Many Facets of Love Explored in Much Ado About Nothing In Shakespeare's romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare focuses a great deal of time to the ideas of young, lustful, and intellectual love. Claudio and Hero, Borachio and Margaret, and Benedick and Beatrice, respectively, each represent one of the basic aspects of love. Shakespeare is careful to point out that not one path is better than another. The paths are merely different, and all end happily. Shakespeare also explores the different aspects of courtship, weddings, and the different facets of love. The aspect of courtship in Much Ado About Nothing plays a crucial role in the development of the characters and in the evolution of the play as a whole. The character that must undergo the greatest transformation during the courtship process is Beatrice. The first mention of courtship is in Act One, scene one, when Beatrice inquires about Benedick with fervor: "I pray you, is Signor Mountanto returned from the wars or no?" Beatrice loves Benedick, and he loves her, but she is too proud to admit that she has feelings for any man. She denies her true feelings to herself so often that it has gone from being a ruse to being the truth she believes: "Stand I condemned for pride and scorn so much? / Contempt, farewell, and maiden pride, adieu!" (III. ii. 108-109) There Beatrice realizes how scornful she has been and vows to cast off her steel armor for one made of chocolate. Now, it isn't the chocolate with nuts or the fudge chocolate or even milk chocolate, but the chocolate that is white and pure so she can impress upon it her requited love for Benedick: "I will requite thee, / Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand" (III. ii. 111-112). Beatrice has... ... middle of paper ... ... ceremonial aspect of relationships and how wrong they can go if given the leeway with Claudio and Hero's wedding. Finally, Shakespeare shows how powerful the physical attraction between two people can be; so powerful that one becomes totally subservient to the other's commands and requests. The moral of the play: Know thyself, and thy neighbor. Works Cited and Consulted: Barton, Anne. Introduction. Much Ado About Nothing. The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997. 361-365. Lewalski, B. K. "Love, Appearance and Reality: Much Ado About Something" Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 8 (1968): 235-251. Rossiter, A.P. "Much Ado About Nothing." William Shakespeare Comedies & Romances. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. Bevington 216-51.
In today's society, true love can be described as someone buying a sparkly present for the significant other, celebrating their special anniversary with a beautiful getaway from their hectic life, or even risking anything in the world for that one person. These are all real examples of true love but these are also the things that Claudio didn’t do to show his affection and love towards Hero. Instead, he chose to humiliate her on their wedding day, he didn’t trust her to stay faithful until marriage, and even “killed” her. In the play, Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, the main characters, Hero, and Claudio, are not truly in love and their actions display that.
William Shakespeare is known for his use of dramatic irony and complicated story lines. In Much Ado About Nothing, he also adds in the element of disguise to what the characters know, or what they think they know. There are multiple characters trying to ensnare others in different facades, whether it be for better or for worse. The deception and illusion in the play can either assist the characters or completely shatter the situation, but in both cases, Shakespeare advises us to infer about what we hear or see before we jump to conclusions.
An Inspector Calls was written in 1945 but set in 1912. The play shows the stark difference between 1912 and 1945. J. B. Priestley reveals the errors of society and the faults of capitalism as well as the bias of the upper class and social status. As a firm believer in the concepts of socialism, he uses this play to expose society’s poor attitudes to the working class of the period. The way they treat Eva Smith reflects on how many of the working class may have been treated by their social superiors. Eva was a victim in society as she was very low in the financial hierarchy as well as in reality where she was at the bottom of the classes. Women at that time were seen as being delicate, obedient to their husbands. The inspector is used to correct the
...ut Nothing is an extremely fast paced and witty play, Shakespeare very much has love as his central theme. There are two very different, yet equally compelling relationships that are explored in depth. They run through the play concurrently, allowing the reader to compare and contrast the different facets and complexities between the two. The playwright’s rich understanding of relationships, and particularly his understanding of the fact that love is not always as formulaic as many a writer would have us believe, makes for a fascinating read. In fact, by directly comparing a realistic couple, full of real world self doubt and a fear of rejection with a very stereotypical love-at-first-sight type of relationship, Shakespeare is possibly making the point that love and relationships have more depth than is often given credit.
"Much Ado About Nothing: Entire Play." Much Ado About Nothing: Entire Play. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. .
