Themester Blog: Catfish, or Fishing for the Fool

“I don’t see how watching a movie about people catching catfish is going to be interesting…or related to Shakespeare,” remarked my roommate Megan as I prepared to head over to the Cinema. At that moment, I remember that I stopped in my tracks and couldn’t help but crack a small smile at the thought of actually donating two hours of my time to the pursuit of determining parallels between the Bard’s work and fishing.

After allowing a snort to escape, I turned back to her to say “I thought I already told you that it’s about internet phishing- you know, that whole thing that happened to Manti Te’o.”  She just shook her head in failed recognition and waved me off with the same assertion that she still didn’t see how I could connect such a topic back to Shakespeare.

Truth be told, for the first half hour or so of the movie, I couldn’t help but think that she may have been right. As I watched Nev Schulman begin a months-long romance with a beautiful online stranger only to find out that she was an unhappy, slightly insane middle-aged housewife, the only Shakespearean-related moment that kept popping into my head was the infamous Bed Trick that Diana and Helena orchestrate in All’s Well That Ends Well. At first, I chastised my memory, thinking, “Really, Ianna? This is the best you can come up with?” But the more I dwelt on it, the more I was able to see why the idea, silly as it initially was, wouldn’t leave me alone. We talked in class over the misogynistic implications of the scene: Bertram is so concerned with having sex that he literally doesn’t even realize that the person he thinks he’s sleeping with is someone else entirely. And while I'm not about to launch into a discussion on misogyny and internet phishing, the Bertram's obliviousness can't be ignored.

 In the film, Nev firmly asserts to his brother that Angela, the woman who catfished (is that even a verb?) him, “didn’t fool me. [She] just told me things and I never cared to question it.” This same viewpoint can be applied to Bertram’s situation with the Bed Trick. Helena came to his bed claiming she was Diana and Bertram seemed to have no qualms with that statement. Looking at this situation with Nev’s words in mind, Bertram is hardly the victim of these two women’s machinations, as he claims to be in Act 5 when the truth comes out.

And that’s what I think might be the biggest link between Catfish and All’s Well.  Nev was a victim of Angela’s devices despite his instances that he wasn’t fooled. It was heartbreaking to see him make the revelations he did and even more so when we find out that instead of anger towards Angela he demonstrates pity instead. Bertram, on the other hand is not a victim at all, and his sputtering around for excuses in order to preserve his dignity only serves to paint him as an even bigger fool than he already is.