Much Ado About Nothing Research Paper

1411 Words6 Pages
Much Ado about Nothing: A Comedy of Love and Marriage Much Ado About Nothing. A play written at one of the high points of Shakespeare's career as well as one of his most popular. Now seen as prototype for fleshing out his styles, plots, and character types in his later tragedies and comedies, Much Ado About Nothing includes many fantastical characters and underlying themes. A story progressing through the invention and passing-ons of misunderstandings tying in to a young woman's marriage scandal, and those of forcefully denying to-be lovers, makes it clear it is a comedy of both love and marriage. Nevertheless, these acts of “love”, or how it would be described in Shakespearean times, are either constructed through rash decisions, want of…show more content…
While both partnerships occur during the same time period as well as setting and circumstance, they both differ greatly in their fundamentals within the relationship. As the play begins we can easily see the pre existing friendship between Benedick and Beatrice from their witty, amusing banter and similar sense of humor as well as actions. For example, once Hero is accused of losing her virginity, Beatrice and Benedick are a few of the select group who actually believe in Hero’s innocence. Thus as the plot progresses their relationship, whether platonic or romantic, blooms into what a relationship should be, or at least close to. with mutual benefit for both parties. On the contrary, Claudio holds more of an infatuation for Hero based only on her appearance and other’s opinions on her. He rashly chooses to marry her, while only holding love for her image. His own idea of what he thinks of her and his reverence for social grace is clearly shown when he abandons Hero at the wedding because Don John leads him to believe that she is unchaste. Furthermore, he speaks of her loss of honor as an indelible stain from which he cannot distance himself, no matter how hard he
Open Document