Deception In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

Deceit and trickery play a huge part in the play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. Deception is a key theme in the play, it also moves the plot along. Trickery and deception is used in the love stories of couples Hero and Claudio, and Benedick and Beatrice, with opposite results. This play demonstrates two different kinds of deceit: the kind whose only purpose is to cause trouble, and the kind that is used to form a good outcome. In the relationship of Hero and Claudio, deception nearly succeeds in breaking them apart forever, while in the case of Benedick and Beatrice, it brings them closer together.

In this world rumors and dishonesty happen to be everywhere, no matter where you are. Nowaday people start rumors just to hurt and insult people’s feelings that later on lead to dramatic events. In the story “Much Ado about Nothing”, we encounter different scenes that lead to rumors and deception. One scene that we encounter is when Don John, the bastard brother spreads rumors about Hero being disloyal to Claudio and Don Pedro to corrupt Claudio’s and Hero’s relationship. Another scene that we run into is when Ursula and Hero have a talk in the garden about how Benedick has love affection towards Beatrice. Later on, these two scenes play a huge role and become dramatic elements of the story. We will encounter on how rumors and dishonesty

pivotal part of the plot - it is what makes the story revolve and what

To begin, the infatuation seen between Hero and Claudio is shallow. Claudio had been similar to Benedick before seeing Hero. He was unappreciative of love and wrote off marriage; however, when Benedick asks if Claudio would marry, Claudio answers, “I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife” (I. i. 175-176). Without a second thought, upon viewing Hero’s beauty, Claudio is ensared. He develops new feelings for this woman based on nothing more than lust based upon appearances. Later, Claudio admits to admiring Hero before: “But now I am return'd and that war-thoughts Have left their places vacant,

Human nature is often considered in isolation from the rest of the world as if it would be an exception or a special case. In Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, the complexities of human nature are explored in depth. This essay will explore in particular how Shakespeare dramatises the concepts of human misunderstandings, deception and dichotomy through effective dramatic techniques.

Comparing it to Hero, he means that she might be beautiful and innocent on the outside, and trick you with that, but is actually not pure and corruptive. Claudio also says that Hero blushes “like a maid”, suggesting that she blushes with guiltiness and not modesty. He thinks to know what is really going on and this is an example where he tries to find anything that might go against her. He then accuses her of having “cunning sin”, referring to the fact that her cuteness will believably cover all her wickedness.

Shakespeare is known for his use of recurring themes throughout his work, including love, death and betrayal. These themes are present in his work of Othello. However, the most fundamental issue is jealousy. The lives of the characthers in Othello are ruined by jealousy from the beginning to the end of the play. The telling of the story is carried out by passion, jealousy, and death. Shakespeare’s Othello reveals devastating tragic inevitability, stunning psychological depth, and compelling poetic depth; the fragility and mysterious power of love, as well as demons of doubt, and how suspicion can be triggered by manipulative villain (Barthelemy 12).

Earlier in the play, a scene was described where Borachio and Don John plan to trick Claudio into thinking that Hero is diwsloyal because of a man in her chamber the night prior to her wedding. After the stated quote, the intent is to try and trick Claudio and show that Hero is disloyal when she is actually not. This quote presents significance by describing the overall trait of the entire act and scene which is the trickery and sabotage of Borachio and Don John upon the hapiness of all of the other characters in the play. Overall, the previouly described scene, in part with an already confused Claudio, makes this quote important to the wedding of Claudio and

Claudio had been tricked into believing he was going to marry “Antonio’s daughter”, who is really Hero. Claudio is easily tricked, but not always for bad causes.

