In Act II scene 3, the play uses the character Benedick to explore the concept of benevolent deception. The scene poses the question of whether deception is acceptable if the deception is well intentioned or leads to a positive outcome. The poet leaves the outcome of Don Pedro’s deceitful plan open to interpretation, which complicates the idea of benevolent deception. At the beginning of this scene, Benedick is deceived by the facade of animosity between him and Beatrice and thus is unaware of his deep love for her. Benedick opens the scene by ridiculing Claudio for changing his personality due to his love for Hero and comments that he will never undergo the same transformation unless he meets a woman who is beautiful, virtuous, and wise. His self-delusion is reminiscent of my own feelings towards Madeline in High School. I constantly bickered with Madeline throughout my first three years of high school creating an illusion of mutual animosity. Similar to Benedick these supposed feelings of hostility only fooled Madeline and myself. My friends knew I had suppressed my true feelings and when they pointed this out I realized I had been deluding myself. Benedick also needed a little push to understand his feelings for Beatrice and our parallel experiences make Benedick an extremely relatable character. Unlike Benedick, however, my revelation was realized through honesty, while Benedick was deceived into understanding his love. The play uses this idea of benevolent deception to make readers question whether deception is morally sound in certain circumstances. The play’s goal in this scene is to make the audience question whether deception can be used for good. Don Pedro’s well-meaning, but deceitful plan appears to be successful considering Benedick changes his opinion on marriage and declares his love for Beatrice. He states that his friends will make fun of him because he attacked the idea of marriage for so long, but then rem