Margaret is involved in disguise when she poses as Hero in Don John’s plan to ruin Hero’s reputation and seek revenge on Claudio and Don Pedro. In this, she wears Hero’s clothes and answers to Hero’s name.
Hero, Beatrice, Margaret and Ursula all appear disguised in the second wedding, that of Claudio to Hero. They are all masked in order to stop Claudio guessing that he has been deceived until he has married Hero. This clearly works as Claudio says:
‘Which is the lady I must seize upon?’
(Act 5, Scene 4, Line 53)
The deliberate deception of others that occurs in the play occurs in many different circumstances; some deception is to right the wrongdoings and some is a result of malicious intent.
In the play Don John and Borachio are behind two deceptions, both of which are intended to seek revenge on Claudio and Don Pedro. In the first plan, Don John falsely tells Claudio that Don Pedro is in love with Hero and intends to woo her for himself:
‘I heard him swear his affection.’
(Act 2, Scene 1, Line 125)
This plan fails when Don Pedro explains to Claudio that he is mistaken in thinking that Hero has been wooed for Don John himself.
The second plan involves more people and is carried out with much more malevolence. The plan, devised by Borachio and Don John in Act 2, Scene 2, involves Don John telling Claudio that Hero is being unfaithful and can that he can offer evidence to prove it. The evidence will, in fact be Margaret, dressed as Hero, and Borachio at Hero’s balcony. In Act 3, Scene 2 Don John goes to Claudio and Don Pedro to tell of Hero’s disloyalty:
‘I came hither to tell you, and circumstances shortened (for she has been too long a-talking of), the lady is disloyal.’
(Act 3, Scene 2, Lines 75-76)
Claudio, Don Pedro and Leonato undertake a task, at that masked ball, to bring Beatrice and Benedick together. They decide to do this by deceiving them into thinking that each is in love with the other but too proud to say. It is in Act 2 that Leonato, Claudio and Don Pedro have a conversation, knowing that Benedick can overhear them, discussing how much Beatrice is in love with him. At the end of this scene Benedick decides to reciprocate her love:
‘For I will be horribly in love with her’.
(Act 2, Scene 3, Lines 191-192)
Ursula and Hero fool Beatrice in a similar way in Act 2. They talk of Beatrice’s scorn of Benedick and how ‘wise’ and ‘noble’ Benedick is. This makes Beatrice determined to requite the love Benedick supposedly has for her:
‘And Benedick, love on, I will requite thee’.
(Act 3, Scene 1, Line 111)
Claudio is again deceived, in Act 4, when he is led to believe that Hero is dead. The Friar and Leonato decide that it is best if Hero is believed to be dead before her reputation can be cleared and so that Claudio will feel remorse:
‘She dying, as it must be so maintained,
Upon the instant that she was accused’.
(Act 4, Scene 1, Lines 207-208)
As a sign of his remorse, Claudio promises to marry Leonato’s niece. He is, however, being deceived again as the woman he will marry is, in fact, Hero. Leonato explains what he wishes Claudio to do:
‘But yet my nephew: my brother hath a daughter,
Almost the copy of my child that’s dead,
And she alone is the heir to both of us,
Give her the right you should have given her cousin,
And so dies my revenge.’
(Act 5, Scene 1, Lines 255-259)
Noting is a very significant part of this play. The title draws upon a pun of noting as the word ‘nothing’ would have been pronounced ‘noting’. Many characters are deceived as a result of noting or noting mistakenly.
In Act 1, Claudio believes that he is in love with Hero and he has not spoken to her, only noted her:
‘In mine eye, she is the sweetest lady that I ever looked on’
(Act 1, Scene 1, Line 139)
It would appear that Claudio is not in love with Hero, as he does not know her, but he is in love with her appearance or her status.
Benedick and Beatrice are successfully deceived through the use of noting in the form of eavesdropping. They both choose to believe what they have noted and perceive each other differently because of it, as Benedick shows when he sees Beatrice coming to call him for a meal:
‘I do spy some marks of love in her.’
(Act 2, Scene 3, Lines 199-200)
After this deceit, Benedick changes his appearance becoming more sophisticated and admirable to appear more attractive to Beatrice. Leonato, Don Pedro and Claudio note this change and also that Benedick may be in love:
‘he is no fool for fancy, as you would have appear he is.’
(Act 3, Scene 2, Lines 29-30)
The Watch note Borachio and Conrade, through the use of eavesdropping, and they find out possibly the piece of deception most central to the play: Don John’s plan. The Watch over-hear this deceit:
‘Some treason, masters, yet stand close.’
(Act 3, Scene 3, Line 88)
This information is, however, misinterpreted and Hero’s innocence is found out too late, thus deceiving many into thinking she has been disloyal.
In the final scene, Benedick has a literal note, in the form of a sonnet declaring his love for Beatrice. This is revealed by Claudio:
‘For here’s a paper written in his hand,
A halting sonnet of his own pure brain,
Fashioned to Beatrice,’
(Act 5, Scene 4, Lines 86-88)
Hero, similarly, reveals a note belonging to Beatrice showing her love toward Benedick:
‘And here’s another,
Writ in my cousin’s hand, stol’n from her pocket,
Containing her affection unto Benedick.’
(Act 5, Scene 4, Lines 88-90)
These notes suggest that Beatrice and Benedick may not have been deceived into loving each other but into confessing the love that they already held for each other.
A number of instances of self-deception also occur in the play. In Act 1 Claudio believes that he is in love with Hero. He is deceiving himself as he does not know Hero, only her appearance. Also in this scene, we can see that Don Pedro has deceived himself into believing that Don John is a changed man and that he is now a good and honest man. In reality Don John is not honest and is behind most of the deception in the play.
In the beginning of the play, Benedick and Beatrice are also subject to self-deception. They are convincing themselves that they hate one another and engage in a ‘merry war’:
‘You must not, sir, mistake my niece: there is a kind of merry war betwixt Signor Benedick and her: they never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them.’
(Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 45-47)
In ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, Shakespeare explores the many facets of deception. He uses a variety of scenarios to show how deception can create confusion, humour and conflict. The use of disguise at the masked ball creates humour but also gives Don John the opportunity to cause conflict between Hero, Claudio and Don Pedro. The deliberate deception of others is also used to trick Beatrice and Benedick into confessing their love for one another and making Claudio marry Hero. Noting plays a major part in the development of the plot; conversations and situations that are misinterpreted through noting have a significant effect on the action and humour in the play. Self-deception, as a result of this noting, also affects the outcome of the play. Claudio is a victim of self-deception. He notes Hero’s appearance and status and believes that he is in love with her, although, he has not got to know her true personality.
Typically, Shakespearean comedies end in a marriage with good triumphing over evil, however, unpredictability is added to ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, with the use of deception, making it a less traditional, but more humourous, Shakespearean comedy.
