Discuss the theme of deception in Shakespeare's

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Discuss the theme of deception in Shakespeare’s

 “Much ado about Nothing”

The play “Much ado about Nothing” written by William Shakespeare has a main theme of deception running throughout and everything in the play has its own connotations. For example the title can give meanings of either exaggeration or of sexual connotations. Furthermore the title could be made to be read as Much ado about noting as much of the action of the play revolves around interest in and critique of others, written messages, spying, and eavesdropping. It could give connotations of exaggeration simply because it much ado about nothing can mean there is a lot happening about something very small. The title may have sexual connotations as the word nothing was used by Shakespeare as an ambiguous word for the female genetalia. In fact the title much ado about nothing perfectly describes the plot of the play in a phrase.

The play starts when Prince Don Pedro and his 5 companions arrive at a Messina from a military campaign where Leonato, the governor of Messina, greets them and invites them to stay for a month. In Messina Benedick, one of Don Pedro’s companions begins to have a “merry war of words” with Beatrice, Leonato’s niece. This then blossoms into love at the end of the play however there are signs of it blossoming from the very start. Claudio, another of Don John’s companions, weds Leonato’s daughter, Hero, after he proposed to her, then was deceived into thinking that Hero had lost her virginity before the marriage, by the Prince’s brother, and attacked her at the alter. Just from this very basic outline of the main plots of the story, it is clear that deception is a very important theme of the play.

There are many examples of deception running through the play including deliberate deception, self- deception and just some simple mistakes. Don John sets up Hero and makes Claudio believe that Borachio is taking Hero’s virginity is one form of deliberate deception. In addition, an example of self-deception is Benedick and Beatrice hiding their love for one another and making themselves believe they despise each other. An example of a mistake is when Leonato believes that Hero lost her virginity before their marriage. The effect of the deception is that without any, the plot and the title would be meaningless.  It makes the audience become more interested in the play and without the theme of deception the play would become another romantic tale and would bore the audience.

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Firstly, the most important part of self-deception occurs right from the opening act to the final act. This deception is from both Benedick and Beatrice both hiding their love for one another. There is evidence of romance from the very first scene In Act 1 Scene 1 as Beatrice constantly criticises Benedick as she does throughout the play. Benedick also then begins to criticise Beatrice and a war of squabbling begins between the pair.  As soon as the names Benedick and Beatrice come are said to hate each other, there is some belief that they will come together because ...

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