Much Ado About Nothing

Act I takes place in the different barn, on Shrove Tuesday, 1601, the night before the execution of the Earl of Essex. Ned, in his thirties, enters, swearing while trying to take off his costume. He is infuriated because Jack as Benedick forgot his line which was a cue for Ned as Beatrice to turn on the stage during the performance before Queen Elizabeth I. The possibility of Ned walking off the stage and the potential humiliation from it makes Ned more and more furious. Slowly other members of…

406BCE), which are different again from either of the others in his dramatic use of language but the themes of his plays are less powerful and at times almost incomprehensible. The best known are probably The Bacchae and The Trojan Women. We know less about the Greek comedies because few have survived but scholars have…

reading, writing, and various classical literature. From his writing it seems that he was a well educated man. His knowledge of love, politics, psychology, and history was on par with some one that had attended college. The scarce information available about his education has propelled rumors that he may not have written all of the works credited to him. It is safe to assume that Shakespeare found joy in writing, some would call it his greatest interest. He was a very prolific writer who…

What are the requirements of a healthy and strong relationship? In William Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, the entire play revolves around two relationships. Because of this, the reader would think they have a perfect and unbreakable bond. However, one may be better than the other. Beatrice and Benedick have a healthier relationship than Hero and Claudio because they had more time to develop their relationship, and they have more trust and communication. Beatrice and Benedick…

self-proclaimed enemy: marriage. Two examples of these turncoats come from pieces of literature written over a century ago. The first is Algernon from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. The second, Benedick, comes from Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado about Nothing. The two have their fair share of differences as well as similarities, but analyzing them side by side reveals both to be complicate people whose characterization goes far beyond their exteriors as…

A tragic flaw is a secret characteristic, most of the time a weakness, that bring tragedy towards the character. In Much Ado About Nothing, written by William Shakespeare, a specific tragic flaw commonly occurs in the actions of Don John towards Don Pedro, Claudio, Hero, Borachio, and Leonato. Don John’s fatal flaw is his envy towards his brother, Don Pedro, which leads to chaos within others lives. To begin, Don John had created a specific conflicts due to his envious spirit. For example, he…

so that is the scope through which he addresses the behaviors of women. Ruskin’s time was much less into the “burning witches at the stake scene” and was much more content locking women away and hooping books will teach their gentle souls. He looks at this issue through the eyes of his time and in his time women were normally house-keepers and such. These two pieces introduce vitally important aspects about gender roles, the normal transfer of cultural views throughout time, and the authors in…

The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare’s earliest comedies, and it shares many essential characteristics with his other romantic comedies, such as Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.…

When I returned the following year as a co-director, however, perhaps the greatest challenge I faced was getting myself familiar with yet another Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing. Having never read the full play before, I immediately began conducting research on who the characters were, and what Shakespeare wanted readers to walk away with. This allowed me to help students focus on specific keywords, and help them…

Commercial television has more connection with post-modern pieces of the theatre than most people think. Simon says “Commercial television is not so much a vast waste-land, as some of his critics have charged, but a magnificent post-modern warehouse overflowing with some of the great drama of the past” (Simon,…