According to the dictionary betrayal is the act of letting someone down deliberately or does something to cause harm to that person whether physically, or psychologically. In William Shakespeare’s play entitled “Much Ado About Nothing” betrayal is a theme that is been introduce at the very beginning of this play. Nevertheless, this constant stream of betrayal affects the outcome of the plot and characters in the play.
Betrayal is first introduce in the play when Don Pedro, Claudio, Leantato, and Hero, came up with a master plan to trick Beatrice and Benedick that they were in love with another. In order to convinced Benedick that Beatrice was in love with him , Don Pedro, Leanato and Claudio plan on talking about Beatrice undivided love for Benedick when they saw Benedick coming towards them. Benedick then hid into the bushes so that he could eavesdrop on the conversation which indeed in was the trap they set for him.
On the other hand, Hero, Ursula and Margaret played the same trick on Beatrice.
This stream of betrayal affects the plot because in the climax of the play Benedick and Beatrice confessed to each other that hey were truly in love which seems to affect the plot because after Claudio rejection to Hero, Beatrice became angry with him, thus she ask Benedick to challenge Claudio for embarrassing her cousin.
Lastly, Borachio betrayed Margaret by making her pose as Hero. At the night before the wedding Borachio using Margaret to have an affair in Hero’s bedroom so that Claudio and Don Pedro would believe that Hero was being unfaithful to Claudio on the night before their wedding day. However, Margaret did not know what Borachio was doing until the following day. She had thought that Borachio was in love with her but it turned out to be a dirty plan to ruin Hero’s life.
In addition this betrayal affects the plot the out come of the plot because this was the climax of the story because after this Claudio embarrassed Hero in front of the entire congregation and stated that she should die for her betrayal. However, Hero did not die because she was found innocent while Borachio, Conrade and Don John were arrest after framing Hero.
Therefore, after reading the play entitled “Much Ado About Nothing” by William Shakespeare one would have realized that betrayal was a theme in the play and as a result the plot and the characters was affected by this constant stream of betrayal.