Deception and Its Dramatic Effects in Shakespeares Much...

Deception and Its Dramatic Effects in Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night Shakespeare uses deception and trickery in both Twelfth Night and Much Ado to provide humour and dramatic irony for the audience. The deception also furthers the plot or sub-plot. The dramatic effects of this trickery are the irony, anticipation and empathy with the characters. In the scene from Much Ado, deception is used to create a romance which turns out to be more than is intended by the characters doing the deceiving. In Twelfth Night the purpose of the deception is purely for fun and to provide humour for the audience. Benedick is deceived by Claudio, Leonato and Don Pedro. Malvolio†¦show more content†¦He is deceived by way of a letter from Maria (pretending to be Olivia) which in fact says very little in direct terms. Maria and her friends send the letter because they are sick of Malvoilios self love. It is Malvolio himself who creates the deception by tricking himself into creating a meaning for everything in the letter, however cryptic. Malvolio is however; very capable of deceiving himself anyway and frequently does so, making it easy for the letter to have meaning for him Benedick is tricked into eavesdropping by a well planned conversation, which involves Benedick overhearing his name in a conversation-a typical way of intentionally getting someone to eavesdrop. He eavesdrops because he hears his name and the conversation follows through to the subject of romance, which captures Benedicks attention and keeps it, meanwhile Benedick is determined to stay hidden from Monsieur Love. He is told that Beatrice has an undying love for him but she would never tell him because it would ruin their constant wit matches. The deceivers signal to each other when they know that they have Benedicks attention by referring to hunting phrases, as though he has been caught into a trap, which indeed he has. Well fit the hid-fox with a pennyworth He believes what he hears because of everything that is said about Beatrice not wanting to tell him