“What a tangled life web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive.”

The informant is a 51 year-old father of four children and has lived in Southern California for most of his life.  He lost his mother at a very young age, so his grandmother helped his father raise him.  His grandmother was an educator from the Mid-West.  The informant’s grandmother was very involved in raising the informant. .  The informant was told that his grandmother was the “wisest woman in the world”, always willing to share a proverb or piece of wisdom.  He had a great respect for her and always took her word to heart.  Now the informant shares the wisdom he has learned from his grandmother with his own children.

He says that he would tell the proverb when someone or himself would tell a lie.  The proverb is a source of advice to people who may try getting out of things by lying.   The informant thinks the proverb is true and demonstrates a slippery slope.  He says that the proverbs is so important because once you start a lie and cover that lie up with another lie, you get so tangled up in a spider-like web of deception you are stuck in your life.

I agree with the informant’s views on the proverb.  By comparing lies to a spider web, we are able to see just how tangled one can become if they lie.  For instance, one lie turns into another and so on and so forth.  This is a practical saying and provides a metaphor to the process of getting caught in a lie.