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 of their names. Both come from Latin origins, Beatrice meaning “the bringer of blessings” and Benedick from the Latin name Benedict meaning “the blessed”. They both have therefore similar names and as someone cannot be blessed without the blesser it would seem that the two need each other.
Furthermore, in Act 2 scene 1 there is more evidence of love blossoming between them. At the start of the scene Beatrice is talking to Antonio and Leonato about her sexual relations and the perfect man, in her eyes, for marriage. She says, “He were an excellent man that were made just in the midway between him and Benedick”, this means that her idea of the perfect man is between an average man and Benedick. This means that Beatrice likes/loves some of the characteristics of Benedick’s.
Later in the same scene a masked ball takes place to honour the arrival of the Don Pedro and his followers. In the ball Beatrice and a masked Benedick begin to talk to one another however Benedick believes that Beatrice does not know it is him, but in truth Beatrice does know its him, but plays along as if
she doesn’t know it is him, and Benedick does not realise. Beatrice then talks to Benedick about himself saying, “the commendation is not his wit, but in his villainy”, criticising ********************** Benedick. She also says “he is the Prince’s gesture” meaning that he is only the Prince’s servant and he soaks the glory of the Prince for himself.
Also in the scene, the love between the 2 becomes evermore apparent when Beatrice is talking to Don Pedro about the love she once had with Benedick and Benedick with her. She says, “I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one.” This can be translated as she thinking that she loved Benedick twice as much as he loved her.
The final part of the scene consists of Don Pedro, Lenato and Hero talking about Benedick and Beatrice being perfect for each other and how they are going to bring the 2 together which would end the self-deception between them. Don Pedro exclaims “to bring Signor Benedick into a mountain of affection, the one with the other” giving high hopes to bringing the two together. Hero then pledges herself to the plan, “I will do any modest office, my Lord, to help my cousin to a good husband.” This then creates another major act of deception as Ursula, Hero, Claudio, Leonato and Don Pedro tell lies to Benedick and Beatrice about how they secretly are in love with each other. This is benevolent deliberate deception as it is benefiting Beatrice and Benedick. There is also malevolent deliberate deception for example when Don John deceives Claudio into thinking that Hero has lost her virginity. The deception by the 5 working together builds on the self-deception by Benedick and Beatrice as it eventually breaks the self-deception and Benedick and Beatrice fall in love with each other once again.
Secondly another of the most important and plot making parts of deception running through the play is the deliberate deception of Don John set up of Hero losing her virginity the day before she and Claudio were due to be married. Don John makes Borachio, one of the Don’s loyal servants, to have sex with a woman in public view and make it seem as if he is having sex with Hero. This is a great use of dramatic irony, which involves the reader, as they know that it is not really Hero losing her virginity and this creates tension within the audience and readers. The tension is created by the audience’s curiousness as to what Claudio will do when he sees “Borachio taking Hero’s virginity”.
This form of deception is malevolent deliberate deception as Don John intentionally provided misleading information to Claudio and Don Pedro who then decided to humiliate Hero when they are beginning the marriage. Furthermore because a woman who lost her virginity before she was married in the Renaissance period was seen as a horrific thing and was extremely shameful for the woman (which was most likely influenced by the devote Christian belief), this was seen as a complete insult to Claudio. Hero eventually protested enough to make the Friar and Leanato believe that they were false allegations made by Claudio.
Dogberry, the constable in charge of the Watch, is a character put in the play to lighten the mood. Almost all of what he says through the play are malapropisms which create a comic gap between events every time he is in the scene. This happens occasionally at critical times in the plot, which frustrates the reader/audience and creates tension and suspense.
Another major point of deception in the play, is when the Friar schemes with Leanato and Hero, to pretend that Hero died from grief when Claudio left her at the alter after he was mislead by Don John. The plan that was created was that, everybody would pretend that Hero had died, then hope that some evidence would appear to prove her innocence. There were many possible outcomes to the plan. Just 3 are:
- Claudio finds the proof good enough to find that she wasn’t unfaithful and feel bad
- Claudio still feels the information to be untrue and still believes Hero was unfaithful
- Hero would be sent to a Nunnery if the information was found to have lost her virginity
In fact the first outcome occurred after she was pronounced dead. Claudio felt so bad for killing Hero that he begged for forgiveness from Leanato and he eventually agreed to marry a cousin of Hero’s for forgiveness. He married her but just before he did the cousin was revealed as Hero which shocked all that thought that she was dead. The deceptive plan created by the Friar could be described as benevolent because it did bring love and trust between Claudio and Hero. Furthermore because it was carried out by a Friar, a man of God, it seems to give a moral in the play that perhaps deception is not always a bad thing to do.
In conclusion, Shakespeare used many different types of deception throughout the play to create a new unique idea, and show the diversity of his plays. He uses deliberate and self deception from the very start of the play to create an idea that deception is a wrong thing to do however once Shakespeare included the Friar into the deceptive plot, it gave the idea that deception can be used in good was aswell.