Leonato; the Governor of Messina, is a wealthy man who invites Don Pedro; the Prince, and his men to stay in his country home whilst they rest from a successful military campaign. Upon their arrival, one of the Prince’s men (Benedick) has starts a “merry war of words” with Leonato’s niece (Beatrice). The two seemingly despise each other, but they eventually are deceived into realising that they love one another. Another of the Prince’s men (Claudio) also falls in loves with Leonato’s daughter (Hero). They fall inlove but he is soon deceived into thinking she was unfaithful by the Prince’s brother, Don John the Bastard. There are many other examples of deception in the play, but they all link in with one of those two main deceptions.
There are many types of deception that are used through the entirety of “Much Ado About Nothing”, they include: self deception, deliberate deception and genuine mistakes. An example of self deception is Beatrice and Benedick deceiving themselves into believing that they do not love each other. Deliberate deception can be both selfless and selfish. Don Pedro proposing to Hero in the name of Claudio is selfless deception, whilst Don John tricking Claudio into believing the Prince proposes for himself is selfish. There are many genuine mistakes in the play, including Leonato believing that his daughter, Hero, has been unfaithful to Claudio. The use of deception in the play makes it more interesting and entertaining to the audience whilst giving the plot more depth. If Shakespeare had not used deception then the play would have just been another romantic drama about love and nothing else and it would have been very two-dimensional.
In Shakespearian times, women were considered to be objects that were fought over by men and they often had no opinion over who they wanted to marry. This is shown through the character of Hero. She is told by her father that Claudio is a brave and noble man and that she must marry him. This also shows that love did not play a very large role in marriage in those times, as even though they did love each other, Hero was told who to marry and was not allowed to choose who she loved.
In Act 1 Scene 1, Beatrice and Benedick meet for the first time within the play, although, it is inferred to the audience that they already know each other. “Beatrice: You always end with a jade’s trick, I know ye of old”. This also implies to the audience that they used to be lovers.
At the start of the play, the audience is lead to believe that Beatrice and Benedick despise each other. This is shown by the “merry war of words” that happens throughout the play but starts from the first time they met. “Benedick: What, my dear Lady Disdain. Are you yet living?”
“Benedick: Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher”
“Beatrice: Scratching could not make it worse, an ‘twere were such a face as yours.”
“Beatrice:I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you.”
Both Beatrice and Benedick try to mock and put down the other in front of their friends
However, they end up during the play, admitting their love to one another in private and so get together. They only admit to their friends that they love each other when their friends pull out love letters that they each wrote. This sudden change of heart from both Beatrice and Benedick only happens because Don Pedro devises a plan to deceive them both. Don Pedro plans for himself, Claudio and Leonato to deceive Benedick into thinking that Beatrice loves him by pretending to have a private conversation whilst he is eavesdropping. Hero and Ursula also do the same to Beatrice under the instructions of the Prince.
