Essay on Villains in Much Ado About Nothing and Othello

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.

Othello trusts Iago and now Iago is trying to take his wife from him for someone else. Furthermore, “He takes her by the palm...sir in.” (pg. 71). Iago watches Cassio and Emilia because he thinks they had an affair he watches them carefully so he can figure out how to convince Othello that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair. Another example involves the plan to help Othello kill Desdemona. “Do it not with poison. Strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated” (pg. 185). Othello believes that Iago is most honest, thus he believed killing his wife Desdemona was the right thing to do. Iago brainwashed Othello into believing the wrong thing was the right thing. The characterization of Iago is created by the use of dramatic irony. The audience knew how devious Iago is, but the characters fell for his mischievous acts.

Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing, two very different plays; however, they both contain love, intrigue and identity. Even with forces working against them, Romeo and Juliet and Claudio and Hero fell in love and were married. Characters were able to fall in love with the aid of the liaisons who helped them make sure things worked. Lovers would not have

Othello is an easy target in this drama, because Iago already knows that he is a very insecure person. With that stated, it will be easy for Iago to use Othello’s jealousy to trick him into thinking that Desdemona is an unfaithful wife. Iago will manipulate the way Othello sees things in order to convince him that what he sees is innocent acts between Desdemona and Casillo. Iago’s starts to plant the idea in Othello’s head of an affair after Othello sees Casillo rush leaving Desdemona in a manner that looked as though he is guilty (1223). Alone with Othello, Iago begins to make Othello feel threatened by Casillo and Desdemona’s apparent relationship by bringing up the fact that Casillo served as Desdemona’s and Othello’s go-between during the time of their courtship. The conversation ends with Iago asking Othello to watch carefully of Desdemona and Casillo, and Iago exits giving Othello time to question the accusation of Iago (1225-1228).

Starting off, Othello allows Iago to tamper with his mind and does nothing to stop it. Othello puts all of his trust in him, but Iago is just hiding behind a mask and only wishes to torment Othello. Othello is not aware of his surroundings and the people there, making him vulnerable. If he paid more attention to Desdemona and not Iago than he would not have thought to kill his loyal wife. Othello jumps to conclusions too quickly

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.

?Much Ado About Nothing'' is a postwar love story. Its principal subject is that of romance that may settle over the land after soldiers come home. I noticed that Much Ado is actually two love stories. One concerns sweetly innocent lovers who are driven apart by the plotting of enemies. The other involves very sarcastic lovers who are swept into each other's arms by the benign machinations of friends. I had a lot of trouble understanding the dialect, I grew up a country boy and we didn?t do much of this in my 14 persons graduating class. None the less I didn?t think it was a waste of time either. It was of very good quality as far as a plot is

Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, is a play that follows a small group of friends from a high-class society in Massina. Two of this group are friends are Claudio and Benedick. In the beginning of the play they are seemingly similar, in that they both are of an upper-class upbringing and do their best to maintain their social reputation. The characters are made as to enhance their differences by the end of the play; they are foils to one another. Both Benedick and Claudio find themselves fooled by other characters in the play and have to decide what they are willing to believe is true and what is false, furthermore both

The stories of Othello by William Shakespeare and American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis could not be any more different. But at the same time their characters are so much alike in some aspects. Fueled by things like anger and hatred leads Othello and Patrick Bateman to commit horrible acts. These two characters show the darkness that can reside in a lot of human beings. These two very different men somehow end up going down the sort of same path.

The depth of characters in a story build off of each other as they highlight each other character’s strengths. This is called character foils. In William Shakespeare’s book “Much Ado About Nothing” the characters Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, and Don John come back from the war to return to Messina, Italy. Claudio falls in love with Hero, and with the help of Don Pedro, Claudio is able to marry Hero. However, Don Pedro’s brother, Don John, deceives everyone with his mischievous lies to ruin the marriage. Throughout the book, there are many character foils, Don John and Don Pedro are character foils of each other because of their social status, their reactions, and their personalities.

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

In Mucha Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, Don John serves as the foil character of Don Pedro. By which Don pedro's kindness is shown through Don john's Anger, thus interminably illuminates the idea of good vs evil.

Much Ado about Nothing is a romantic comedy written by William Shakespeare. Deception is a repeated theme throughout the play and it performs an essential role in the matters relating to romance. There are two couples who unwittingly are participants in the matchmaking and the match breaking schemes of others. There is Claudio of Florence and Benedick of Padua who arrive at Leonato’s house in Messina with Don Pedro, after being away in battle. Then, there is Hero, Leonato’s daughter, and heir, as well as her devoted cousin, Beatrice. In Much Ado about Nothing Shakespeare uses language and literary devices to reassure the audience that love will persevere and prevail in the end. He achieves this by juxtaposing Benedick and Beatrice with Claudio and Hero.

Much Ado about Nothing predominately revolves around the endeavours of two couples, the younger of which in more distinction; Claudio and Hero. As many could say that another element of Shakespearean comedies could be love, it would seem a more defined term is the love between two younger people, this young couple in particular then faces hindrances that are thrown their way, eventually working through them. Whereas there is still Beatrice and Benedick who work to overcome their egomaniacal ways and eventually initiate a romance, it would seem Claudio and Hero’s complications seem to have more significance to the storyline of the play. This is also due to the fact that the elements of comedy and key plot points are in relation to their complications, such as being the younger couple and facing the mistaken identity ordeal. Nevertheless, Hero and Claudio, being the young couple, face a string of tribulations in which define them as a couple, the majority of these, come from Don John’s

Shakespeare uses a considerable amount of dramatic irony throughout the play with most of the characters including Hero being naïve towards Don John’s personality and behaviour resulting in dramatic irony being added to the play throughout this consequently adding comic effect to the play of Much Ado about Nothing through the character of Don John trying to act how he is expected to act but not always succeeding. In addition in Shakespeare’s comedy play Merchant of Venice the villain was the character of Shylock who ultimately wanted revenge for the loss of his daughter much like Don John who wants revenge for his brother Don Pedro winning the battle. However it is questioned whether Shylock was a villain or a victim much like the character of Don John, causing the audience to have mixed opinions as to whether Don John is a victim or a villain. Arguably Due to Don John’s ‘illegitimacy’ Bastards are automatically labelled as ‘trouble’- ’Bastards are envious: For he that cannot possibly mend his case will do what he can to impair others.’ Don John acted the way that was expected of him due to social values during the Elizabethan time period the play was set in. Therefore values have changed and people tend to be less stereotypical this not only adds dramatic effect to the play through Don John’s social status it also adds comic effect as Don John does not adequately succeed in playing the role of a villain.