Pericles

In the “dumb show” in Act IV, Scene 4, Pericles, shown the tomb of Marina by Cleon and Dionyza, breaks into tears, puts on garments of mourning, and exits the scene, heartbroken. However, a trick has been played on him: The tomb is fake, and Marina is alive. As Gower gravely proclaims, “See how belief may suffer by foul show” (IV.4.23, emphasis added), while Cleon, the man partly responsible for putting on the “foul show,” declares earlier on in the play: “Who makes the fairest show means most deceit” (I.4.76, emphasis added). Thus, throughout the play, the characters must wrestle with the problem of appearance versus reality.

The dichotomy between appearance and reality is a part of its narrative structure. The play frequently draws attention to its artifice, whether it be through the device of Gower narrating a tale, or through “dumb shows.” Additionally, Gower constantly breaks the fourth wall and even asks viewers to suspend their disbelief and picture that they are a part of the play’s nautical landscape: “In your imagination hold / This stage the ship, upon whose deck / The sea-tost Pericles appears to speak” (III.Chor.44-46). Gower’s frank admission that Pericles “appears” to speak on a ship draws explicit attention to appearance versus reality in the play.  

Pericles learns to navigate the deceiving nature of appearances as he grows in maturity and confidence. At the beginning of the play, he is easily taken in by the beauty of the daughter of Antiochus, ascribing virtue to her just because she lovely. Pericles notes that the princess looks like spring itself, assuming she is kind to her subjects and filled with virtuous thoughts. The fact that he deduces her virtue from her looks alone shows how easily appearance confuses his mind. After Pericles solves Antiochus’s riddle, he has the epiphany that beautiful looks do not equal kindness or moral conduct. Now he refers to the princess as “a glorious casket stored with ill” (I.1.80), rejecting a marriage to her outright.

While Antiochus’s marvelous palace and his beautiful daughter are the greatest symbols of the dichotomy between magnificent exterior/corrupt interior, Pericles’s rusty armor also speaks to how appearance is not always what it seems. The play deliberately dresses Pericles in this armor to illustrate plainness as a virtue: The fact that Pericles does not hide the rustiness of his armor indicates that he has nothing to hide in terms of moral conduct and personal worthiness. When the other knights make fun of the rusty armor, Simonides notes that only fools judge “[t]he outward habit by the inward man” (II.2.65): Just as a beautiful exterior does not always denote true private virtue, so too does a plain exterior not necessarily reflect inward dullness or vice.

The play reinforces the importance of inward virtue over outward show through the fates of the characters. While deceiving characters, such as Antiochus, his daughter, Cleon, and Dionyza, meet grisly and unhappy ends, virtuous characters like Pericles find happiness and fulfillment. The play thus suggests that while appearances can be deceptive, true virtue will always win out in the end.