Much Ado About Noting

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Blindness is only a disability to those that are mentally eyeless. Shakespeare being a man of keen mental sight, he has had the ability to portray mental blindness in several of his plays. Being one of the best writers, he is actively able to capture the four elements of a well-made play being peripetiea, denouement, timely entrances and exits and incredibly gripping scene entrances and conclusions. Having written 38 plays with two original plots, Shakespeare expresses his themes through passionate romance, sorrow filled tragedy, inviting history and hilarious comedy. One of his most famous comedies is the play called, Much Ado About Nothing. In this play the comedic aspects greatly emphasize the important theme of self-knowledge. Self-Knowledge is the most imperative form of knowledge that one can acquire being that it is the ability to recognize and accept through forgiveness of ones flaws. Thus the ability to love one’s self, love others and participate in the love of god. The two subplots of Dogberry as well as Benedict and Beatrice coincide with the main plot of Don Pedro and Claudio to convey Shakespeare’s main idea that to see reality for what it truly is, self-knowledge is necessary.
In the play, the characters of Beatrice and Benedict are able to see reality for what it is once they obtain self-knowledge. Like most of the characters in the Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice and Benedict do not possess self-knowledge, causing them to misperceive actuality. This is relevant based upon the two’s interactions with each other. Their witty banter between one another is an effect of this, masking their true feeling for each other by seeing themselves as enemies to their opposer. They also perceive everything to be merely a jok...

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...rry’s lack of understanding or his surroundings and self-knowledge.
By this, one could easily say that self-knowledge is necessary in order to understand reality for what it is as well as one’s self. Occasionally though, appearance does, in fact, lead to the truth through deception. For example the deception of Beatrice and Benedict into thinking that the other one loved them lead to their true feelings of love for each other to come into light. Also, by the false arrest of Borachio for slander of Don John, it comes out that Don John is the reason that innocent Hero is accused of committing adultery the night prior to her wedding. But those that are blind physically can still imagine the picture of the puzzle they assemble, yet a person that is mentally blind will never understand the picture sitting in front of them enough to erect the puzzle in the first place.

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