The Use of Deception Underpins the Comedy of the Play "Much Ado About Nothing"

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“The use of deception underpins the comedy of the play ‘Much Ado About Nothing’.” Discuss the validity of this statement Within Much Ado About Nothing, deception is a major underlying theme, and it can be split quintessentially into two categories; being used with positive intentions (such as the deception of Beatrice and Benedick), or negative intentions (the deception of Claudio by Don John) with techniques such as contrast and noting, which are used both positively and negatively. However, the resolution of the play rely on the deception being unmasked, but some may argue that this means the play still relies on the use of deception to keep the plot flowing. Shakespeare develops the idea of deception in Act 1 Scene 1, when Don Pedro decides to woo Hero for Claudio, “If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it, and I will break with her, and with her father, and thou shalt have her.” The author is showing us from the very beginning that Hero’ and Claudio’s relationship is weak, as Claudio cannot even woo the woman he “loves”. Shakespeare is also commenting on the patriarchal Elizabethan society by saying that Don Pedro will speak with her father as well as her, as if he has more say in whom she loves than Hero herself. The word have is also used to suggest that women are objects to be owned, rather than an equal to love. Don Pedro tells Claudio to cherish his love for Hero, and one interpretation of this is that the intangible idea of love is more important in the 16th century than the woman being loved. Indeed, in Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116”, he writes “it [love] is an ever fixed mark […] though rosy lips and cheeks, within his bending sickle’s compass come”. Shakespeare is saying that love itself is eternal, but the women (“rosy lips and cheeks”) and their beauty come and go, thus saying love as an intangible idea is more important than the receiver of love.
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