The deception in this example is that both characters deceive themselves. The audience can tell that they are well suited from the beginning of the play and can probably guess the outcome of their relationship.
Benedick tries to present himself as a very masculine and proud man that all women are attracted to. ‘It is certain I am loved by all ladies’. When he talks about women with other male characters he proudly acts as if he does not want to get involved with women emotionally and calls himself ‘a professed tyrant to their sex’. He criticises Claudio when he falls in love stating ‘You have no intent of turning husband do you?’ and ‘Shall I never see a bachelor of three-score again?’ although it is clear to the audience that he is concealing his true feelings. Benedick maintains the belief that ‘he will live a bachelor’, although as the play proceeds, his feelings become clear and that he is ‘horribly in love’ with Beatrice.
Beatrice and Benedick deceive each other again at the masquerade ball. While Beatrice pretends to not know that she is dancing with Benedick, she begins to insult him by calling him the “prince’s jester” and that “none but libertines delight in him”, all the while Benedick believes that he is deceiving Beatrice into thinking that he is someone else.
There is another example of deceit at the masquerade ball involving Don John ‘the Bastard’. He acts upon Claudio’s innocence and gullibility. While Don Pedro is ‘wooing’ Hero for Claudio, Don John deliberately mistakes Claudio for Benedick and tells him “the Prince woos for himself” This deception was performed out of spite for Don Johns own entertainment. This makes Claudio feel ‘something of a jealous complexion’ and infuriated with Don Pedro. However, as soon as Den Pedro announces ‘Here, Claudio, I have wood in thy name and fair Hero is won’ Claudio does not even question Don Johns motive or intentions. This gives the audience a better knowledge of the character and helps the audience to understand the way he acts when he is told of Hero’s infidelity later in the play.
In Act Two, out of pure amusement Don Pedro asks Leonato and Claudio to assist him in bringing Beatrice and Benedick together, ‘If we can do this Cupid is no longer an archer and the glory shall be ours’. Claudio, Leonato and Don Pedro notice Benedick in the garden an attempt to trick him into falling for Beatrice.
The three men do this by loudly discussing Beatrice’s unrequited love towards him and in his eavesdropping, he believes them and shows his feelings in his soliloquy. ‘This can be no trick . . . I will be horribly in love with her.’ Benedick realises that he loves Beatrice also when he says ‘Why, it must be requited.’
In Act Three, Hero, Margaret and Ursula perform the same trick on Beatrice to make her fall in love with Benedick.
They speak highly of Benedick ‘praise him more than ever man did merit’ and say that ‘Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely’. In her eavesdropping Beatrice falls for the same trick ‘If it proves so, then loving goes by haps: Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps’
In Beatrice’s soliloquy she discloses her thoughts of Benedick’s false affections towards her. She is willing to tame her heart so that Benedick and she can be together. ‘Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand’. Beatrice’s submissiveness shows her subconscious yearnings to be in love, as well as Benedick – even though she and Benedick are not willing to admit it.
The next example of deception initiates the main drama of the play. Don John again, acts upon the gullibility of Claudio mentioned earlier. Don John devises a plan to trick Don Pedro and Claudio into seeing Borachio and Margaret, pretending to be Hero and her secret lover, at Hero’s window. But even before he has witnessed anything, Claudio speaks of shaming her at their wedding. ‘Where I should wed, there I will shame her’. When he unknowingly sees Margaret and Borachio instead of the supposed Hero and her lover, Claudio is infuriated and Don Pedro agrees to shaming her on their wedding day. ‘I will join thee to disgrace her’
Although the next form of self-deception is not vital in the play, Dogberry, head of the watch is a major source of humour. His continued misunderstandings and malapropisms show that he believes himself to be an intelligent man while he proves himself to be ‘an ass’. Such malapropisms include ‘who think you to be the most desertless man’ when he clearly means deserving.
In Act 4, Claudio announces that Hero ‘knows the heart of a luxurious bed, Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty’. It is ironic that Claudio also says ‘are our eyes our own?’ because he seems to be using everybody’s eyes but his own throughout the entire play. This postpones the wedding and creates confusion among every one around. Claudio shows no sense of trust in Hero and neither does her father Leonato. Right away he says that the only forgiveness for such a sin would be death, even though the rumour of her infidelity has not been confirmed.
After the public shaming of Hero at the wedding, Friar Francis conducts another plan of deception upon Claudio and Don Pedro. Friar Francis suggests that ‘Let her a while be secretly kept in, and publish it that she is dead indeed’ to make Claudio feel guilty and realise his mistake. This is an essential part of the play because otherwise Claudio would continue to believe that Hero was ‘a rotten orange’ and her reputation would be ruined.
In Act 5 the final example of deception in the play is yet again conducted against Claudio. After Claudio has been told of Hero’s innocence he feels a vast amount of remorse. And asks Leonato to ‘Impose me to what penance your invention, Can lay upon my sin.’ To which he replies that as ‘you could not be my son-in-law, Be yet my nephew: my brother hath a daughter’. Leonato proposes that Claudio marries Antonio’s daughter as a way of redeeming himself, although it is Hero that will marry him. At the wedding the women come out wearing masks to hide their identities, believing that he is about to wed Antonio’s daughter, Claudio asks ‘Sweet, let me see your face’. This is a great scene because it builds up excitement within the audience, as they know that Hero will be the one to marry him instead. When Hero unmasks, Claudio is overjoyed to witness ‘another Hero!’
In ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ deception is used tactfully to manipulate the thoughts of nearly every character. It is ironic and a comical essential in the play that nearly every character is too distracted by trying to deceive other characters to realise that they are being deceived themselves.
