Essay, Research Paper
An Analysis of Much Ado About Nothing
Written between 1598 and 1600 at the peak of Shakespeare’s skill in
writing comedic work, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare’s
wittiest works. In this comedy, Shakespeare’s drama satirizes love and
human courtliness between two couples who take very different paths to
reach the same goal: making the connection between inward and outward
beauty. Much Ado About Nothing shows different ways of how people are
attracted to one another, and how their realization and definitions of
“love” relate to their perceptions of inward and outward beauty.
The play is set in Messina, Italy, a small province facing the Straits
of Messina, in northeastern Sicily, at the estate of the governor of
Messina, Leonato. Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon, Don John, his brother,
Borachio his servant, Benedick, a young lord, and Claudio his best
friend are all returning from war, and have been invited to stay with
Leonato for a month. Shakespeare’s antagonist Don John, bears much
resemblance to Don John of Austria, the illegitimate son of Charles V,
half-brother to the King of Aragon who defeated the Turks at Lepanto and
returned to Messina after his victory in October of 1571 (Richmond 51).
Don John of Austria had many of the qualities that Shakespeare’s Don
John did, he was not on good terms with his brother, and although he
tried with much effort to gain status, he was frequently humiliated in
attempts to bring himself fame. Shakespeare was known to draw parallels
between his characters and actual historical figures, in an attempt to
produce a sort abstract history of the times (Richmond 49).
Upon returning from war, Claudio saw a young woman named Hero that he
had seen before going to fight, and felt a strong attraction to her.
Claudio expressed to Benedick his attraction to Hero, Leonato’s
daughter, and Benedick, with a mouth as loose as oiled hinge immediately
told Don Pedro of the attraction. Don Pedro, being much closer to
Leonato than any of the other veterans were, told the governor Leonato
about Claudio, who in turn informed his daughter Hero of him, all with
the lightning speed of gossip. Claudio’s attraction to Hero is described
by Shakespeare with skill as he puts emphasis on the Claudio-Hero
relationship that is forming but at the same time keeps it in the
background. Claudio is clearly attracted to Hero’s outer beauty and
knows nothing of her inner beauty, but after conversing with his friend
Benedick and then Don Pedro he decides he will marry Hero. A possible
scheme of Claudio can be noted when after describing his attraction to
Hero to Benedick, he asks Don Pedro, “Hath Leonato any son, my lord?”
Don Pedro replies that Hero is “his only heir.”(I.i.262) An
interpretation of this might be that Claudio’s attraction to Hero was
rooted in a pursuance of the love of Hero’s wealth, masked by her
outward beauty.(Brown 79)
At this point the drama takes a twist and a sub-plot is formed as Don
Pedro talks to Claudio about Hero and assures him that he will have
Hero. Don Pedro describes to Claudio his plan of achieving this, he will
don a disguise of Claudio and woo her for him. At this the scene closes,
and Claudio and Benedick are left to wonder about Don Pedro’s
intentions. Benedick believes that Don Pedro wants Hero for himself, and
Don John and Borrachio agree with his statement. This forces Claudio to
act on his instinct and initial attraction to Hero alone and decide to
marry Hero. Don John, feeling resentful of his brother is quick to
accept his servant Borrachio’s plan of deceiving Claudio into thinking
that Hero is promiscuous, so that he can shame one of his prestigious
brother’s followers and prevent Claudio and Hero’s marriage. Borrachio’s
plan included having an amorous encounter with Margaret, Hero’s maid,
and in the middle of everything announcing Hero’s name for everyone who
might be in earshot to hear.
While Claudio describes his love of Hero, Benedick reveals his
attraction to Beatrice to Claudio, Leonato’s niece, but at the same time
profoundly states a declaration of bachelorism. Beatrice’s character is
described as a fine example of a woman in Shakespeare’s time. She has a
biting wit, and in her “high intellect and high animal spirits meet”
(Jameson 349) Benedick and Beatrice quarrel in a skirmish of wits which
is merely a facade of their underlying attraction to each other, and an
ongoing struggle of recognizing their love. Benedick and Beatrice’s
attraction and pre-existing relationship is evident, and their battle of
the sexes is followed closely. Beatrice admits her attraction to
Benedick but is reluctant to act upon it, and at the same time rejects
the idea of giving herself to a man, and jokes about her believing that
she will never find the perfect husband. Beatrice and Benedick’s
relationship is tumultuous from the start of the play because of a
previously soured relationship between the two, and from the beginning
she seems reluctant to trust him as well. Beatrice says to Don Pedro in
response of his noting that she had “lost the heart of Signior
Benedick”, “Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile, and I gave him use
for it-a double heart for his single one. Marry once before he won it of
me with false dice; therefore your grace may well say I have lost
it.”(II.i.249) She also says, “You always end with a jade’s trick.” “I
know you of old.”(I.i.129) Beatrice does not want to trust Benedick with
her heart, but Hero, along with Ursula and Margaret her maids, plot to
trick Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love by telling each of them
of the others attraction, and ironically they succeed in resparking a
pre-existing flame. This trick that Hero and her maids pull off is not
an invention of Shakespeare, rather, he may have borrowed the theme from
a tale in a collection of stories about the French court in the Valois
era written by Margauerite de Navarre, sister of Francis I. The story,
quite similar to the play, describes female courtiers tricking a man
that despised women into falling for a particular woman, catching him in
the act and ridiculing him (Richmond 56).
