dispute
Despite dispute over the centrality of the theme of deception in Shakespeare’s Elizabethan play, Much Ado about Nothing, many critics remain in agreement that deception serves a major role in bringing out the main message in the play. Set in the 16th Century Messina, the play brings to the fore the romantic lives of young individuals and the chaos at the centre of these lives. The main characters pull deceptive schemes on one another, some of which serve to unite while some of the deceptive schemes pull people apart. Both good and bad deceptive schemes ultimately yield results of the conspirators’ intentions. For example, Don John’s scheme to frustrate Claudio is successful upon the public repudiation of Hero by Claudio during their wedding.
A thorough study of the play would reveal that the deception portrayed in the play is key to the reception of the playwright’s message by his audience. This paper sets out to explore the role that instances of deception play in conveying the message borne by the play. There is also an interesting conclusion to the deceptive schemes in the play, which sees all of these deceptive schemes end with the revelation of truth. Through analysis of the actual work by Shakespeare and other secondary materials, it thus becomes plausible for to conclude that the play uses deception as a means of pointing out to his characters the truths that they are so stubborn to accept at first interaction.
Deceit in the play falls into two separate categories; malevolent deceit and malignant deceit. Shakespeare uses the malignant type of deception to make the lives of the characters better. An example can be made of Don Pedro’s schemes to unite Benedick and Beatrice and Claudio to Hero. Both Benedick and Claudio are close friends of their leader Don Pedro, with whom they return from battle. The two soldiers have performed exceptionally well during the battle and when they get to Messina, they both have revelations of what they would like to have for their love lives, albeit both having varying preferences. On the one hand Claudio is receptive to the idea of settling down in marriage and is instantly convinced that he would like to marry the governor of Messina’s daughter, Hero. He approaches Don Pedro to help him court the love of Hero. Don Pedro successfully manages to disguise himself as Claudio and convinces Hero to marry him.
The case of Claudio is the first of two plans that Don Pedro makes to help his two friend find wives, and it is successful. The deception in this case serves to help young Claudio to find love, and achieve his goal of marrying the daughter of the governor. In this way, Shakespeare uses deception to make the life of his characters better.
The second part of Don Pedro’s plan included the trickery of Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love with one another. Unlike Claudio and Hero, Benedick and Beatrice know each other from the past, and even have a “merry war of words” with one another whenever they have an encounter. Benedick and Beatrice share in their apparent distaste for romance and affection. They make it public that they would not like to get married, and it is this public declaration of hate for love that Don Pedro uses against them in his trick to bring them together. In his plan, Don Pedro arranges for both Beatrice and Benedick to overhear other people commenting their secret love for one another. First, Don Pedro uses the help of the governor, Leonato and Claudio to lay the trap for Benedick. The three have a conversation, wherein they attack the character of Benedick and how he is undeserving to be Beatrice’s object of secret admiration. They add that should Benedick learn of Beatrice’s affection he would act in a manner to break her heart, because Beatrice is a lady of good stature and background. Hearing what other people thought of Beatrice, Benedick decides to change his stance on marriage and considers marrying Beatrice.
A similar trap is set for Beatrice, who overhears her cousin Hero speaking to Ursula about how good a man Benedick is and his rather “unfortunate” attraction to Beatrice. They attack the character of Beatrice and add that she would better not learn about the affection that Benedick feels towards her. Once again, the words perform their intended magic an Beatrice is convinced that she needs to change her stance on romantic relationships, and consider marrying Benedick.
Hitherto, the instances of deception have helped the characters abandon their retrogressive stances to adopt better ones, and also joined two souls in matrimony. In such a manner, Shakespeare uses deception in this comedy to better the lives of his characters by uniting them in matrimony. Additionally, it is mentioned in the play that the Beatrice and Benedick had a prior engagement that ended with a heartbreak on the part of Beatrice. She is reluctant to admit that she loves Benedick and even hides behind her mask during the party and speaks foul about Benedick, pretending not to know that she was, in fact, speaking to Benedick. However, thanks to the deception scheme played on her, she brings herself to accept her love for Benedick. Against this background, one understands that Shakespeare used deception as a means to an end of showing the characters a piece of truth that they are stubborn to accept.
The second type of deception that Shakespeare employs in the play is of the malevolent kind. It is because of this other strand of deceptive schemes that the playwright introduces characters like Don John, Don Pedro’s illegitimate brother. Other co-conspirators of the evil deception schemes include Borachio, Conrade and Margaret. In the play, Don John is the villain, who is presented as a man of few words but one who enjoys to hurt other people and disrupt social peace. He is a man whose birth was out of wedlock thus he is not entitled to the glory that his brother, Don Pedro, has. His birth out of wedlock also meant, according to Elizabethan standards that he was not supposes to be prince, therefore he was not so close to his half-brother. There is an explanation that he had recently settled a conflict between him and Don Pedro, but there is not enough explanation on what they disagreed on.
