As well as people deceiving others they also deceive themselves into thinking that they are people they are not. These are comical as the audience can laugh at them. One of these characters is a minor character called Dogberry. He is the constable of Messina and thinks that he would sound impressive using long words, he feels superior of the rest of the watch and wants to show it but instead he gets his words mixed up. This is called malapropisms which are common among characters in comedy programmes such as Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses and even Homer in The Simpsons. Examples of this are in Act 3, Scene 3 where he says allegiance but means treason, comprehend but means apprehend and tolerable but means intolerable. Another example of this is “You shall comprehend all vagrom men,..."Up to the trickster scenes (Act 2, Scene 3 and Act 3, Scene 1) Benedick is also deceiving himself by telling others that he will never get married and that no woman is to be trusted. He denies his love for Beatrice and hides it from her by putting up a defence using their war of words, “The savage but may, but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bulls horns, and set them on my forehead…”, “What, my lady disdain! Are you yet living?”. Beatrice also denies her love for Benedick and says that she will also never get married. Even after Don Pedro proposes to her, in Act 2, Scene 3, she declines; this could be because Don Pedro “…is too costly to wear every day…” or because she is in love with Benedick. She suggests that there is not a man alive who is suited to her, “… he that is more than a youth, is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him…”. We know that she is lying as further on in the play she admits her love for Benedick and he admits his love for her. Beatrice deceives the audience by at first showing that she doesn’t really care deeply about anyone but when Hero is disgraced she wants to protect her cousin and bring back her honour by any means possible and orders Benedick to “Kill Claudio.”. Hero also deceives everyone by giving the impression that she is a traditional Elizabethan heroine and has a strong father influence but when she is being wooed by Don Pedro she is very talkative and flirtatious. She is more confident and in command of herself, “I may say so when I please.”.
The male tricksters use hyperbolic language to trick Benedick into thinking that Beatrice is in love with him in Act 2, Scene 3. This is comical because it exaggerates everything and it is even more comical when we learn that Benedick believes what he overheard. Claudio says that Beatrice “…Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses, Oh sweet Benedick, God give me patience.”. Leonato also uses words such as “enraged affection” to illustrate how strong Beatrice’s feelings are, this is comical as from what we have seen of Beatrice’s character so far I know that she would not show enraged affection so plainly. Don Pedro also says “I would she had bestowed this dotage on me, I would have daffed all other respects, and made her half myself,…” which he has already done by this point but she refused. The tricksters also compliment Benedick to gain his trust and give him confidence, “He is a very proper man.”, “Before god and in my mind, very wise.”. In Benedick's reaction he makes arguments for marriage whereas in the Acts before this he was making arguments against marriage. Now he says “No, the world must be peopled.” This shows that he has completely changed his views. The change doesn’t stop there though, in Act 3, Scene 2 I found that Benedick had also changed his image from that of a soldier to a version of a gentleman. He still doesn’t admit that he is in love with Beatrice; instead he blames it on tooth-ache “Yet is there no charm for the tooth-ache…”. He has shaved off his beard which Claudio remarks “…the barber’s man hath been seen with him, and the old ornament of his cheek hath already stuffed tennis balls.” This links to an earlier remark made by Beatrice. There is also a comical moment at the end of Act 2, Scene 3 when Benedick meets Beatrice and refuses to engage in their usual war of words. He is trying to make the first move and looks for “marks of love in her”.
Don John deceives everyone apart from his followers Borachio and Comrade who plot with him to destroy the marriage of Claudio and Hero. He uses deception for malevolent intention which have the worst consequences. He is the bastard child, illegitimate and so he would “…rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace…” , this is different to how he acts around Don Pedro. In the first Scene he hardly appears and only has one line “I am a man of few words.” So you don’t notice him as much as Benedick or Don Pedro. He pretends to be close to his brother and Claudio in Act 4, Scene 1 for his plan to work, so that they think he is trustworthy when really he is evil and deceitful. He is a “plain-dealing villain”. Don John is the central character of disorder.
At the end of Act 3, Scene 2 you see Don John starting his plot to deceive Don Pedro and Claudio but you do not find out the result from this until Act 4, Scene1. When Don John enters there is a change of form.. The previous elabourate detail has gone and been replaced by short, blunt sentences. This shows urgency as Don John tries to get his brother and Claudio to trust him. Don Johns plan worked and Hero has been dishonoured. Claudio asks Leonato whether he will “give this maid” to him. Act 4, Scene 1 is a potential tragedy and has strong similarities to Romeo and Juliet. For instance, the Friar makes the plan and Hero will deceive everyone by pretending to be dead (she hopes this will make Claudio realise his true feelings for her), there is no comic deception in this scene and there doesn’t appear to be any sign of a marriage as it has just been broken off. Benedick is the first one to state that if anyone one do such an evil act as this it would be Don John, “The practice of it lives in John the bastard”. Leonato is so disgraced that he would rather be led than be the leader and is no longer ther key figure in Hero’s life. The consequences of the deception of Beatrce and Benedick are also shown in this scene as Benedick chooses his love of Beatrice over his friendship of Don Pedro and decides to challenge Claudio. He is no longer the jester. Also because of Don John’s deception Leonato accuses Claudio of being a “dissembler” in Act 5, Scene 1 which is the first time when somebody has actively accused in the play.
