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Deception In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

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Deception:
Literary analysis of William Shakespeare’s much ado about nothing

Much ado about nothing is a comedic play written by William Shakespeare. It is a story that contains many complex themes of love, marriage, Reputation and most of all deception. In the play there are many scenes of deception and dishonesty that frame the story. These occurrences affect the characters even though they sometimes may be malicious and at times compassionate. Much ado about nothing shows that deceit is not in actual fact evil, but something that can be used to do good or bad
Don John, the self-proclaimed villain, plays an essential role for nearly all of the trickery and deception in this play. He acts like a promoter and is an instigator for trouble, …show more content…

“She loves him with an enraged affection, it is past the infinite of thought.” (Leonato 2.3.108, 109) They dotted the story with enough truth about Benedick’s sarcastic wit and character that he believed it. He believed it more because Leonato was older and respected, and he expected him to speak truthfully. “I should think this a gull but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it. Knavery cannot, sure, hide himself in such reverence.”(Benedick 2.3.126-128) Their goal was to compel Benedick to swear his love to Beatrice, and it worked. Benedick admits, “They say the lady is fair; ‘tis a truth, I can bear them witness. And virtuous; ‘tis so, I cannot reprove it. And wise, but for loving me; by my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor no great argument of her folly, for I will be horribly in love with her... When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.”(2.3.233-237, …show more content…

Knowing Beatrice would listen to their conversation, they lured her in a similar way that Benedick had been seduced, by speaking of how much Benedick loved her and how he could not express his feelings because of his fear of being ridiculed by her and others. To disarm her of any suspicion of a ruse they mix with their lie some specks of truth, Hero speaks honestly about Beatrice’s character, “Oh god of love! I know he doth deserve as much as may be yielded to a man but nature never framed a woman’s heart of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice. Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes, misprizing what they look on, and her with values itself so highly that to her all matter else seems weak. She cannot love, nor take no shape nor project of affection she is so self-endeared.” (3.1.49-58) Their theatrical discussion is a success and Beatrice vows to requite Benedick’s proposed love. “And Benedick, love on; I will requite thee, Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand. If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee to bind our loves up in a holy band.”

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In order to get Beatrice and Benedick together, their friends and Beatrice’s family scheme to get them together and afterwards, Benedick changes into a completely different man just for Beatrice, especially when she is in terrible grief. Leonato, Beatrice 's uncle, Claudio, and The Prince lie about Beatrice loving Benedick and after he hears this, he says to himself, “It seems [Beatrice’s] affections have their full bent. Love me? Why, it must be requited!” (2.3.77). Benedick is thrilled by the thought that Beatrice has affections for him, even though he hasn 't fully thought this claim through.

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(2.3.231) The next scene is the final part of their plan, to convince Beatrice that she is in love with Benedick. Hero, Margaret and Ursula talk together while Beatrice is listening. Their conversation is fairly similar to the one the guys had. After the girls are done deceiving Beatrice and leave Beatrice comes to the realization that maybe she does love Benedick after all.

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That same commitment permitted him to overcome his unwillingness to marry and fear of being cheated, and made Beatrice swallow her pride and allow herself to become susceptible in love once more. It is this commitment, and the frequent times it is proved to us, which convinces the audience that the love between Benedick and Beatrice is a deeper love than Hero and Claudio’s .An important part of love is trust because it is the foundation. There are so many different types of love in this play. You see Benedick hates love, and he is also known for hating beauty.

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These are shown by how they speak to each other and act towards to each other. It affected the plot because they had conflict the whole story instead of admitting they love each other. Benedick is deeply in love with beatrice after don pedro, claudio, and leonato deceive him and beatrice loves him. Beatrice is a matron who is scornful and full of contempt and will not accept love. As a result, benedick becomes a different man and starts to dress and act more proper towards

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William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is a comedic play with a slight undertone of mystery, it follows the characters’ pursuit of love, lies and honor. The play follows a common theme of lies and deception and its effects on the relationship between the characters, most notably Claudio and Hero. This is explored thoroughly in the play, with Claudio being tricked by Don John into believing that Hero was having an affair behind his back, which resulted to him shaming Hero at the altar. However, in the case of Benedick and Beatrice, who start out as enemies, the lies and deception of their friends led to them accepting their love for one another. This essay will go through the following theme of lies and deception and its effects on the characters, both positively and negatively.

