He is standing on a platform forty feet above the ground. He is dangling his foot off the front of the platform and touching a rope that reaches to another platform seventy feet away. The rope is no thicker than a quarter. As he finds his center balance he shifts his weight forward, his first foot makes contact with the rope, then he does what is against all human instincts, places his other foot on the rope. He starts walking, worried that he is going to fall. He is gripping a balance pole. He looks down and to see a gut wrenching void. As a tightrope walking he has done this many times before and is accustomed to the stress and anxiety that the job creates. Hundreds of people are watching him risk his life for their amusement. If he makes one wrong move he will fall. When someone is in love it may be easier to be a tightrope walker at times. Being in a relationship is like walking on a tightrope. If you make a wrong move it can cost a great deal of pain to more than one person. The play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare he teaches a great deal about relationships. He shows what character traits are needed for a relationship to be successful and …show more content…
how easy it is to ruin them. In order for a relationship to be successful there has to be trust.
Shakespeare shows how important it is in the relationship between Claudio and Hero. Twice in the play Claudio was tricked into believing that someone he loves has questionable character by a person who he knows is evil. Claudio is gullible enough to be tricked when Don John leads him to believe that his friend is wooing Hero for himself rather than for his sake. Claudio believes that his friend Don Pedro is wooing the girl he loves for himself, he says “Tis certain so; the prince woos for himself.Friendship is a constant in all other things save in the office and affairs of love”(Shakespeare 2.1 52-54). If Claudio would trust his friend he would never be able to be tricked by Don John. Claudio lets himself be fooled by Don John more than
once. The second time that Claudio is fooled by Don John he reacts unimaginably. Don John led Claudio to believe that Hero was unfaithful. At his wedding he publicly shames Hero. If Claudio had trust in Hero this would have never happened. This shows how important trust is in any relationship. Shakespeare shows how important trust is in a relationship when Hero forgives Claudio for shaming her. In the play there are many instances where it is shown how important it is to have trust and forgiveness in order for a relationship to work. Any relationship is bound to have ups and downs but if two people believe in each other and they trust one another, being in a relationship can be the opposite of being on a tightrope.
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.
When you walk down the street you notice millions of different kinds of people. Some with a piercing, some with bunch of friends and some with a book in their hands. What is it that makes people so different from one another? Our personality and our character are not born with us, but they are influenced by our actions and the people around us. When we are young we are around our family and they teach us their tradition, which becomes the building blocks for our personality. However, where do traditions come from and what happens when someone fails to follow the traditions? Questions like these have no definite answers but different point of views. Shakespeare for example shares his point of view about traditions in his two famous plays “Romeo and Juliet” and “Much Ado about Nothing.”
“Love goes by haps; Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps” (Shakespeare pg. 45). One of Shakespeare’s most famous plays is Much Ado About Nothing and it specifically shows the tragic flaws of each and every character throughout the story. One character that will be mainly focused on that’s the most tragically flawed, is Claudio because he’s passionate about his love for Hero and how he’s easily manipulated.
Throughout Act one and two, Benedick repeatedly says that he will never love a woman or get married. At some stage in the duration of the play his mindset changes. In the end he is head over heels in love for Beatrice whom he once quarreled with habitually. The turnabout in his behavior was brought about by the deceiving Claudio and Pedro who indirectly told Benedick that Beatrice loved him.
	The first example of deception we see is with the characters of Beatrice and Benedick. These two characters provide the humor throughout Shakespeare's comedy; their repartees and soliloquies tend to leave the reader smiling and anxious for more dialogue between them. Beatrice and Benedick have had a relationship prior to their battles of wit to which she alludes to in Act 2: "Marry, once before he won it for me with false dice; / Therefore your grace may well say I have lost it’ (2.1.265-7). We see that at one time in the past they had a relationship that somewhere went wrong. The deception of Beatrice and Benedick comes courtesy of Don Pedro in Act 2. In this scene, Don Pedro, out of pure amusement, asks Leonato, the governor of Messina, and Claudio, a lord attending on Don Pedro, for help to bring these two together: "If we can do this, Cupid is no / longer an archer; his glory shall be ours…" (2.1.363-4). In Act 2.3, Claudio, Pedro, and Leonato, see Benedick in the garden and decide that that is the right moment for them to try and trick Be...
