An Exploration Of The Theme of Deception In much Ado About Nothing

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An Exploration Of The Theme of Deception In much Ado About Nothing

In his play Much Ado about Nothing Shakespeare presents the theme of deception in a remarkably convincing way. He seems to be bringing to the fore the fact that deception is life changing and not always bad. That there are various forms of deception justifiable and unjustifiable. He also discusses self deception and accidental deception.

Every character in the play takes part in deception in one form or other be it hero or Claudio or Beatrice or Benedick The theme of deception first appears in the scene 1.1 with the entry of Don john, who appears to be wearing a mask of deception as he makes polite but curt replies and immediately afterwards in scene 1.3 he pours out torrents of evil words about the very people in whose company he was earlier seen by the audience. These scenes along with the masked ball in scene 2.1 set the tone for the upcoming deceptions.

Shakespeare Presents Don John’s character as that of a self obsessed man, highlighted by his continuous use of the word “I “, whose deception of people is driven purely by hatred and revenge; his deceptions are mean and meant to cause destruction and trouble in other’s lives “I m a plain dealing villain”, brought to light by his use of violent animalistic imagery “if I had my mouth I would bite”. The first instance of this deception is seen in scene 1.3 during the masked ball as he tricks Claudio into believing that Don Pedro is wooing Hero for himself, which immediately makes the light hearted scene appear grimmer, by causing hatred, jealousy and confusion in Claudio’s mind against Don Pedro.

Further along the play he tricks Claudio and Don Pedro into believing that hero is a loose woman, the night before the intended Hero Claudio wedding which, almost destroys poor Hero’s life.Shakespere in this scene has carefully structured Don John’s words while he is conversing with Claudio, to make him appear convincing and almost emotional to Don Pedro and Claudio “You may think I love you not...” “if you dare not trust what you see…follow me, I will show you enough”. This deception unquestionably shatters hero’s and her family’s reputation, as Claudio publicly humiliates hero, and the use of metaphors to describe, hero” do not give this rotten orange to your friend” creates drama and wreaks emotion from the audience.  

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Similar to Don john his brother Don Pedro too appears to be wearing a deceptive mask, as even though he is polite, friendly and appears to be happy yet in the ending scenes, he is seen as sitting alone while the happy couples around him dance gaily. He too appears to enjoy deception but contrastingly his form of deception is meant to do people good, it is fun,lighthearted and almost comical,

The gulling of Beatrice and Benedick lightens the dark mood caused by Don John’s deception and provides comic relief. It also helps shape the lives of Beatrice and ...

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