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The word deceit means to take action or practice deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth. In the novel Much Ado About Nothing, a theme of deceit is constantly present, and appears in many different forms. Deceit is used not only for wicked purposes, but mainly for good intentions. In Shakespeare's novel deception is used to initiate and continue the play's plot, by using the masking of characters, faking death and various other forms of deception to demonstrate how true deception can be in our lives. Deception can often be used to mask a certain identity for a particular reason.

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When Beatrice asks Benedick to duel Claudio for her, he agrees and plans to duel him. Benedick and Claudio are best friends who had fought in battle together, but the love of a woman completely changes Benedick’s allegiance from his fellow soldiers to his new love. Before falling in love with Beatrice, Benedick would have done everything possible to protect his brothers in battle. Now, love has emboldened him to make a choice that he would not have previously made. Benedick’s sacrifice of a meaningful friendship proves that he is now completely devoted to his relationship with Beatrice and is willing to do whatever necessary to preserve that relationship.

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Benedick over heard the three men talking about how much Beatrice loves him. Leonato promised it was all true because Hero said so. Lier, Hero never said that. Leonato also talked about how often Beatrice would wake up and not go to sleep until she was done with the letter. By overhearing this Benedick was over thrilled and realized that he did actually too love Beatrice.

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This is obviously a positive form of deception, because she Hero’s intent is to bring Benedick and Beatrice together.

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Deception is the act of making someone believe something that is not true and it has extensively appear throughout Shakespeare ’s play ‘Much ado about Nothing’. There are both negative and positive deceptions and each could lead to either a good or bad ending. There are various type of deception that have been explored thoroughly in Shakespeare's play such as self-deception, playful deception and malice deception. Throughout the play, each of the main characters fell victim of deception.

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This juxtaposes Claudio and Hero’s relationship is based on purely on physical looks, which are not always truthful. In an opposing manner, Benedick and Beatrice’s relationship was not started from a completely dishonest place. Over years they had built a relationship through passive aggressive remarks rather than physicality, thus ensuring that they would know each other at their core. Therefore in order to move the relationship along it only took light coaxing of the small truths to progress their love. For instance, in Act One Beatrice and Benedick’s “merry war” of arguments is viewed as a type of flirting instead of actual anger or annoyance towards each other (1.1.50-54).

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Benedick spent quite a while saying that he would never get married; he even went as far to say that he would “die a bachelor,”(II.iii.25). But, after overhearing Don Pedro, Claudio and Leonato discuss Beatrice’s love for him, his perception on the idea of marriage changed, which they were quite aware of. While commenting on Benedick’s appearance, Claudio states, “I hope he be in love,”(III.ii.28) to which Benedick replied, “ I have the toothache,”(III.ii.28). It is clear that Benedick was trying to change the subject to avoid discussing his interest in Beatrice out of embarrassment for his feelings. Despite believing that Claudio, Don Pedro and Leonato do not know of his love for Beatrice, it was they who planted it in his mind that Beatrice loved him first, but they play along to make him feel

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It was a set up marriage and she would just try to make the male proud. Relationships, in the modern day, are more egalitarian than they use to be. This allows Benedick and Beatrice to represent more of a modern time ideal couple, than Claudio and Hero. A great quote about relationships is “ Respect is as important as love in a relationships”

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Hero express that you must manipulate someone's love life no matter the consequences when she explains, “some cupids kill with arrows, some with traps” (3.2.112). You must use trickery, to reveal their true feelings for the other person. In Much Ado About Nothing trickery and deception are central themes in the play. At least, every character in this play have been a victim of trickery or deception. This comes to show that manipulation can reveal the true feelings and thoughts about one another.

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When Hero and Claudio relationship fell apart from a very ridiculous reason, Benedick and Beatrice stayed strong by each other side. Beatrice even though always believe in the independent life now she finally admits to Benedick that she loves him when she states, “As strange as the thing I know not. It wee as possible for me to say I loved nothing as well as you, but believe me not, and yet I lie not, I confess nothing, not I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin. ”(4,1,283-287).

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