Much Ado About Nothing Deception

Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing is fueled by deception. Without lies, Benedick and Beatrice would never have admitted their mutual love and married their respective equally stubborn soulmates. A small deception also lead to a faked death, a public shaming, and a man swearing to his love that he would kill his close friend. The difference in these deceptions is in the motive. Proper deception “leads to social peace” and is done with the intention of alleviating self deception (Henze 188). Wrong deception, however, “breeds conflict and distrust” through purposefully creating deceptions that spread lies and falsehoods (Henze 188). A character’s emotional state determines the ability of others to deceive them wrongly; a character flushed with giddy love is less likely to be deceived than one who feels dishonored and embarrassed.
Claudio had not even been married to his fiance before his biggest fear came true: he became a cuckold. Within his friend group, the men extensively “joke about cuckoldry” (Smith). Due to the incredibly perpetuated scorn for men that have been cheated on, when Claudio is put into that position himself, he feels immense wrath and shame. He feels dishonored by Hero, and feels all of those “anxious jokes about cuckoldry” traded between batchelors in a newly personal way (Dobson). This shame and powerfully negative emotion is what leads Claudio to cave to Don John’s deception and publicly humiliate