Comedy Makes Us Superior to Absurdity

Much Ado about Nothing is a famously known comedy, by William Shakespeare. This novel features two characters, who are to be wed, but because of a wacky plot and deceit these married to be couple takes a surprising turn. There are two weddings, however, there is nothing similar about these weddings. These weddings both have different moods, different outcomes, and different plans.

The play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare consists of many themes which grow out of the ‘game of love'. The two main themes consist of perception and deception. Through the plot complications, character development and dramatic techniques these themes can be explored. In the play deception is shown on both good and evil sides, the game of love between Beatrice and Benedick and the Don John plot to split up Hero and Claudio. Perception is a theme used in most of Shakespeare's plays. Perceptive views by the characters help portray the game of love. Hero is perceived as dead which then Claudio is sorry and feels for her. Beatrice and Benedick's loved is clouded by each other's perceptions and arguments.

Directors sometimes change the approach of the story. The story, written by Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing is a romantic-comedy, which means it is supposed to be funny and to be romantic. The movie version of this focuses more on the romance, and uses 1500’s humor, which many may not understand. They focus on the romance making the movie more serious but settle. In the play version of Much Ado About Nothing, they seem to focus more on the comedy. For example, when Beatrice overhears the other girls talking about Benedick liking her, she hides under a blanket and accidentally gets flown into the air dangling. They use relevant comedy the audience will be able to pick up on and enjoy. This keeps the audience engaged to the play wanting to see what crazy thing will happen next.

Drama text, Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare is a romantic comedy revolved around marriage, dishonesty and love. In 2007, the original play had been interpreted and adapted into a new film text; Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare Retold. This new film version is an adaption for the modern audience who’s views around love and marriage have changed since Elizabethan times. Brian Percival ‘Retold’ the original play, first published in 1623 by reinterpreting it into his own understanding of modern society with the focus of women’s roles nowadays. Whilst doing this Percival has maintained many of Shakespeare’s intentions.

In traditional comedic plot structure, there is typically a build-up of tension and quarreling that leads to a crisis towards the end of the play which has the potential to end tragically. In the case of Much Ado About Nothing, such tension centers around the pairs of lovers and is built up as a result of all the characters ‘noting’ each other throughout the play and thus misreading reality entirely. This tension, in fact, leads to the generic comedic convention of ‘death’ when Hero ‘dies’ after being falsely accused of adultery, though Leonato says of this, “Death is the fairest cover for her shame that may be wished for” (4.1.______). Hero’s ‘death’ brings forth the potentially tragic tipping point of the play: Benedict pledges to duel Claudio, Leonato is heartbroken and angry with Don Pedro and Claudio, and all pairs of lovers are effectively broken off.

“Good comedy is tragedy narrowly averted”: these words were spoken by Jonathon Bate and Eric Rasmussen in their publishing of ‘William Shakespeare: Complete Works’. They show how many elements of comedy could be interpreted as almost tragic. The comedy in Much Ado About Nothing is often created when the audience can see that something could go horribly wrong, however it is saved in the nick of time. A sense of relief and light-heartedness is created, as customarily comedy is known to end in a meeting of characters at a gleeful point in time or occasion; most frequently with a wedding.

In Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, there are the usual characters that show up in most of Shakespeare’s pieces. For instance the characters Hero and Claudio could easily be compared to Romeo and Juliet. Both Hero and Juliet are innocent, quite, and beautiful young women who fall in love instantly without conversing with the other person. Likewise, Claudio and Romeo decide to marry these women within twenty-four hours. Because of these characters’ lack of unique and interesting qualities, I

 Much Ado About Nothing is one of William Shakespeare’s best comedies and love stories.  What is not to like about a play that is hilarious, romantic, and has a happy ending?  In this play the foremost and most intriguing character is Benedick, a man who is a devout bachelor and who does not believe he will ever find the perfect woman; --because perfect is exactly what he must have.  This may seem to be a harsh and pessimistic outlook on life, but the way Shakespeare brings this character to life portrays Benedick as a funny and caring man who really is not that certain about what he wants for the future.  Benedick’s counterpart in the play is Beatrice who is an independent woman

Through the character of Beatrice and the sarcastic characteristic used, Branagh successfully uses visual comedy in Much Ado About Nothing to interpret Shakespeare’s version of the text.

Much Ado about Nothing is one of the world’s famous comedic play written by the ever so influential William Shakespeare. This play combines elements such as vigorous merriment with a lot of serious meditations on honour, shame and court politics. This should be our annual play as it not only is a very popular play, but it will also definitely educate the audience a lot more than our past musical plays and fairy tales.

Much Ado About Nothing is a shakespearean play about many things, but I believe that by learning about it in school, we are taught not only about how the english language has evolved throughout the years, but also gives us a peek of just how horrible certain situations can become. Deceit, betrayal, and manipulation are just a few topics that this play teaches us how to avoid.

To begin with, the play Much Ado About Nothing should be considered as a tragedy because it contains a rich amount of catharsis which is essential to a Shakespearean tragedy. In his plays, Shakespeare uses catharsis as one of the main elements of a tragedy in the sense of the purification and purgation of emotions, particularly pity and fear or any extreme change that allow the audience to feel and release emotions. It permits the spectators to identify with the characters of the play, hence take their losses more personally. Throughout the play, several events of catharsis take place that allows the audiences to expresses their emotions for the characters. Death is one if the intrinsic identities of a

The plot of Much Ado About Nothing is riddled with countless jabs, jokes, irony, and humorous situations. Not all of the humor in a comedy has to be spoken. Some of the most comical moments in the play occur when either Benedick and Beatrice are overhearing a conversation that their friends purposely say to trick their respective hopeless romantic into falling in love. “Benedick and Beatrice are deceived by their friends, but this deception stems from their delusion that they can avoid love and marriage. While Benedick rambles about how there is no woman good enough, the audience watches, amused, waiting for him to fall.” (Windham). While a tragedy might have a few comical moments, those are far outshadowed by the amount of grief and suffering that goes on within the

During the fifth century, having comedy would have been a great way to lighten the mood or tension if there was a lot of conflict going on. As for tragedy, it’s a great way to take everybody’s mind off the world and just watch a play. Comedy and tragedy during the twenty-first century is a lot different than the ways that Sophocles and Aristophanes used it. For comedy, it’s not about the sexist, or even racist jokes, it’s more that we find pain (The Three Stooges) or stupid (The Hangover) comedy better. As for tragedy, it’s more that we see it as the man and woman don’t end up together (The Great Gatsby) or something happens in the world (The Impossible). Our view of comedy and tragedy will constantly and always continue to change. There will never be a certain type of comedy or tragedy that we will go by because everyone likes different types of comedy and tragedy, or neither of

Comedy was a popular type of play in Ancient Greece, only second to Tragedy. These types were described in many details in Poetics, by Aristotle. He expressed that a comedy is “an imitation of inferior people - not, however, with respect to every kind of defect: the laughable is a species of what is disgraceful. The laughable is an error or disgrace that does not involve pain or destruction” (Aristotle 9). In plainer words, Aristotle is saying that as long as no one becomes hurt, it can be funny, and that everyday misfortune is, or can be humorous. Comedies are also plays that deal with common folk, and common events. (Simpson). Tragedy is almost the exact opposite.