Johnston

English 47

September 14, 2005

Deceit in Much Ado About Nothing

Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is full of masks: masked revelers, false identities, and veiled brides. The use of masks in the imagery of the play is no coincidence; it is a visual metaphor for the characters’ masking of their own emotions and true selves, and reflects the constant trickery and manipulation the characters use to reach their goals. But it is more than just that; the constant subterfuge is more than plot, and in fact expresses one of Shakespeare’s beliefs: that life is theatre.

Most of the main characters engage in emotional trickery in one way or another during the course of the play. Benedick and Beatrice are the most obvious examples of this, in their masking of their love for one another. That they are actually in love before the intervention of Don Pedro and the others is debatable; however, there are times when it would certainly seem so. The pain Benedick feels due to Beatrice’s insults is clearly illustrated when he says, “She speaks poniards, and every word stabs.” (II.i.216) Beatrice’s possibly amorous history with Benedick shows through in the line, “You always end with the jade’s trick; I know you of old,” suggesting that she has almost trapped him in the past, perhaps with marriage, only to have him escape. (I.i.145)

Don Pedro is another interesting example of this hiding of emotions; he would seem to be a lighthearted young matchmaker, if not for the melancholy he shows at the end of the play. There are shadows of it beforehand, particularly in his wooing of Hero for Claudio: what could possibly drive him to do such a thing? It is not so farfetched an action if Don Pedro is in fact incapable of wooing for himself, as is seen when he proposes to Beatrice. His reaction to her refusal is one of acceptance, as if it has happened many times before, for precisely the reason she cites.

In addition to these main characters and their emotional masks, many of the less prominent characters also engage in artifice, as when Borachio persuades Margaret to dress up like Hero, and Leonato spreads the news of his daughter’s death.  The effect of this ever-present trickery and deception is to constantly remind the audience that they themselves are being deceived. The aim of theatre is generally to convince the audience to suspend their disbelief and be fooled by the roles the actors take on; however, in Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare turns this on its head, instead pointing out the falseness of the action before them. This is reinforced not only by the trickery used constantly as a plot device, but even by the very lines Shakespeare puts in his characters’ mouths, such as Beatrice’s, “Speak,  Count, ‘tis your cue.” (II.ii.316) Furthermore, this artificiality exposes the similarities between theatre and real life, how the audience members in fact use their own form of theatre and their own characters to achieve their aims in their daily lives. In effect, Shakespeare is comparing the stage and reality, and dissolving the boundaries between them, a theme seen in many of his works.