...MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Title As a title, Much Ado About Nothing fits neatly with those of Shakespeare’s other plays written around the same time: the titles seem whimsical and even flippant. Twelfth Night was alternatively titled What You Will, and As You Like It seems a much less informative title than, say, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Still, the capricious titles are actually as reflective of their content as any history or tragedy title. The plot of Much Ado About Nothing centers on a lot of hubbub over little misunderstandings; there’s a whole lot of fuss about stuff that ultimately isn’t that important. For the bigger issues in the play, though, we turn to the fact that, in Shakespeare’s day, "nothing" was often pronounced the same way as "noting." The play is built around the process of "noting," which has myriad meanings. It can mean "to take notice of" something, to eavesdrop, to observe, or to write something down – but these notings aren’t necessarily accurate. A person can misunderstand a meaning, or mishear, or misreport something, in the process of noting too. The foibles that result from noting (and misnoting) are central to keeping the play spinning. If that wasn’t interesting enough for you, you might want to note that "nothing" was also an Elizabethan slang term for the vagina. "Much Ado About Vagina" makes sense as a title, right? After all, the highs and lows of the play revolve around men and their relationships with, suspicion of, and...
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...Major Themes in 'Much Ado About Nothing' Shakespeare’s treatment of love in Much Ado About Nothing differs from his other romantic comedies. Sure, it shares the same stagy plot, which finishes with the lovers finally getting back together, but Shakespeare also mocks the conventions of courtly love which was popular at the time. Although Claudio and Hero’s courtly marriage is central to the plot, their relationship is the least interesting thing in the play. Instead, our attention is drawn to Benedick and Beatrice’s unromantic backbiting – it is this relationship that seems more believable and enduring. By contrasting these two different types of love, Shakespeare manages to poke fun at the conventions of courtly, romantic love. Claudio uses highly contrived language when speaking of love, which is undermined by Benedick and Beatrice’s banter: “Can the world buy such a Jewel?” says Claudio of Hero. “My dear Lady disdain! Are you yet living?” says Benedick of Beatrice. As an audience, we are supposed to share Benedick’s frustration with Claudio’s transparent, pompous rhetoric of love: “He was wont to speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest man and a soldier … His words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many strange dishes.” Deception As the title suggests, there is a lot of fuss over very little in the play – after all, if Claudio wasn’t so impetuous, Don John’s rather weak plan wouldn’t have worked at all! What makes the plot so intricate is the use of deception...
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...main characters in “Much Ado About Nothing” are the victims of deception, and because they’ve been deceived is the reason they act in the ways that they do. Even though the central deception is directed against Claudio in an attempt to destroy his relationship with Hero, it is the deception pertaining to Beatrice and Benedick which is the play's main focus. Almost every character in the play at some point has to make interpretations from what he or she sees, has been told or overheard. At the same time, nearly every character in the play at some point plays a part of consciously pretending to be what they are not. (Act I, Scene I) ”Thou wilt be like a lover presently and tire the hearer with a book of words. If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it, and I will break with her and with her father, and thou shalt have her. Was't not to this end That thou began'st to twist so fine a story?” Here is when Don Pedro tries to put a spin on words making it sound like if Claudio really wants to be with Hero, they should first trick her into believing that Don Pedro is actually Claudio. They go on forward with the idea and as Don Pedro is swooning Hero with his words and charm at the masked ball and Claudio is actually eavesdropping near-by trying to make sure everything is going according to plan. Deception is one of the focal themes throughout the play which grows out of the love game. Deceit is not evil in nature; it can be used for the purpose good or bad outcomes. “In Much Ado...
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...The No Fear Shakespeare line by line translation offers a plaintive point of view of Shakespeare’s Othello. It has improved my understanding of the play as a whole and provided me with a new perspective. The most outstanding difference between the original play and the No Fear Shakespeare (NFS) text is the removal and simplification of the dialogue. Shakespeare uses a syntax that is sometimes difficult to understand, often putting the subject of a sentence after the verb. He also employs various types of figurative language such as metaphors, puns, and allusions. One benefit of reading the NFS is that it rearranges the original sentence structure to be more coherent. However, some of Shakespeare’s best work is lost in translation. While the...
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...“Much Ado About Nothing” is a comical play centered around scandals, love, and witty jokes. The antagonist of the play, Don John, schemes to make other characters suffer because of his on mishaps of being a bastard. As for the other characters, they play matchmaker to create happy relationships.Although “Much Ado About Nothing is depicted as a comical play, aspects of star-crossed lovers and deception reveal relevance to the moral of the story. In “Much Ado About Nothing,” deception, with the inherently evil connotation, reveals to have both negative and positive outcomes. Don Pedro disguises as Claudio in Act I and confesses his love to Hero at the mask ball because he feels that the two would make a perfect couple. Don John decides to...
