Don John, the bastard brother of Don Pedro, is quite significant in the play as he is the main malevolent character. Throughout the first two acts of the play he plans two deceptions both involving Claudio and Hero and his purpose is to ruin their relationship. Don Johns reasons for doing this are to get revenge on Claudio because “That young start-up hath all the glory of my overthrow; if I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way”. Don John seems to be jealous of the relationship between his brother, Don Pedro, and Claudio. The plans are set in motion when in Act 1 Scene 3 Borachio reveals to Don John that he had been eavesdropping on a conversation between Don Pedro and Claudio and they had been arranging how Don Pedro will woo Hero for Claudio at the masked ball. The audience does not find out how Don John will deceive Claudio until Act 2. In this scene there is lots of disease imagery such as “canker” which is where the modern word cancer come from, this shows Don Johns bitterness towards Don Pedro as he says “I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace.”. The audience also begins to associate Don John with animals as he uses lots of animal imagery such as “I have decreed not to sing in my cage.”.
The next scene is the masked ball and shows Don Pedro wooing Hero, however she in fact thinks that Don Pedro wants her for himself as the servant who told Leonato had in fact misunderstood and did not realise it was Claudio who loves Hero. Shakespeare included a masked ball in this play as it is a perfect opportunity to create confusion as everyone is wearing masks. The audience also see people like Hero be more outspoken because she is wearing a mask and she says things she would not usually say. Also at the masked ball you find out Don Johns plan, he pretends to think Claudio is Benedick “Are not you Signor Benedick?” Claudio is intrigued and so plays along completely oblivious to the fact that Don John does know Claudio is himself. Don John manages to trick Claudio into believing that Don Pedro is only wooing Hero for himself and not for Claudio and so more deceptions are introduced.
The next deception the audience learn of is Don John and Borachios plan to ruin the marriage of Claudio and Hero. The plan is for Borachio and Hero’s servant, Margaret to be up at Hero’s chamber window together and while this is going on Don John will bring Claudio and Don Pedro to Hero’s window so they can witness for themselves Hero supposedly being unfaithful. The language used in this scene is dark with lots of disease and death imagery being used such as “sick in displeasure” and “What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?”, language like that is used to help the audience associate the two characters as being malicious. Appalling insults are also used against Hero and at one point Borachio calls her a “contaminated stale” which in modern language means diseased prostitute.
Balthasars Song in Act 2 Scene 3 is essential for setting up what happens next in the scene where Don Pedro, Claudio and Leonato trick Benedick into believing Beatrice is in love with him. The song begins with saying that men are deceiving everyone which is ironic as it is in fact the male characters in the play that do most of the deceiving. Nevertheless men in Messina society were always worried about their wives being faithful to them and did not want to be a cuckold. A cuckold is a man with little horns on his head because his wife had cheated on him. Cuckolds were believed to wear hats to cover up the horns and if any other man saw this they would laugh and see it all as a joke. However their banter often hid a very real unease that their own wives would become disloyal. There are images of cuckoldry throughout the play and particularly in Balthasars song. The song also goes on to say that men will never change but the irony is that this song is in fact a bit untrue because Benedick the “professed tyrant of their sex” that hates the idea of marriage is tricked into thinking he is in love with Beatrice.
There is also some self deception occurring between Benedick and Beatrice although Don Pedro, Claudio, Leonato, Hero and Ursula help mislead them. It begins with Benedick who is hiding from Don Pedro, Claudio and Leonato just so he can eavesdrop on their conversation. Of course they know he is there as it is all part of their plan to make him believe that Beatrice does actually love him. The same thing happens with Beatrice, she keeps out of sight from Hero and Ursula while they purposely discuss Benedicks love for her. The two scenes are mirrored and closely parallel with each other and in both each party use similar techniques to deceive Benedick and Beatrice. They criticise and flatter their subject, report what someone else has supposedly said and invent extravagant stories of the other in love. In both scenes there is also lots of metaphors and fishing imagery such as “Bait the hook well; this fish will bite”, there also is trapping imagery for example “Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps” and hunting imagery like “stalk on, stalk on, the fowl sits”. The purpose of these are to illustrate how both Benedick and Beatrice are being hunted and trapped in love.
In conclusion the theme of deception is introduced very effectively into Much Ado About Nothing and it is very clear throughout which characters are deceiving with good intentions and which characters are just doing it for their own malicious purposes. The men seem to be the most obvious deceivers in the play even though it is them who are the most worried about their women being faithful. On some level every character is deceived even if it is meant to be for their own benefit and it appears to be an everyday occurrence in Messina society. The dramatic irony is that in fact the only people that do not get deceived are the audience, who know throughout what is the truth. This makes it quite humorous and is essential for the plays comedy genre.
