Misunderstanding and Deception

Throughout the whole play there is deception equally shared by the characters and the audience. Nova Myhill said, ' The theater (sic) audience's assumption of its own privileged position as eavesdropper is undercut by the frequency with which the play's characters are deceived by their assumptions that eavesdropping offers unproblematic access to truth.' By saying this its implying that the audience think they have the upperhand as they have a whole overview of the play but at the same time they are deceiving themselves just as the characters are. Beatrice deceives herself throughout by showing the audience her witty attitude towards love and her constant jeering with Benedick. In Act 1 Scene 1 she is talking to a messenger and constantly manipulating his words to try and mock Benedick, she address' him as, 'Signior Mountanto', ridiculing his stance and further carries on by saying, 'In our last conflict, four of his five wits went halting off.' showing she thinks Benedick is no match for her wit. This ongoing playful conflict is an indication towards Shakespearean comedy as there are often two characters in conflict. 
In Act 2 Scene 3 and Act 3 Scene 1 the audience can see Benedick and Beatrice being gulled. At the end of her gulling Beatrice breaks into a paragraph that is much alike that of a sonnet when confessing her love for Benedick. She says, ' And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee', she is now no longer deceiving herself but without the deception of fellow characters into making her think Benedick has loved her all along she would still be deceiving herself therefore showing deception to be a theme that would run through the entire play. Without this deception the characters would not allow themselves to love or be loved. 
This is also seen in Act 3 Scene 2 until the very end of the play. Don John, Margaret and Barachio all deceive Claudio into believing that Hero has been disloyal. Don John says, 'Even she - Leonato's Hero, your Hero, every man's Hero.' here, Don John plays on the word 'hero'. He uses the word hero as in the term for someone who is inspirational and you look up to but also uses her name, Hero, to show a belonging. So when he says 'every man's Hero' he is implying that she is now a hero to men as she is having sexual relations with them but also that she belongs to them now and not Claudio. He is now placing deception upon Hero's character even though he is the one deceiving. 
Back to the earlier quote by Myhill, the audiences privileged position is undercut as there is many a time when we see characters we believe to be true but then deception is used to overthrow this view. But then again when the play ends we realise the characters we thought to be true all along are infact the characters we saw all along.