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...In William Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, he uses the dialogue to show the transition of Benedick and his feelings toward Beatrice and marriage in general. Shakespeare uses the dialogue to show the reader the progression of Benedick’s outlooks on life go from hating Beatrice and the whole idea of marriage to then loving Beatrice and asking her to marry him. This kind of transition is very large and it can only be down by a great writer, such as William Shakespeare. Throughout the whole story Benedick shows very strong feelings toward both marriage and Beatrice, both good and bad, but in the end his true feelings are shown. In the very beginning of the book, after the war ended, Benedick and his fellow soldiers stay at a friend of Don Pedro’s house named Leonato. Leonato’s niece is named Beatrice, whom has a strong dislike of Benedick and vice versa. Benedick dislikes her so much that he states, “I will fetch you a toothpick from the furthest inch of Asia . . . do you any embassage to the pigmies, rather than hold three words’ conference...
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...MAAN: Love, what is it good for? Merriam-Webster dictionary defines love as “strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties;” Throughout the play, Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, there is never really a love connection between the characters Benedick and Beatrice. In the beginning of the play, they despise one another and made witty comments about one another; not only that, but they also question why the other one loved them after overhearing the conversation between their friends. By this definition Beatrice and Benedick can't truly be in love, because of words spoken by their friends. At the start of the play, when Benedick first arrived in Messina, the first thing they did was make witty comments about...
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... I would agree for the most part with this statement. Beatrice is indeed strong-willed, but her independence has its limitations. As with many Shakespearean characters, appearance can be deceptive, and what we see is only a facade, a mask to hide their true character or feelings. I believe that Beatrice uses her cleverness and quick wit to hide her real feelings, and that although she is independent to a certain extent, she is aware that she has limitations because of her gender. Although Beatrice states ‘I would rather hear my dog bark at a crow than hear a man swear he loves me’ she is ultimately fooled into believing that Benedick loves her. The fact that she is tricked so easily, and subsequently admits her reciprocal love, tells us that she views marriage in a more favourable light than she had previously led us to believe. Whether she gave in to the ‘social construct’ demanded by the patriarchal society in which she lived is questionable. What we do know is that Shakespeare has presented her as a wilful, self-confident, autonomous woman who appears to revel in her single status. In contrast we have Hero, the antithesis of Beatrice. She is meek, obedient and completely dominated by the men in her life. She is the perfect foil for Beatrice, her willingness to please further enhancing Beatrice’s character. It is clear from the start of the play that Beatrice is not an ‘acceptable version of the feminine’. She is strong-willed, and full of confidence, even...
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...How far does the humour in Much Ado About Nothing derive from Shakespeare’s presentation of gender? Much ado about nothing is one of the most famous comedies written by Shakespeare. It is written in the modern style, and is mainly in prose form. It was written for the audience in the Elizabethan era of England, which was the age when females were considered significantly inferior to their male counterparts. Shakespeare has used this concept of gender for creating humour in his play. The characters Benedict and Beatrice are involved in a complex relationship which contrasts between love and hate. Both Beatrice and Benedict are strong willed, intelligent characters, who fear that falling in love will lead to a loss of freedom and eventually heartbreak. Various theories have been proposed which govern humour and comedy. The superiority theory proposed by Plato describes the darker side of comedy that Is often laughed at over unfortunate situations and social standings. Infirmity in others as compared to our own is often laughed at. These same principles has been applied to the story of the play, and the inferiority of females has been used as the basis for creating humour. [quick quote & example to back this up?] The characters Shakespeare's “Much Ado about Nothing” contribute to build the humorous essence of play through their roles. Several characters of the play presented comical language and gestures such as Benedick and Beatrice’s unromantic backbiting...
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...Christine Joy A. Tag at BSEDE-II Reflection Paper on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing Without any idea of what Much Ado About Nothing is all about, I just let myself absorb whatever thoughts and ideas I could get as the movie started to play. The movie which is originally a play written by Shakespeare is a comedy drama but not pure humor as what most audience would expect in a comedy. I really find the work a genius one, with how the story evolves. And unlike any love stories, its plot is a very unique one. The theme is obviously full of deceptions. This act of deceiving is not at all what I know as a bad act. As from the drama, deception could sometimes lead the characters to goodness like how Don Pedro and Claudio intentionally let Benedict eavesdrop to their conversation about Beatrice’s love for him. Hero and her company also did the same to Beatrice. It ended up that Beatrice and Benedict really loved each other after all their ‘wars’. On the other hand, deception could be a bad act. When Don John planned to ruin the wedding by making Claudio and Don Pedro believe that ‘Hero’ is an unfaithful maiden and not anymore a virgin, the plan went out as it is which made Hero be publicly humiliated by Claudio. This only showed that purity of woman is very precious and the only honor that she could have. But whether deception is bad or good, I would first prefer not to believe easily what I hear or see or what others will tell to me. I must not depend on the superficial...
