This all seems like a perfect ploy for Helena; she gets to lose her virginity to the man she loves most and she also wins his heart in the process. Though it's not the way she would have originally wanted things to go, she seems to have no hesitations with fooling Bertram. She is obsessed with obtaining his affection that she convinced herself that an awful act of deception is the only way she can win him over and that no one would question her morals in doing so.
Angela from Catfish reminded me of Helena because of the strength of her desire. She had affections for Nev, but knowing that she was unavailable to him in so many ways, decided to create a false front for him to meet. This identity she hid behind, Megan, got Nev's attention and started a bond between the two that would eventually last for almost a year. Angela was determined to win the affection of Nev in whatever way that she could, and so the idea of hiding behind a mask of a false person seemed like no problem to her. She didn't care about the eventual outcome of it all, she just cared that she got to interact and build a relationship with Nev. That is where she differed from Helena - when Helena seemed to have her future all figured out after she fooled Bertram, Angela only cared about the interactions of the time being and how she felt in that moment.
These two women, though they thought they had good intentions, were blinded by the actual nature of their actions. The deception they caused in the name of love was justified in their eyes, but was hurtful in the eyes of their lovers. Helena and Angela both just wanted to be with the men they desired, no matter how they obtained their love. There are many similarities between modern day deception and Shakespeare's deception, showing that even over time and the countless changes to society, people are willing to use deception and lies to end up with their goal.
Kelly, your attention to the structural similarities of Helena's and Angela's deceptions is great; I like your notion that for Helena, the bed-trick is a means to an end, whereas for Angela, her internet facade is the be-all and end-all. Perhaps the difference between sanity and insanity in love is the ability to anticipate and accept the inevitable outcome of this sort of deceitful conduct. I would like to see you work out your thoughts about this important distinction before your move on to the generalizations of your last paragraph. When you come to an important insight, as you do here, don't abandon it without offering a strong account of what it might mean.
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