Much Ado About Nothing Don Pedro Quotes

As Beatrice tosses out Don Pedro’s marriage proposal, he realizes that the girl hasn’t married because she hasn’t found her equal in mockery and wit. As he wonders who could possibly stand up to her (and maybe by doing so, win her love), Benedick comes up as a natural choice. We’ve got to wonder whether he chooses Benedick because he really believes they could fall in love, or because he’d like to put Beatrice through a little suffering for not seriously considering him as a potential husband.

The first mention we have of a married couple (Leonato and his absent wife) is a joke about whether that wife may have deceived Leonato about the parentage of their child. Marriage is set up to be lampooned, but it seems that deception is expected as a natural part of marriage.

Don Pedro will manipulate Hero into falling in love with Claudio. It’s a little shady that Don Pedro will get Hero to fall in love with his words, thinking they’re Claudio’s words. Claudio and Don Pedro don’t care if they manipulate the girl under false pretenses, as they’ve got their eyes on the prize of winning her (even if she is deceived into being won by a guy she doesn’t know and has never spoken to).

Don Pedro and Claudio engage in some deception, but rather than tricking him into loving Beatrice, most likely they intend to manipulate Benedick into coming to a conclusion on his own. They can lie, but they can’t assume their lies will persuade: only what’s latent in Benedick can bring him to love Beatrice. Their deception is just helping that process along.

In a fit of Shakespearean irony, Hero is condemned as a deceiver for telling the truth.

Love in this play is also the love between friends – Don Pedro is loyal to Claudio and cares for him. Although Don Pedro is Claudio’s superior in age and status, he’s willing to do what he can in Claudio’s service.

Don Pedro grants Hero a positive reputation by saying she is her father’s daughter. The important thing is that reputation is bestowed easily, so it can be taken away easily too. Looking forward, we know that even Hero’s father, the source of her reputation, will denounce her, destroying her reputation.

Don Pedro is unduly harsh, but he doesn’t think so, as he earnestly thinks Hero is guilty. Not only has he compromised Claudio’s good name by linking the boy to a seeming harlot, but he’s also worried that his own good name is now on the line. Claudio and Don Pedro are selfishly worried about their own reputations.

Like Claudio, Don Pedro says he’ll willingly undergo punishment. He claims this is not because he’s actually done an awful thing, but because he wishes to "satisfy" Leonato. Don Pedro and Claudio both are too glib in saying essentially, "I’m sorry, but it wasn’t my fault, and aren’t I a good guy for being willing to get a slap on the wrist for it anyway?" This is some egregious insensitivity, but a healthy dose of pride too—the men are concerned with trying to weakly defend their own reputations.

Don Pedro’s been around the block, and he’s mature enough to realize that even the savage bull can be tamed. He knows men can change their minds, which is, interestingly, exactly the conclusion Benedick comes to in the very end of the play... after he’s had some time to mature himself.

Don Pedro is mature enough not to be caught in the drama of deception. Realizing Benedick and Claudio think that he’s stolen away Hero’s affection, he rights the whole situation by simply pointing out that he hasn’t done anything wrong—he will give Hero to Claudio as promised. Thus we learn disaster can be averted by simply being mature and up front.