Much Ado About Nothing is a Shakespeare comedy, which takes place in Messina, Italy. This play focuses on love, romance, and courtships, with a deeper perspective highlighting the brutality of gossip, rumors, lies, and deceptions. Much hurt, complication and stress are piled on top deceptions learned of through eavesdropping, or in Elizabethan English, noting. In Elizabethan English “nothing,” was pronounced: “noting.” This is how Shakespeare came to the title of the play, for much is done over nothing. And nothing, being read as noting at this time, created a pun in the title. We will analyze the characters behind the lines, as well as dissect major themes of deception, and conversions. We will see artificial outward love does not last, and
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In Hero and Claudio, we witness the ideal romance. The lovely, quiet, dependent Hero, falls for the dashing war-hero, Claudio. Secondly, we have the blunt, witty, independent Beatrice, fall for the stubborn, witty Benedick. Along with the contrast of these clashing romances, we are confronted to analyze two major parallel deceptions that sculpt the play, that of Don Pedro and that of Don Jon. Don Pedro deceives Beatrice and Benedick into loving eachother. Don Jon deceives Claudio to believe Hero has been unfaithful to him. However, this theme of deception spreads all throughout the play. In fact, the very resolution of the play is the result of another deception portrayed in Hero’s supposed “death.” We see continuous unveiling of masks as the play unravels, as well as deception in appearances. The characters of Much Ado are several layers deep, and assumptions based on the outermost layer result in deceptions. We later see themes of conversion in Much Ado. As the characters Beatrice and Benedick deceive and mask their hurts through wits and bantering, they convert to love in the early stages of the play. We see the deception of masks Claudio and Hero hide behind in their artificial, mimetic romance. Yet, Claudio and Hero are also wrecked to their foundation through deceptions, the testing of their love. When artificial love shook and fell …show more content…
His love appears quite shallow. He idealizes Hero, and accepts her as a business transaction rather than a wife. He relies on his friends to affirm that Hero would make a good wife, proving his concern with social rank and outward appearance trump his concern to obtain a converted love. The foundation of sinking sand completely fails when Claudio allows deception, through perception, to not only tear the marriage apart, but to validate the necessity of publicly condemning his so called “beloved.” Demonstrating childishness and a disrespectful comprehension of love, both Claudio and Hero are quick to create false illusions regarding Benedick and Beatrice, by joining in on Don Pedro’s deception. They consider love to be a game, and we see the disastrous results of such a perspective. Both experience true conversion once their outward love failed miserably, for it had no base. Claudio accepts Hero in the end as her face is covered, displaying a love beyond the eyes. Claudio becomes mature, independent, strong of character, and converted to love in Much
In Hero and Claudio, we witness the ideal romance. The lovely, quiet, dependent Hero, falls for the dashing war-hero, Claudio. Secondly, we have the blunt, witty, independent Beatrice, fall for the stubborn, witty Benedick. Along with the contrast of these clashing romances, we are confronted to analyze two major parallel deceptions that sculpt the play, that of Don Pedro and that of Don Jon. Don Pedro deceives Beatrice and Benedick into loving eachother. Don Jon deceives Claudio to believe Hero has been unfaithful to him. However, this theme of deception spreads all throughout the play. In fact, the very resolution of the play is the result of another deception portrayed in Hero’s supposed “death.” We see continuous unveiling of masks as the play unravels, as well as deception in appearances. The characters of Much Ado are several layers deep, and assumptions based on the outermost layer result in deceptions. We later see themes of conversion in Much Ado. As the characters Beatrice and Benedick deceive and mask their hurts through wits and bantering, they convert to love in the early stages of the play. We see the deception of masks Claudio and Hero hide behind in their artificial, mimetic romance. Yet, Claudio and Hero are also wrecked to their foundation through deceptions, the testing of their love. When artificial love shook and fell …show more content…
His love appears quite shallow. He idealizes Hero, and accepts her as a business transaction rather than a wife. He relies on his friends to affirm that Hero would make a good wife, proving his concern with social rank and outward appearance trump his concern to obtain a converted love. The foundation of sinking sand completely fails when Claudio allows deception, through perception, to not only tear the marriage apart, but to validate the necessity of publicly condemning his so called “beloved.” Demonstrating childishness and a disrespectful comprehension of love, both Claudio and Hero are quick to create false illusions regarding Benedick and Beatrice, by joining in on Don Pedro’s deception. They consider love to be a game, and we see the disastrous results of such a perspective. Both experience true conversion once their outward love failed miserably, for it had no base. Claudio accepts Hero in the end as her face is covered, displaying a love beyond the eyes. Claudio becomes mature, independent, strong of character, and converted to love in Much