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The Theme Of Love And Relationships In Much Ado About Nothing

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Humanity has often discussed love and relationships, as these are key to the human person due to the opportunities and paths that emerge to improve one’s life in a unique manner by engaging in a loving relationship. Literature, ever since its inception, had an innumerable amount of stories that involved the commonly recurring themes of love and relationships. This is not mere coincidence, rather, an essential, intrinsic part of mankind to desire to engage in these relationships, thus, the literature of love and relationships resonates within us. William Shakespeare, the legendary British playwright of the Elizabethan era, was famed for writing numerous plays, however, many of his plays dealt with these common themes: love and relationships. …show more content…

Immediately after the play began, the theme of relationships emerged, through the battle of wits between Benedick and Beatrice, and through the romantic, genuine love between Hero and Claudio. A key part to the relationships in Much Ado About Nothing is deception; deception was used to make both relationships possible in the play. Don Pedro disguises himself as Claudio to woo Hero and ultimately succeeded in doing so; Don Pedro and Hero coordinate efforts of deception to prey upon the hiding rejectors of love to learn that the other loves them, ultimately making them fall for one another. Thus, relationships can only succeed if deception is employed in some manner. However, deception is a common motif in the play that took on a positive and a negative meaning; Don John and Borachio used deception in a negative manner to attempt to ruin a loving relationship, whereas positively, deception helped the loving relationships form initially. Cupid was an agent of deception, as one of the most lines from the play states, “If it proves so, then loving goes by haps; / Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps” (III.i.110-111). Consequently, Cupid, the god of love, draws humanity to engage in love directly or indirectly, as the arrow of love would represent Hero and Claudio whereas the trap would …show more content…

On the topic of love, opposing parties formed throughout the play, as many sought to not conform to society’s understanding of love, however, gradually as the characters developed, they “suffered love”, while the couple formed via Cupid’s arrow confronted their challenges and engaged in a loving relationship upon the conclusion of the play. Relationships, the other prominent theme, was closely tied to deception, as both were vital to the play and highlighted the intrinsic nature of love and relationships due to the fact that, as long as love exists, it is of a little importance to human nature how the love came to be. Love, relationships, and human nature are dominated by the philosophy of consequentialism through the lens of human emotions, as thoughts and moral standings are inapplicable to human nature and love, for human nature is unchanging and love is irrational and

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