William Shakespeare’s 16th century play Othello is a duplicitous and fraudulent tale set alternatingly between Venice in act 1, and the island of Cyprus thereafter. The play follows the scandalous marriage between protagonist Othello, a Christian moore and the general of the army of Venice, and Desdemona, a respected and intelligent woman who also happens to be the daughter of the Venetian Senator Brabantio. Shakespeare undoubtedly positions the marriage to be viewed as heroic and noble, despite Othello’s hamartia and subsequent downfall that inevitably occurs. Their marriage is then sabotaged by the jealous Iago, Othello’s ensign and villain of the play. While Iago’s ostensible justification for instigating Othello’s demise was his failure to acquire Othello’s position as lieutenant, Iago’s motives are rarely directly articulated and seem to derive from an obsessive, almost aesthetic pleasure in manipulation and destruction. Through the genre of the play, being a Shakespearean tragedy, and the structural devices employed by Shakespeare such as plot development, exposition, foreshadowing, dénouement, dramatic excitement, and catharsis, the key ideas of jealousy, appearance vs. reality and pride are developed and explored.

Coming back from war one would think that Claudio would be a strong man that will not be shy or timid. That because he just came from war he would be a man of man. Yet as the opening sense in every play that is performed he is shown as an every shy and timid man. In the David Tennant interpretation of the play Claudio looks like he is a song man yet when they leave to talk about hero he acts more like a shy and embarrassed to let the prince know that he is in love with hero. In the Joss Whedon version of it the same sense of the play when Claudio is talking about hero with Benedick he acts more like a child covering his mouth and embarrass about him know the fact that he is covering Benedick mouth is childish and it shows that he is not a man. In just reading the play form the book we do get a part of Claudio child behavior and that fact that he doesn't tell hero himself shows how much of a lesser man he

Much Ado about Nothing is a romantic comedy written by William Shakespeare. Deception is a repeated theme throughout the play and it performs an essential role in the matters relating to romance. There are two couples who unwittingly are participants in the matchmaking and the match breaking schemes of others. There is Claudio of Florence and Benedick of Padua who arrive at Leonato’s house in Messina with Don Pedro, after being away in battle. Then, there is Hero, Leonato’s daughter, and heir, as well as her devoted cousin, Beatrice. In Much Ado about Nothing Shakespeare uses language and literary devices to reassure the audience that love will persevere and prevail in the end. He achieves this by juxtaposing Benedick and Beatrice with Claudio and Hero.

The spectator of the play watches the Watchman watching Borachio while the latter narrates what he calls his tale relating how Claudio was inveigled into watching an artificial scene enacting Don John's fiction. Once again, what lies at the heart of this convoluted recursive machinery is a nothing (a nocturnal tryst between Hero and

Because noting/observing has such importance in Messina (and, by implication, Elizabethan society), manipulation and deception are used by the dark forces in the play to exercise power and control. Don John is a stock Elizabethan villain whose intention is to harm all those involved in his downfall – especially Claudio. Twice he tries to convince Claudio that Hero favours another. These episodes both involve deception and slander and this malevolence distorts Claudio’s perception of the events. Both times Claudio notes incorrectly and his willingness to believe falsehoods and attribute blame – first to beauty (“for beauty is a witch” 2. 1. 135), then to Hero’s base nature (“savage sensuality” 4.1. 135) – also point to self-deception about love, honour and women. Claudio’s failure to distinguish appearance from reality is brought about by his romantic idealism. Hero becomes an illusion in which all womanly virtue and beauty are contained (“Can the world buy such a jewel” 1.1.108-109). He can not note Hero’s flesh and blood humanity and, later, he can not note her innocence. His devotion to courtly ideals seems to be the real reason he can not distinguish appearance from reality and Don John’s slander only reinforces his natural

Othello is one of the greatest plays due to its variety of character and themes. The immorality seen in Iago, the gullibility in Othello, and the desperation of Desdemona make the story. The theme of social status plays a huge role in the story. In addition, the theme of appearance versus reality also plays a huge role in how each tragedy happens. In the critical essay “Othello” it discusses the idea that the characters are cast as outsiders due to false interpretation of what is happening or what is being said. On the other hand, the piece “Othello Character Analysis” emphasizes how characterization reflects the greatness of the piece.