Classical Imagery in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
The romance of history has lured many of the world's greatest authors to search for their subject matter in the pages of time. William Shakespeare serves as a unfailing embodiment of the emotion of days past; yet he also turned to those before him. The comedy Much Ado About Nothing is a poignant love story, riddled with stunning imagery and allusion. An examination of the development of certain characters, the imagery and allusion, diction, and structure illustrate that the author wrote in a style heavily influenced by the classical movement of Ancient Greece and Rome. The classical thread strengthens the tapestry which is Much Ado About Nothing.
The play is staged in the rural district of Messina in Italy. Messina appears as a small village which has awakened with the arrival of the forces of Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon. Accompanying the charming nobleman are Benedick, a lord native to Padua and Lord Claudio of Florence. Shakespeare immediately establishes an atmosphere of rejoicing as a messenger breathlessly announces the triumph of Don Pedro over his bastard brother Don John and his subsequent journey to Messina. As the story unfolds, it becomes evident that these men are not strangers to the hospitality of Lenato, the Governor of Messina, and his daughter Hero and niece, Beatrice. Through a series of revels and conversations, the plot is revealed.
The undercurrent of romance is introduced as the men arrive and the audience learns that Claudio is smitten with the lovely Hero. Serving as almost foils for the two young lovers are Beatrice and Benedick, who engage in a battle of wit to disguise their true feelings. Through the tragic plotting of Don John, Claudio and Hero are torn apart and it is this which ultimately allows Benedick and Beatrice to affirm their love for each other. Claudio believes that Hero has betrayed him and scoffs at their wedding vows. A horrified Hero sinks to the earth in a faint so deep it convinces everyone that she has died of the heartbreak. This sinister plot is unravelled through the bumbling of the Constable Dogberry--in the capacity of the Shakespearean fool. At the conclusion of the play, Hero is restored to her soulmate Claudio and Benedick and Beatrice quite nonchalantly take each other in marriage. The plot is rather convoluted, yet it serves as the pe...
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...peare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton, 1974. page 327.
12. Lenardon, Robert J. and Mark P.O. Morford eds. Classical Mythology. 5th ed. White Plains: Longman Publishers, 1995. page 508.
13. Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton, 1974. Act IV, scene i, lines 56-60.
14. Ibid, Act I, scene i, lines 251-256.
15. Ibid, Act II, scene i, lines 16-22.
16. Lenardon, Robert J. and Mark P.O. Morford eds. Classical Mythology. 5th ed. White Plains: Longman Publishers, 1995. page 20.
17. Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton, 1974. Act V, scene ii, lines 30-35.
18.Ibid, Act V, scene iii, lines 24-27.
19. Ibid, Act III, scene i, lines 21-23.
20. Ibid, Act III, scene ii, lines 9-11.
21. Macpherson, Jay. Four Ages of Man. Toronto: Gage Publishing Limited, 1962. pages 59-67.
22. Allen, R.E. ed. The Pocket Oxford Dictionary. 7th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984. page 867.
23. Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton, 1974. page 329.
“And when I lived, I was your other wife, And when you loved, you were my other husband(Shakespeare 60).” In the beginning of the play it was overwhelming, steeped in love at first sight between Hero and Claudio, until Don John’s evil-manner took a role in ruining the love between them. And because of this a conflict developed between them, but was resolved when their vigorous love for one another overcame the conflict. In Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, Hero serves as the foil character of Claudio because of Hero’s dignified, well-mannered, eminent reputation is illuminated through Claudio’s insecure, accusing, and doubtful weakness; thereby, interminably influencing the conflict in the plot.
Shakespeare, William. Much Ado about Nothing. Ed. Paul Werstine, Barbara A. Mowat, and Gail Kern. Paster. New York: Simon &ump; Schuster Paperbacks, 1995. Print.
Most people think that being a leader is all about prestige, loyalty, or fame. While being a leader certainly is a great confidence and social status booster, there is more to being a leader than these. Being a leader requires passion, dedication, time, effort, and most importantly hard work. I would like to make myself believe that leaders are made and not born and that hard work can spell the difference between an immature and a holistically effective leader. The objective of this paper is to discuss by knowledge, belief system, and perception of leadership in relation to Bleachers by John Grisham which outlines the leadership story of Coach Eddie Rake and how he handled his team through thick and thin and through the greatest leadership challenges, towards success; to outline which character in the story I see myself in; and to characterize what type of leader I want me to be not in the future, but as early as now.