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...Shakespeare My first impression of Much Ado About Nothing is that it would be a love story. Although it is categorised as a Shakespearean comedy, I found the many "funny" parts of the play were foggy and required you to read the scene over a few times before you understood them. But then again, I had to read the whole scene over again a few times to understand anything. All of the characters in Much Ado About Nothing seemed to develop a personality of their own from the very first scene. It also helped that I saw the movie version of Much Ado About Nothing before we read the play so I could almost get a picture in my head as to what each character looked like. As the character's had their own personality, so did the two love relationships in the play. Benedick and Beatrice seemed to hate each other so much from the very start of the play that as the play carried on it almost seemed like the two went full circle in their relationship. But their relationship might not have changed for the better without help from Claudio, Don Pedro, Leonato, Ursula or Hero. In Claudio's and Hero's relationship seemed to be much more conventional in the way they came together. Claudio first saw Hero and instantly fell in love with her, while Hero stood by and took orders from her father, Leonato. Only when Don John devised his deception to break Claudio and Hero apart that I felt the relationship was in trouble, but even then I felt there was hope. In Act...
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...William Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing emphasizes the subject of deception through the use of language, but the 2013 film adaptation of the play directed by Joss Whedon emphasizes the actions that go along with the words, making the film a superior representation of deception. The concept of deceit starts getting momentum in the scene of the masquerade, where all the characters are masked, so nobody knows who is who. Benedick and Beatrice are dancing together and making small talk, but before Beatrice will confess anything to Benedick, she wants to know who he is. She politely asks “Nor will you not tell me who you are?” to which he replies “Not now”, implying that he will eventually tell her who he is (Much Ado.II.I.125-126). He is deceiving her through his words first by not telling her who he is, and because he is masked, she can not identify him, so...
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...Have you ever dreamed of reading a thrilling book about awesome characters and a devious plan involving death? Then “Much Ado About Nothing” by Shakespeare is the perfect book for you. In the enthralling play, there contain multiple couples. One is based solely on looks, one denies their love for each other, and one simply got together for the sake of a devious scheme. It also involves a plot that a kind character look scandalous, when really, they’re not. It’s a great story about love, evil, and forgiveness. In the play “Much Ado About Nothing” by William Shakespeare, Beatrice and Hero are foils of each other because of their interactions with others, how others feel about them, and their personality traits. Beatrice and Hero are major character foils in the play “Much Ado About Nothing” because of their...
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...Much Ado About Nothing Love Story Shakespeare My first impression of Much Ado About Nothing is that it would be a love story. Although it is categorised as a Shakespearean comedy, I found the many "funny" parts of the play were foggy and required you to read the scene over a few times before you understood them. But then again, I had to read the whole scene over again a few times to understand anything. All of the characters in Much Ado About Nothing seemed to develop a personality of their own from the very first scene. It also helped that I saw the movie version of Much Ado About Nothing before we read the play so I could almost get a picture in my head as to what each character looked like. As the character's had their own personality, so did the two love relationships in the play. Benedick and Beatrice seemed to hate each other so much from the very start of the play that as the play carried on it almost seemed like the two went full circle in their relationship. But their relationship might not have changed for the better without help from Claudio, Don Pedro, Leonato, Ursula or Hero. In Claudio's and Hero's relationship seemed to be much more conventional in the way they came together. Claudio first saw Hero and instantly fell in love with her, while Hero stood by and took orders from her father, Leonato. Only when Don John devised his deception to break Claudio and Hero apart that I felt the relationship was in trouble, but even...
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...Gloucester Loyal to the king ‘Because I would not see thy cruel nails pluck out his poor eyes’ This shows that Gloucester would not stand there and do nothing as Gonneril and Reagan destroy their father. His loyalty to the king is demonstrated as well as his bravery her as it leads to him being punished by having his eyes plucked out. Recognising his mistakes ‘Then Edgar was abused. Kind gods, forgive me that and prosper him’ It is ironic that Gloucester only realises his mistakes once he is blinded and only in blindness he begins to see clearly and tries to make up for his mistakes. This is similar to King Lear who only realises his mistakes once he becomes insane Rash and Impulsive ‘Bringing the murderous coward to the stake; He that conceals him, death.’ This shows that Gloucester is rash and impulsive as he doesn’t give his legitimate son a chance to explain himself and automatically assumes that he has done something wrong simply as Edmund had shown him a doctored letter and staged a fight to make it look like Edgar was a bad son and this shows that he is also foolish and impulsive as he fools for Edmunds deceit and immediately reacts harshly. Furthermore the punishment of death seems harsh as Edgar is Gloucester’s son. Adulterous ‘a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed’ Gloucester is saying that Edmund’s mother had a child before she was married therefore highlighting the fact that Edmund was a bastard child. This shows how Gloucester has been...
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