Much Ado About Nothing Essay

 

Much Ado About Nothing Essay - Jason Love is a commonly used theme in Shakespeare’s plays, and like lots of his other plays, both pairs of lovers end up happily together at the end. However, unlike his other plays, Much Ado About Nothing explores the conventional courtly love at that time and proves how it’s inferior when put side by side with an unromantic love with plenty of arguments as well as plenty of differences. As the title suggests, the main plot is, really, Much Ado About Nothing. A simple deception causes a pair of lovers much grief, and is what the whole plot revolves around. The other pair of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, provides a much more important and humorous side plot, and it is really this side plot that steals most of the spotlight over the clichéd love that Claudio and Hero share. Claudio and Hero’s love portray the type of courtly love that was common in Shakespeare’s era, with Claudio’s sophisticated language explaining his love to Benedick and Don Pedro, and then having Don Pedro “woe” Claudio before bringing the two together. However, love is never easy, and with this relationship, the problem is deception and mistrusting one another. Their marriage is sabotaged by Don  John’s plan, and Claudio ends up falsely accusing Hero for being un-loyal and causes great shame to her name. This often clichéd use of love is displayed to highlight the other, more entertaining, part. Claudio often uses very contrived and transparent language, such as “can the world buy such a gem?” to describe his love to Hero, despite not having known her very well at all. This over exaggeration shown is his language is also clearly portrayed in his love for her. It is fickle and fluctuates greatly over very short periods of time. Although Claudio and Hero’s relationship is the main focus of  the play, the side plot with Benedick and Beatrice draws away viewers’ attention and provides the entertainment of  the whole play. Shakespeare explores the constant battle of  wits between Beatrice and Benedick; how their differences pulled them closer and eventually together. In this way, the

 

love seems much more real and durable. At the start of the play, it is shown that both Benedick and Beatrice have sworn to love none of the opposite sex. As the plot between them develops and thickens, it is seen that they both share a lot of  similarities, despite their obvious differences.After Don Pedro’s devious plan to bring Benedick and Beatrice together, it becomes obvious that, although they have constant arguments, they are very well suited for one another. After they discovered their newfound love for each other the couple seemed to be able to survive anything, promptly proving it by surviving the sudden separation between Benedick and Beatrice’s friends due to Don John’s wicked scheme, to the point where Benedick is willing to betray his own friends because of his love for Beatrice. Shakespeare here challenges what, back then was common courtly love, and shows how easy it is to break apart. This is shown by Claudio not trusting Hero, and nearly destroys their relationship. Compare this to Benedick and Beatrice’s relationship. Their relationship is brought together by years of arguing and constant battles of wits. They had to go through many hardships and arguments, so in the end, when they finally get together, their love seems so more down to earth and bound to last. Claudio’s fairytale love is therefore shown to be inferior to Beatrice and Benedick even though they were seen to be unlikely couples at the start of the play. Similar to many other of Shakespeare’s plays, he is again conventional time poking of the challenging type of marriage and lovethinking, that wasthis happening in hisfun time. He wants to show that maybe that kind of love isn’t right, and how relationships between people don’t need to be so romantic and rhetorical, sometimes the unexpected and constantly challenged ones are the deep and enduring ones. In conclusion, this play focuses on what was accepted as the “norm” in England at that time. Shakespeare uses comedic techniques combined with other themes such as deception to highlight and challenge this societal convention. The

 

humour of Benedick and Beatrice coupled with the “seriousness” of Claudio and Hero’s relationship provides a funny take on an otherwise clichéd play.