Alison Yang House 3 lower 5
Compare And Contrast The 'GULLING' scenes in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing:Act 2 Sc 3
(the deception of Benedick) and Act 3 Sc 1 ( the deception of Beatrice )
Deception- to mislead, delude or cheat a person.In both scenes a character is decepted. In Act 2 Scene 3 Claudio, Don Pedro and Leonato deceive Benedict. They tell him that Beatrice is in love with him. In Act 3 Scene 1 Beatrice is deceived by Hero and Ursula. Both Benedick and Beatrice are deceived indirectly . All of the deceivers know that the person they are trying to deceive is listening to the conversation but Benedick and Beatrice think that they are simply just eavesdropping on a confidential conversation. This, however, makes it more believable for Beatrice and Benedick because they are not being directly spoken to and if the people that they overheard didn't know they were there which both Beatrice and Benedick think then there would be no point in lying about such a sensitive matter.
Both scenes are single sex scenes. This is probably because the women and the men would handle the situation in two completely different ways and it is easier for people to relate to other people of the same sex. They probably find it easier to express their true feelings in front of their own sex too. For example Hero is a minor role throughout the play except in her only single sex scene which is the gulling of Beatrice where her character increases status dramatically. Benedick's gulling scene is more of a comic scene rather than the more serious deception of Beatrice. This is probably because Benedick is a man and in this play men play a very insensitive, tough role. Leonato, Don Pedro and Claudio must. They said that Benedick was going to be a bachelor for the rest of his life.They have put a lot of thought into planning this deception because they used reverse psychology.