The modernization of nearly outdated and cliché settings typically used for Shakespearian plays such as Much Ado helps enforce Whedon's attempt to make the film and play familiar, as well as creates accessibility for the audience regardless of how well they may understand Shakespeare's language. Both the ensemble and individual cast members assist in achieving Whedon's vision by creating an atmosphere that seems familiar if only that it could be our own family and friends throwing that same banter back and forth between each other. Their playful and occasionally raw performances combine with a spectacular setting to help make Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing a stellar film that is a nearly perfect modern translation of a classic, centuries old
The Ways that Shakespeare Makes Act 1 Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet Dramatically Effective
The Role of Act 3 Scene 1 and Act 3 Scene 5 in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
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.
“They offer comedy of both character and situation. The “merry war” between them is established in the opening scene: Beatrice piles comic insults on Benedick both before she sees him and to his face, yet there is no mistaking her interest in him, however it may be expressed; and although Benedick declares himself ‘ a professed tyrant to their sex’ (1.1.161) and an opponent to marriage, he tells Claudio that Beatrice ‘an she were not possessed with fury, exceeds’ Hero ‘as much in beauty as the first May doth the last of December’ (1.1.180-2). Beatrice, too, though she says she prays morn and night that God will send her no husband, admits that there is something to be said for Benedick, were it not for his perpetual tattling (2.1.6-26)” (Wells 167).
Analysing the Dramatic Significance of Act 3 Scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Much Ado About Nothing is a lighthearted play that Shakespeare wrote between 1598 and 1600. It has been described as one of his "more mature romantic comedies" (Bevington, 216). This play focuses on two different relationships, formed by two pairs of lovers. The comparison between how people went about getting married back then and how they do it now is similar in some ways. Much Ado About Nothing portrays the manner in which people fall in love, the way they interact with each other and how they manage to get through the rough times without changing their love for one another. The two couples include the young ladies, who are cousins, Beatrice and Hero, and the gentlemen, Claudio and Benedick. There is a lot of obvious love between Hero and Claudio and he has come to claim her as his own. However, there is some bad blood that runs between Benedick and his Beatrice. Little do they know that they are made for each other.
Shakespeare's comedy, `Much Ado About Nothing' is a play revolved around the love and friendships of two young couples, integrated with each other through both friendship and love. Love and marriage are the two most prominent ideas in Shakespeare's comedies. The two couples are Benedick and Beatrice, an unpredicted match as they appear to be quite the opposite and are forever arguing in their poetic banter. The other couple is Claudio and Hero, the two who seem madly in love yet Claudio's untrusting and naive side takes power at one stage, in which the couple's relationship seems destined to be doomed. The two characters of Benedick and Claudio are very different in both personality and manner, much like the two couples previously mentioned. The play ends with a double marriage--the union between a fair young woman and a heroic war soldier, and the passionate match of a firebrand spinster to her avowed bachelor. Ideas of loyalty and trust are interspersed throughout the Claudio-Hero union; Claudio shows little loyalty or trust but is made repentant before the marriage can take place. As for the Beatrice/Benedick union, there is a strong sense of the uncontrollable unpredictability of love. Neither would like to admit they have fallen for each other, but they have little if any choice in the matter.
Many of Shakespeare's plays show a strong theme of love. Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing deal primarily with the issue of true and false love. Romeo and Juliet, tragic play, is about two lovers who struggle, sacrifice, and defy their families and society for the sake of love that changes them completely. Although the end of Romeo and Juliet's story is death both of the lovers, their love turns to be immortal. Much Ado About Nothing, comedy play, is about two lovers who their relationship starts as child like and develops to be true love that motives the lovers to sacrifice in order to keep their love. The two plays deal also with the idea of false love. Romeo, the hero of Romeo and Juliet, thinks that he loves Rosaline, but when he meets Juliet, the heroin of Romeo and Juliet, he falls in love with her, forgetting his love to Rosaline. In Much Ado About Nothing, the relationship between Claudio and Hero's, main characters in the play, is based on wealth and appearance attraction. Conventional love is another kind of that is shown in Romeo and Juliet, where it develops in social situations without any consideration to emotions.
The Shakespearean play “Much Ado About Nothing” is considered to be a comedy that is filled with deception, love, public shaming, honor, and social grace. The main focus of this paper will be about the characters relationship and meaning of love in this story. By examining the characters relationships in the play Much Ado, we can see Shakespeare arguing that love is achieved through commitment, trust, and understanding.