false friend theme

There is a character that acts openly as a friend to another character yet conspires behind their back in a way that is most unfriendly and meant to cause harm.

Notes

This theme is not used when someone poses as a friend to someone because they merely wish exploit that person for some other purpose than to cause them harm. It does, for example, not typically apply to confidence tricks as the purpose of such tricks is generally to make a profit by any means available.

Examples

In "Othello" (1603), sly Iago poses as confident and most reluctantly reveals to Othello details about Othello's wife, Dedemona's, infidelity. Alas, it is all ruse and fabrication carefully conceived by Iago in order to get revenge on those he envies or dislikes, including on Othello himself. It is only after he has killed his own wife in jealous rage that Othello becomes aware of what a false and malign "friend" Iago has been.

15 total · 2 choice · 11 major · 2 minor

Story	Level	Motivation
ahh1x14	choice	Peter was a friend and mentor to Philip, or so everyone thought. In fact, he spoke of Philip with disdain behind Philip's back, and conspired to get Philip out of the way so that he could steal Philip's mistress.
play: Timon of Athens (1606)	choice	a point of the story was that Timon was generous to a fault to people he thought were his friends, yet when he needed help his so-called friends turned their backs on him (note: some may perhaps be better described as fair-weather friends)
ahh1x18	major	David and Maria remained convinced that Karl was their friend even as it became obvious to the viewer that Karl was jealous and plotting their doom.
ahh2x24	major	Gerald befriended the elderly Miss Emmy Wright for no other purpose than to use her as a mark in his money laundering scheme.
ahp3x17	major	Richard manipulated his old pal Tommy into committing a murder that he knew Tommy would get arrested for to get back at Tommy for having once stolen his love interest.
ahp4x01	major	Harry and Timber went through the motions of friendship but by the conclusion of the story we understand that neither would have terribly minded seeing the other dead. At any rate they derived much satisfaction from each other's distress.
ahp4x35	major	Phil cultivated a friendship with Bill and subsequently manipulated him into killing his Phil's own father in a duel. In the end, it was revealed that this was all in an effort to secure a large sum of Bill's money.
ahp7x24	major	Margo pretended to be a close friend and confident of Clara, but was secretly screwing her husband and planning to murder her.
ahp7x37	major	Mitch feigned to be friends with Kenneth, but spoke contemptuously of Kenneth behind his back. For Mitch the friendship was merely a facade so that he could cajole money and goodies out of Kenneth.
columbo1971e1x04	major	The art critic Dale betrayed his young lover, Tracy. He led her to believe she was a talented painter. But in reality he was only using her to help him commit the perfect murder. He killed her in the end to make sure she wouldn't be around to blab about the crime.