Comparison of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, and King Lear

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Watching a play is completely different than watching a movie. When watching a movie there are two options, either watching it at home on the couch with a bag of chips, or going to a movie theatre with a bucket of popcorn. Why do we even waste two hours of our time to sit and watch a movie? Primarily, we do watch movies to waste time. When people get bored, we watch movies to pass the time. Well, before they could make movies, people would go watch a play which is an entirely different experience than going to a movie. Many of these plays that people went to watch were written by a man named Shakespeare. William Shakespeare is probably the greatest play write of all time. Two of his plays, Much Ado about Nothing and King Lear, are both wonderful plays with different, but similar narrative structure, or plots. Much Ado about Nothing is a story about Hero and how the love of her life Claudio is planning on marrying her, however a few envious people try to ruin everything which lead to Hero faking her death and Claudio thinking Hero was unfaithful and then passing away. Yet, by the end of the play, Hero reveals herself; Claudio realized that people were lying and that Hero was being faithful and the play ends with a double wedding. In King Lear, two different families are being betrayed and two different fathers make bad decisions about their children that eventually lead to one man being blind and the other father’s demise. Yet, this isn’t all of the play according to Arthur Rosenblatt, “Besides, the plot line, involving two older men and their respective family problems, is only a small part of the play.” (Rosenblatt, Arthur S.). In Shakespeare’s plays King Lear and Much Ado about Nothing, their narrative structures have similar qu...

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...aos reigns.” (Boston, Gabriella) as well as Edgar’s trick he played on his father in King Lear by having him fall of an imaginary cliff. This play does have some similarities, but overall the plot development is different.

Works Cited

Bennett, Ray. "'Much Ado About Nothing'." Hollywood Reporter. 28 Dec. 2007: 25. eLibrary. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.

Boston, Gabriella. "Review of Much Ado about Nothing.." Washington Times (16 Nov. 2002): D2. Rpt. in Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Michelle Lee. Vol. 88. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.

Heath, Sue.. "RSC: Much Ado About Nothing, Northern Stage, Newcastle." Northern Echo. 02 Nov. 2006: 13. eLibrary. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.

Igleheart, Erin "King Lear." Hutchinson Encyclopedia. 2011. eLibrary. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.

Rosenblatt, Arthur S.. King Lear. Barron's, 2004. eLibrary. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.

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