To describe John D. Rockefeller in one word would be an extremely difficult, if not impossible thing to do. Rockefeller was known by so many things in his time and still today; a captain of industry who revolutionised the American economy with new business practices and keen management of what he controlled, a robber baron who lied and cheated his way to the top with back room dealings and taking advantage of the most disadvantaged of people. In his early life, Rockefeller grew up in Richmond, New York with his two brothers and two sisters about 20 years before the start of the Civil War as the child of Eliza Davison and William Avery Rockefeller. His father was con artist who spent most of John’s life traveling selling his various elixirs and his mother was a devout Baptist who John said shaped his life and most of his religious views for the rest of his life. Towards the end of his life, Rockefeller had built up a beyond substantial fortune but, seeing as how he was now retired from the oil industry and had no desire to invest into a new business, he decided to follow Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth by donating the bulk of his wealth to charity. John D. Rockefeller was truly a man who was almost undefinable despite the simple black and white labels that most people and historians have pinned upon him, as we examine his life it can be determined that Rockefeller was neither an evil man nor a good one but someone who lived his life in the grey.
"Much Ado About Nothing: Entire Play." Much Ado About Nothing: Entire Play. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. .
Grant, Michael, and John Hazel. "Athena." Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology. Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam, 1973. Print.
In William Shakespeare’s play ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, there are many instances of trickery and deception, which seem to surround the whole of the play.
MacMillan points out that it always needs to be remembered that the conference took place in the aftermath of not only the worst world war, but at the time, the only one that had taken place. When the reader is able to learn the environment in which the treaty came to be, they are able to understand why it was unable to completely fix the problems in post-war Europe. Furthermore, MacMillan argues that the negotiators created the treaty within an atmosphere of fear. The negotiators had to deal with the possibility of being unable to return European civilization to its pre-war conditions. In addition, the negotiators had the fear that there was worse still to come. When looking at the background factors that went into creating the Treaty of Versailles by reading MacMillan’s work, the reader is able to have a better sense of the conditions in which the treaty was created. MacMillan’s perspective on the Paris Peace Conference allows the reader to view the negotiators as human, capable of making errors, instead of important political figures that could do no
With its entangled plots and eloquent use of words, Much Ado About Nothing is a story that has the ability to entertain the masses, both young and old. Shakespeare’s use of figurative language along with situation creates such vivid imagery that carries the drama from beginning to end. For example, when we look at Act 1 Scene 1 of the play, we are quickly introduced to the sharp tongued Beatrice as she verbally annihilates her unseen co-star Benedick.... ... middle of paper ... ...
After the end of World WarⅠthe countries involved had to find a way to repair all the damage that was caused worldwide because of their fighting, so they came up with a treaty of 'peace', The Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on Versailles, France in 1919 where the four representatives of the major countries on the Entente Powers (The Allies) - Woodrow Wilson President of the United States, The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Lloyd George, The Prime Minister of France, Georges Clemenceau, and The Prime Minister of Italy, Vittorio Orlando - united with other 17 nations to come up with a way to find who is going to be responsible for the distress and chaos of the war. The Allied Powers were not allowed to be present in the conference, so they had no say in the matter until the other nations came up with the solution. At the end of the conference the nations decided to put the majority of the responsibility upon Germany, who was outraged at this injustice, while they were disdainful of Wilson’s pushing for his fourteen points to be included because Germany wasn...
Morford, Mark P.O., Robert J. Lenardon and Michael Sham. Classical Mythology 9th Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Much Ado About Nothing. The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997. 366-398.
Gene Therapy is a modern treatment which uses genes to treat or prevent genetic diseases. It is a process of which DNA is used as a drug to treat a disease by delivering therapeutic DNA into a patients cell. The mutated gene is replaced by a healthier, functional/therapeutic gene which corrects and converts the cells lacking in protein or faultiness. Our future is based behind our genes in the body and scientists are trying to move away from drugs as a solution. Gene therapy is revolutionising the world of medicine and it could be the biggest and most helpful treatment created.
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