Don John’s friend, Borachio, learns that Don Pedro is bent towards helping his friend Claudio land his dream woman, Hero. Borachio elects to enlighten Don John of the plan, not to help in the arrangement but to start their counter scheme to make sure that Claudio and Hero are not united in matrimony. Borachio understands that Don John dislikes Claudio and he ensures that he sells the idea of disrupting the planned wedding perfectly to the one person that would like Claudio to suffer. Don John goes up to Claudio and Don Pedro and informs them that Hero is unchaste and does not deserve the magnitude of honour that Claudio bestows on her. He offers to corroborate this claim, asking Don Pedro and Claudio to join him at night when they go out to spy on Hero. Burachio and Margaret disguise themselves as Hero and another man with whom she is supposedly engaged in a sexual relations before she is married.
Don John manages to convince Claudio that Hero does not deserve him, and he should not marry her. Claudio elects to publicly repudiate Hero during the wedding, which he does and leaves his betrothed for dead at the altar before the bride’s family and the entire society. Claudio’s actions could be justified, looking at the incidence from an Elizabethan perspective but the modern day world, would frown upon his actions.
Albeit destructive, the deception plan against Claudio bears sufficient information for the audience with regards to masculinity during the 16th century. First off, the Claudio’s deception is thrust in front of the audience for judgement. Claudio presents himself as an honourable man and possesses an air of nobility around him. He behaves like a nobleman yet he is just a victorious warrior whose outstanding achievement during war plays a major role in shaping the fame that he receives. However, behind this noble appearance, Claudio conceals a mean nature of insecurity and lack of compassion. His distrust of women is what makes him an easy target for Don John to successfully carry out his deception on him. Claudio is easily duped because he, like most men during the Elizabethan era, believes that women are not to be trusted.
Moreover, his first instinct of publicly shaming the daughter of the governor based on unverified information is reason enough to dismiss his pretended nobility. The decision diminishes his earlier established class to a much lower level of a man who is not well enlightened. The act is a show of a lack of compassion at a time when he needed to show care to his bride the most. He scolds Hero and slut shames her then leaves her for dead, in the most heartless of manners. Should he have had some shred of dignity, he would have resolved the matter in private or even simply cancel the wedding. Instead, he chose to act barbarically. Shakespeare exposes to the audience the true nature of an otherwise civilized young warrior.
From the deception scheme on Claudio by Don John, the audience also learns that the insecurities of men were a primary cause of the societal disharmony in Messina. Claudio is, for some reason, convicted to the thought that the governor, Leonato is short-changing him by granting him his daughter’s hand in marriage, yet she is not a lady of honour as everybody thinks. He is unable to think clearly because he expects people to be cunning. He does not believe that women can be trusted despite Hero’s attempts to plead her innocence. His sparks of distrust in women are ignited by the trickery of his real enemy, Don John. He fears becoming a cuckold thus lashing out on his bride on their wedding day.
Using the play, Shakespeare comments on sex and sexuality in Elizabethan England. Women were expected to remain virgins until marriage. However, some people thought of it okay that people engaged could practice sex before the day they exchanged vows. This thus meant that women who had experience at least before the engagement were a cause of shame to their parents and especially an element of dishonour to their fathers. In the play, despite Claudio being engaged to Hero, he does not involve in sexual activity with her because he wants her to be chaste on their wedding night. Therefore, Claudio feels as though his patience with Hero was worth nothing. Looking at his actions from this moral standpoint, Claudio’s actions are justified, because he believes that women should not be sexually active until they are married. The text could therefore be interpreted as a means through which William Shakespeare wanted to pass a comment on the position of sex in the society. He seems to be advocating for patience on the part of people who are engaged because they have not yet exchanged vows at the altar.
Conclusion
Much Ado about Nothing as a title speaks much of what one should expect while interacting with the Elizabethan play by William Shakespeare. The title prepares one with the message that whatever fuss the characters make about a particular matter is of no substance as the truth would reveal that they are frivolous endeavours. The title is enough testament that the play’s central theme is deception and the playwright uses the theme to pass important messages about characters and the society during 16th century. Shakespeare artistically uses deception to bring to the audience’s attention the fact that Benedick and Beatrice could soften their stances on marriage and become a model couple at the end of the play. In that manner, deception was a tool to better the lives of the characters by giving them what they deserved.
Additionally, Shakespeare uses the element of deception as a means to an end such that the members of the society could understand the characters of some of the characters of the play. Effectively so, Much Ado about Nothing applies deception as a means of revealing to his characters aspects of truth that they seem comfortable to ignore.