Social Pressures in William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

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Recommended: Features of Shakespearean comedy in much ado about nothing

Social Pressures in William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

There has been much discussion about whether or not Shakespeare’s play

‘Much Ado About Nothing’ it is based more around social pressures

rather than true love; this essay will see to what extent the play

supports this idea.

Shakespeare wrote the play ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ around 1598. It

was located in Italy, because Italy at the time was seen as a romantic

exotic country, writers during this time period were obsessed over

Italy, a lot of the plays written were set in Italy. This play has a

wide appeal to all classes which shows that it would be appropriate

for all to watch. The title ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ suggests that to

a person looking on in the play the dilemma could seem a lot more

serious to them than it would to someone who was really in the

situation. The genre that Shakespeare chose for this play is a comedy,

this play was written to entertain the audience.

In my opinion the essay question portrays the idea that the play may

be based around social pressure rather than true love. Social pressure

is when you are pressured into doing something that you do not want to

do, for example Beatrice and Benedick seem to fall in love with each

other purely because of what they have heard. Whereas true love is

when you have affection and kindness towards a person and have strong

feelings for them. For example in the play the fact that Hero and

Claudio decide to get married the day after they get engaged could

show that they are truly in love and is meant to be a whirlwind of

romance and love. Although the organisation of their wedding is quite

rushed...

... middle of paper ...

... factor

that actually made them fall in love with each other.

As for Claudio and Hero they were already in love with each other but

this stands to question, if they were really in love wouldn’t Claudio

have believed that Hero would not betray him and wouldn’t he try to

hear her out. This could prove that they were not totally in love with

each other but just together for the sake of having a relationship.

However this could just be because he is so shocked at what he thinks

he has seen that he just rages out with anger and doesn’t even think

to stop and ask her.

Therefore compared to Beatrice and Benedick, Hero and Claudio’s

relationship is based more heavily on true love than social pressures.

Whereas Beatrice and Benedick seem to have a relationship based around

social pressures rather than anything else.

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