Claudio having fallen in love with Hero intends to marry her and with Don Pedro’s help he will ask for her hand in marriage. The arrangements are made and they are to be wed in seven days. This whole arrangement is almost an illusion to Claudio; he does not properly know Hero and so his image of her can easily be influenced, which it is. Soon enough Don John appears and tells Don Pedro and Claudio that Hero is a betrayer “Go but with me tonight, you shall see her chamber window entered, even the night before her wedding day.” Pg 77. Claudio easily believes this, “If I see anything tonight why I should not marry her, tomorrow in the congregation, where I should wed, there will I shame her.” Pg 78. This happens and Hero is shamed in front of the whole congregation and Claudio says to Leonato “There Leonato take her back again. Give not this rotten orange to your friend” pg 89. Here Claudio metaphorically calls Hero a rotten orange, the oranges in Seville are beautiful and to be a rotten orange shows just how impure and soiled he sees Hero now. Claudio even goes far as to list the several illusions in his eyes which Hero has displayed. He says she seems to blush like a maid, but she blushes out of guilt. He then uses a simile saying “You seem to me as Dian in her orb”, then goes on to say she is really a vicious animal. Finally he says that she seemed to look like a maid but is really an established whore. Eventually we know she is the pure virgin she seemed to be as all is revealed in act 5 scene 1. Claudio’s ignorance of Hero as a person leads to this great misunderstanding and tragic main scene in the play, which Shakespeare has used as a foundation to build upon, right up to the climax of the play.
The second illusion is the whole of Act 2 Scene 1. It is where Antonio and Leonato are talking and Antonio tells his brother that one of his servants heard that Don Pedro told Claudio that he was in love with Hero and intended to woo her that night at the mask ball then ask for her hand. This is a great illusion, as Antonio’s servant heard wrong. The prince said he was going to woo Hero for Claudio who was deeply in love with Hero. Leonato’s reaction to this is disbelief; he at first inquires whether the servant has any intelligence. “Hath the fellow any wit that told you this?” pg 47. Obviously this is a shock to Leonato who would never think that the Prince of Arragon would ask for his daughter in hand. They both eventually agree to hold the incident as a dream until the masked ball itself arrives, in the meantime Leonato says that he will inform his daughter about the incident so that she is prepared if any such thing should happen. Ironically in the next scene Borachio interprets a different story to Don John, saying that Don Pedro intends to woo for himself and then hand Hero to Claudio. Shakespeare maybe showing us here that eavesdropping or just hearing by chance can lead to trouble and undoubtedly illusions. However on the other hand it may be just a tool used to encourage the illusions in the play, therefore adding to the foundation of the world of the play.
A deception can be defined as a cause to believe something which is not true and is also exactly what Don john succeeds in doing with Claudio. Claudio being the more conventional character in this play and therefore very vulnerable to new ideas is fooled by Don johns deception and believes him when he says that Don Pedro is wooing for himself. Although it could be argued that he only believes this because he pretended to be Benedick instead of himself, and that maybe Don John would not have told him if he knew it was Claudio. Even so, he did pretend to be Benedick and so faced the consequence, which was to find that Don Pedro was only wooing hero for himself. Not only this was a deception but also the whole masked ball is a deception in itself, everyone was unidentifiable and therefore everyone was a deception to everyone else. Shakespeare used this to form the beginning of the next drama in the play and that was the one between Beatrice and Benedick when they are partners and Beatrice expresses her feelings about Benedick with out making an attempt to conceal her identity. Benedick on the other hand conceals himself and plays along, only to later say that Beatrice did not know it was him, to save his face. This was a small deception, but still it shows us that the play does depend on deceptions as well as illusions to introduce each different part of the play and its encounters.
Finally the last deception is the self-deception of Dogberry. Dogberry is the chief of the watch, which is not considered with authority, but merely mockery. It is ironic as the watch and Dogberry are the ones who actually reveal the truth about Don Johns masterful plan yet they are seen as the joke of the village, they have no real responsibilities and are not required to do much. However without the watch and Dogberry there would be no ending to the play and little comedy, for Dogberry is a main comedic character in Much Ado About Nothing. The self-deception is that dogberry tries to be something which he isn’t and that is witty. He has no status without the title as chief of the watch and he continuously fools himself by using words which have a completely different meaning to what he is trying to say and are most of the time irrelevant. He does this so that he sounds intelligent and higher in rank and status. The device, which Shakespeare uses to portray Dogberry as this character, is by using Malapropisms. However not only malapropisms are used to convey this, Dogberry also creates words which don’t exist and his explanations to situations make no sense at all.
In all of Dogberry’s speeches he uses malapropisms. The first instance is Act three Scene three where Dogberry is instructing his men on what to do. An example of a malapropism used by Dogberry is “This is your charge: you shall comprehend all vagrom men;” pg 79. Here Dogberry is telling the appointed constable what his task is and he says that he must comprehend instead of apprehend all vagrom instead of vagrant men. There are two instances here, one is where he uses a word in the wrong context and the other is where he has created a word which sounds like the one he actually means to say, vagrant. Another example is “ for for the watch to babble and to talk is most tolerable and not to be endured” pg 79. Here Dogberry actually means to talk is most intolerable, however he uses the opposite.
The method used by Shakespeare to show Dogberry’s ignorance and unintelligence is very effective as we get this idea instantly. Dogberry is also mocked several times by other character in the play, one with Leonato in Act three Scene five when Dogberry is trying to explain to Leonato the incident with Conrade and Borachio but does not succeed and eventually Leonato gives up, he says “Neighbours you are tedious” pg 87. Obviously Leonato is bored and of course Dogberry misunderstands this and confuses things. The second is when he is examining Conrade and Borachio, and he does this in a slow pace confusing things with his malapropisms and misinterpretations. Conrade sooner or later gets tired and resorts to calling Dogberry an ass, which deeply offends Dogberry. The last instance is when Dogberry is trying to explain to Don Pedro why Borachio and Conrade are chained. He starts by saying that they have committed false report, then says “ secondarily…sixth and lastly…thirdly..and to conclude they are lying knaves” pg 110. Don Pedro then parodies this putting them all in the right order and Claudio joins in with the mockery. So Dogberry has his own self-deception where he sees himself as a much more superior and elevated person than he actually is and he does this by using malapropisms. Again this tells us that much of the play’s foundation is based on deceptions and illusions, which help move the play onwards and finally end the play.
One thing, which I noticed, is that most of these deceptions and illusions are tragic, not comedic which brings me onto the genre of the play. Much Ado About Nothing contains many comedic incidents and many tragic incidents. However there is more comedy in the play than tragedy, which leads me to believe that this play is a comedy, nonetheless it could be argued that the shaming scene is so tragic and melodramatic that it is more of a tragedy than a comedy. From looking at the play with close analysis, there are many more comedic characters and events than tragic ones. Some could argue that Don John is the tragic character however, Don John is such a typical character and he follows so many conventionalised formalities that he becomes almost a comedic character. As are Benedick and Beatrice, and Dogberry with his watchmen.
In conclusion, Shakespeare has used illusions and deceptions as a foundation to be built upon which slowly forms the play. Some illusions and deceptions are humorous however others are more tragic or lead to tragic events. Overall the play does depend on illusions and deceptions which are the foundation of the world of the play.
