Much Ado About Nothing Essay

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.

In addition to having an intellectual understanding of each other, Beatrice and Benedick also exemplify the definition of love when tricked into falling in love. Despite their incredibly sharp intuitions, Beatrice and Benedick both blindly believe Hero, Don Pedro, and Claudio’s unconvincing attempts to make them fall in love. When Claudio tricks Benedick, he says Beatrice “Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses: ‘O sweet Benedick! God give me patience!’” (II.3.71), clearly something Beatrice, who openly mocks any sign of romance, would never do. However, Benedick’s true feelings for her cloud his better judgement, and he accepts Claudio’s claims. Hero deceives Beatrice in a similar manner, and Beatrice also declares she will “...requite thee, / Taming my heart to thy loving hand” (III.1.111-112), displaying her willingness to totally change herself for Benedick. This sudden change of character suggests that Beatrice and Benedick unknowingly wanted each other’s love from the beginning, and their desire hinders their usually well-informed instincts. Their love continues to lead them to act uncharacteristically tame, as seen when Don Pedro and Claudio tease Benedick about being in love. When they call him

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.

“FRIAR FRANCIS: (to CLAUDIO) You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady?” “Claudio: No“ (Shakespeare 150). At the beginning of Much Ado About Nothing Benedick and Beatrice strongly disliked each other so they would “roast” on each other. Towards the middle of the book they started to not roast on each other so much. But in the end they get married. In the book Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, Beatrice serves as the foil of Benedick, by which Beatrice's pompous and rational qualities highlight the pompous and unreasonable qualities of Benedick; thus, perpetually impacted their conflicted relationship.

In the Renaissance period, marriage was far different and much longer process than it is today. Particularly in the Elizabethan era, marriages were frequently arranged so that both families involved would benefit. Marriages would be arranged to bring prestige, honour and wealth to the family. For the upper class, marriage rarely involved love. Courting outside of one’s class was strictly forbidden and punishable by death in some circumstances. Marriage followed a strict set of protocols that signify maturity and coming into one’s own. In this time, dowries often played a large part in the decision to marry. A dowry, is the custom in which involves an interchange of cash, jewels, foods, estates between the father

Claudio and Hero's views of love are very different to Beatrice and Benedick's, as they both vowed that they will never marry at the beginning of the play. Their relationship starts with witty insults as they were trying to deceive themselves that they do not love the other. However, they seem to throw their beliefs about love away as soon as they hear about someone loving them. “Here comes Beatrice. By this day, she’s a fair lady. I do spy some marks of love in her,” (2, 3, 244-246) this line shows how Benedick loves for Beatrice, and that he was trying to hide this love by always criticizing her. “And Benedick, love on; I will requite thee,

William Shakespeare’s play Much Ado about Nothing traverses the complex social, and emotional trials and triumphs of romantic relationships; Shakespeare’s perspective on the subject is both very similar to ours today, and different. Although filled with sexual innuendos, and humorous trickery and shenanigans, Much Ado about Nothing also dives into the complexities of social anxieties, defense mechanisms to cope with the social pressures, and the emotions involved.

Synchronously the story of Beatrice and Benedick unravels. Stuck in a merry war with each other, Beatrice and Benedick seem like an implausible couple. They insult each other at every turn. The focus of the play is on the young love, which might have been what the Elizabethan audience was fixated on, but now in the 21st century with our modified views on women, the romance of the play is in the love shared between Beatrice and Benedick.

“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.

It is Beatrice who seems better suited as the male in a relationship between her and Benedick because of the control that she has over Benedick. When Beatrice decided to go after Benedick by insulting him, it shows similarities to Lady Macbeth in the play,

In almost all stories or plays, there are characters that are depicted as the opposite of another character. It makes you discover the attribute of another. Many of them go unnoticed, but there are many examples, such as Harry and Draco in Harry Potter. They not only serve an added plotline to the story, but can make the story even that much better. These opposite characters in some contexts can be classified as the antagonist to a protagonist, but that is not the case in all stories. In most they are called character foils. In the play, “Much ado about nothing,” by William Shakespeare, brothers Don John and Don Pedro are foils of each other because of their views on love, their morals, and their social statuses. The play takes places during the late 1500’s or early 1600’s in Messina, Italy. The play not only highlights the idea of how complicated love can be, but also expresses the idea that one person can change everyone's plans.

Leonato’s Brother, Antonio explains to Leonato that he overheard Claudio confessing his love to hero

Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship is a rocky one. Firstly they start by shouting abuse at each other: “What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?” Benedick has a hatred for Beatrice and wants her dead at the beginning of it and the sarcastic comments start. Beatrice and Benedick don’t know what the future holds for them. At this moment you would call their relationship a merry war. The phrase merry war is an oxymoron. An oxymoron is when two clashing words come together. When we say their relationship is a merry war this means that when they talk to each other it makes other people laugh but it’s a feud between them. Don Pedro is cupid in this relationship. He is cupid because he plans to bring Benedick and Beatrice together as in fall in love. Benedick who fears to become a cuckold is going to fall in love. Leonato, Claudio and Don Pedro all plan to trick Benedick so he believes that Beatrice is in love with him and Hero and Ursula plan to trick Beatrice that Benedick is in love with Beatrice. In the play Benedick gets tricked first and the setting of this scene is that Benedick is having a walk and Claudio, Don Pedro and Leonato get in to position to trick him. Same with Beatrice, she is on walk and Ursula and Hero are talking loudly to each other thinking that no-one is listening but they know that Beatrice is close by listening. Even though Beatrice is a strong character she can be

Much Ado About Nothing Movie Review Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, Robert Sean Leonard, Kate Beckinsale, Richard Briers, Brian Blessed, Michael Keaton, Ben Elton Running Time: 1hr 5mins Introduction = == == ==

wit in a manner that is all too cosy. The irony is that, were it not