Shakespeare carefully contrasts the characters of Benedick and Claudio
and allows them to play off one another. Benedick feels ever-confident
in his presentation of self and declaration of his bachelorism, and is
contrasted to Claudio in his uncertainty, and need to confide in and
look for approval from others. Claudio only saw Hero for a brief moment
upon returning from the war, and immediately desires her. In the play,
The only conversation Claudio and Hero had was at their wedding when he
denounced her and made public her accusation of promiscuity. This shows
that his attraction to her is purely of outward beauty and he only
guesses at her inward beauty; he trusts his eyes solely on who is to be
his future wife but can also somehow denounce her and cause her shame.
He sees her outer beauty but can only guess at her inner beauty until he
learns of her innocence from ‘The Watch’, at which point her inner
beauty is revealed to him, and he believes he will never find another
woman of equal worth, and will stoop to marry an Ethiope.(V.iv. 38)
Leonato offers him the hand of Hero’s look-alike, one of Leonato’s
nieces, and he accepts. When the Hero look-alike comes forth her true
identity is revealed to Claudio, and he realizes that his love for her
is true. Beatrice and Benedick are overconfident in their actions, and
as a result muddle their love affair. Claudio and Hero are not confident
in their feelings or desires, and their lack of action muddled their
relationship, and allowed trickery to step in (Brown 122). Beatrice is a
strong woman firm in her ideas of not succumbing to a man, becoming his
wife, and Benedick is as firm in his belief of not marrying a woman, and
is referred to as “being committed to a war against the ladies.” They
learn to trust their feelings more than their observations of character
and witty remarks to each other and as a result see inward beauty in
each other.
Towards the end of the play Benedick proposes to Beatrice and kisses her
before Claudio and Hero’s marriage, this shows that they had come a long
way, with a little help from their friends. Claudio sees inner beauty in
Hero when he learns of her innocence, but Shakespeare makes it seem much
less dramatic that that of Benedick and Beatrice. One could say that
Claudio fell in love at first sight, and then caught a glimpse of her
inner beauty when her innocence was revealed, but his love of her wealth
cannot be overlooked either. After learning of Hero’s innocence he
agrees to marry one of Leonato’s nieces, and says that he would even
have an Ethiope for his wife. This could be interpreted as a desire of
Claudio to marry into fortune, pursuance of his love wealth obscured by
beauty. Both couples see inward and outward beauty by the end of the
play, although they both end up learning practically opposite lessons in
love (Brown 118).
When we are not confident in our thoughts and ideas, we are hesitant and
they do not translate them into actions thus the initial spark dies and
we are blind to what could have been. Other times inner beauty is more
clear than is outer beauty, and overconfidence in our observations and
the way we present ourselves can make us blind from another perspective
as well.
a) The role of Dogberry – how does he provide comic relief?
He’s funny. He just is. Usually Shakepeare’s clowns are the wisest
characters in his plays. We laugh at Dogberry because he is ignorant and
pompous – yet he commands the respect of his underlings and knows when
to defer to those above him. In a way, his presence is a lampoon of
authority, a less serious reflection of the dark plots of Don John, who
seeks, among other things, to make fools of those who have authority
over him. Dogberry manages to be both the fool and the victim in his own
little circle. His antics allow us to laugh on the surface while
reminding us, on a deeper level, what is going on in the play proper.
: b)Don Jon – does such a villainous character have a place in the
comedy?
Are you kidding? There’s got to be a villian. Without a villian, there
is no conflict. Without conflict, there is no story. Remember your
melodrama. The villian drives the plot. Also, how are we to determine
what is “good” if there is no “evil” with which to compare it? If you
want to go even farther, you could take a good hard look at Claudio and
Don John and see if you think they are really allthere is no story.
Remem
c)The supposed death of Hero – how does a potentially tragic scene –
comparable to the supposed death of Juliet become part of a comedy?
I would argue that it is a comdey. I am more apt to consider Much Ado a
problem play for exactly this reason. We don’t know what Shakespeare was
thinking when he wrote his plays, but it seems to me that a man who
would create Beatrice and put her in a play with Hero, then name Hero,
“Hero” was not writing to be understood on merely one level. Comedy at
it’s best makes us laugh when we want to cry. There is nothing funny
about Hero’s “death”. The comdey is in her triumph over the social mores
of her time, her ability to turn it around and shame Claudio later. And
that comedy is not the fast and furious comedy of Beatrice and Benedict
or the buffoonery of Dogberry, but the slightly wry, bemused sort of
comedy that makes us acknowldege that even funny situations are in some
way tragic and vice versa.
d)Beatrice and Benedick – what is their comic role?
They are the antithesis of the Hero/Claudio relationship. As Dogberry is
to Don John so Beatrice and Benedict are to Hero and Claudio. While Hero
and Claudio remind us how fragile love is and what illusion is
“perfection”. In the Hero/Claudio relationship, we have a situation of
innocents confronting the dark reality of human nature, and surviving,
emerging stronger and truer than before. Beatrice and Benedict start out
jaded, confront the same dark realities, and find something in
themselves that is innocent yet, something that is willing to trust.
352