Deception In Shakesphere's Much Ado About Nothing

In Much ado about nothing, a well renowned play by Shakesphere, the story revolves around the major theme of deception. The plot of the play is hurriedly and hilariously moved along by the lies told by other characters to bring the two couples together, or apart. After a series of misunderstandings, the couples are eventually married, the villain arrested and all is well. However, does the tangle of lies created come back to bite the characters’? Does lying, something we know to be morally wrong, really accomplish a positive influence on the characters’ lives?

One of the most memorable uses of deception in the play has to do with Claudio and Hero. Wanting to marry Hero, Claudio asks Don Pedro to woo her for him at a masquerade ball by pretending to be Claudio. This goes fine until our villain Don John creates another lie that Don Pedro is wooing Hero for himself. This makes Claudio and causes seeds of doubt to spring in his mind. Another example is the lie that Hero has been unfaithful to Claudio with another man, causing Claudio to publicly disgrace her. This leads to Hero being proclaimed dead. However, after some sleuthing, Hero’s reputation is cleared and she is married to Claudio. However, did the lies …show more content…
From the start, the two banter and bicker constantly. The other characters play matchmaker and try to get the two to believe, through deception, that the other loves them. The lies work and the two believe they love each other. At the end of the play, they defensively agree to get married. They almost find out the lie the others created, but the crisis was averted by some cheesy poetry they wrote for each other. Whether they truly loved each other or not, eventually they’ll find out all of the situations the other characters created were false. The play hints that the other two have been hurt before in love, seemingly by each other, and this might have damaging effects on the