Comparing Shakespeare's Presentation of the Love Between Claudio and Hero with that Between Beatrice and Benedick
Don John plays an essential role for nearly all of the trickery and deception in this play. He acts like a catalyst and an instigator for trouble, whose sole aim is to marmalize the love and happiness between Claudio and Hero. Shakespeare uses foreshadowing of Don John’s villainy to display the trickery and deception:
What makes the plot of Much Ado About Nothing so interesting is the use of deception and betrayal; though deception is used more frequently than betrayal. To deceive someone is “to cause (someone) to believe something that is not true, typically in order to gain some personal advantage.” Throughout the book divergent people manipulate others for an advantage. Whether deception is okay or not depends on the intentions of the deceivers – if the intention is to promote happiness, then the deceiver is a good friend, but if the deceiver intends harm, then he’s a bastard. The play is built on the problems caused by deception.. Benedict and Beatrice are deceived into thinking they love each other. Hero and Ursula deceived Beatrice and for that, they are good friends. Don Pedro, Claudio and Leonato deceived Benedick and that makes them good friends as well. However, Don John deceived Claudio into thinking hero b...
In the play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare shows how friends often betray each other. Julius Caesar is about to be crowned king of Rome, when some well-known Romans decide that it is not a good idea for this to happen. They form a conspiracy and kill Caesar. Brutus, an honorable Roman and a very good friend of Caesar’s, betrays Caesar by killing him for the good of Rome. Antony, Caesar’s best friend and another honorable Roman, betrays Brutus by turning against the conspirators. Cassius, a respected Roman, and Brutus betray each other by arguing and destroying their friendship. All this betraying lead to many deaths in the play.
William Shakespeare attained literary immortality through his exposition of the many qualities of human nature in his works. One such work, The Merchant of Venice, revolves around the very human trait of deception. Fakes and frauds have been persistent throughout history, even to this day. Evidence of deception is all around us, whether it is in the products we purchase or the sales clerks' false smile as one debates the purchase of the illusory merchandise. We are engulfed by phonies, pretenders, and cheaters. Although most often associated with a heart of malice, imposture varies in its motives as much as it's practitioners, demonstrated in The Merchant of Venice by the obdurate characters of Shylock and Portia.
Love is a powerful emotion, capable of turning reasonable people into fools. Out of love, ridiculous emotions arise, like jealousy and desperation. Love can shield us from the truth, narrowing a perspective to solely what the lover wants to see. Though beautiful and inspiring when requited, a love unreturned can be devastating and maddening. In his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare comically explores the flaws and suffering of lovers. Four young Athenians: Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena, are confronted by love’s challenge, one that becomes increasingly difficult with the interference of the fairy world. Through specific word choice and word order, a struggle between lovers is revealed throughout the play. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses descriptive diction to emphasize the impact love has on reality and one’s own rationality, and how society’s desperate pursuit to find love can turn even strong individuals into fools.
William Shakespeare has written many plays that touched millions of people throughout the centuries. His works are still the most controversial ones favored by many Literature critics because his plays generate spontaneous debates on issues such as friendship, revenge, human ambitions and moralities that lead to dynamic discussion among people. In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, friendship vs. duty is one of the major themes that is developed. One's struggle over the choice between friendship and duty is depicted through the main character, Brutus, as he battles himself to choose between his duty to carry out people's will and his own conscious hitting on his faithfulness to his best friend Caesar. Although Brutus himself was skeptical if he made the right decision, he joins the conspiracy that plans for the murder of their leader Julius Caesar. The tragic aspect of the play Julius Caesar is that even though Brutus ‘s motives were immaculate, his fear toward Caesar's ambition, Cassius' persuasion, and his tragic flaw, idealism deluded him to make a tragic mistake of assassinating Caesar.
However, Shakespeare also picks on love. Not only did Malvolio's confusion about his and Olivia's relationship prove to add to the comedy, but it rather showed how one can play with love, and use it for another's harm. Apart from this example, love is depicted as a light and lovely emotion.
A Feminist Perspective of Hero in Much Ado About Nothing Unlike the title of this piece suggests, Hero did not undergo her transformation in Much Ado About Nothing through magic. Rather, Hero was a victim of the double standards and illogical fears that the men of Shakespeare’s plays commonly held. The following quote sums it up quite well. In the plays female sexuality is not expressed variously through courtship, pregnancy, childbearing, and remarriage, as it is in the period. Instead, it is narrowly defined and contained by the conventions of Petrarchan love and cuckoldry.
William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, which is commonly believed to criticize society’s romanticized idea of love, demonstrates that even though love may seem unachievable, it is still possible to find it even in the most unlikely places. Shakespeare illustrates this idea in Twelfth Night through the characters Antonio and Sebastian by subtly suggesting that Antonio and Sebastian are more than just friends. It is Sebastian’s physical beauty that attracts Antonio to him, which leads him to devote himself to Sebastian as a sign of love. Antonio’s love for Sebastian grows to obsession; however Sebastian considers their friendship to be completely plutonic. In addition Sebastian generally tries to save Antonio from his own desire; however he does a bad job by leading him on unintentionally due to his passive nature.