Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare as a Satire

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Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare as a Satire

This essay will analyse the way in which Shakespeare makes this comedy

bitterly satirical, and a comment on not only the pretentious style

and swank of Spaniards, namely Don Pedro and his gang, but human

stupidity as a whole. Much Ado About Nothing portrays the issues of

sex, war, marriage and chivalric courtly love in an ironic and

satirical way. On a topical level, the play satirises Spanish,

Sicilian and Italian aristocrats in the 16th Century, and their

comical dress sense, style of speech and general outlook and their

anachronistic concepts. The appearance of Don Pedro's group of friends

from the outset would be funny, as not only do they affect this

aristocratic culture and lifestyle, but also they are complete

travesties of it.

At the very start of the play, we see Beatrice's satirical nature as

she addresses the messenger, bringing news of the wars won, and the

bravery of certain soldiers. The mood in this opening dialogue would

be deadly serious if it wasn't for Beatrice making a mockery of the

brave and valorous 'Signor Mountanto'.

"How many hath he killed? For I promise to eat all of his killing."

She claims here that Benedick doesn't actually have the stomach to

kill anybody, and retorts to every sincere statement with a wry

satirical comment about Benedick's courage. This sort of language is

constant throughout the play, and makes Beatrice the foremost

satirical character, along with Borachio in the first part of the

play.

Later on in scene 1, the naïve Claudio inquires after Hero, and asks

Benedick what he thinks of her. He immediately mocks the...

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his egotistical and unstable nature, and also his liking for

longwinded pretentious speeches. After studying these different

characters it becomes apparent that they all have vital similarities -

At some point they are all totally ignorant of the truth, all because

of the deception of 'honour' and the trickery and plots, whether

benign or malicious, of other people.

Shakespeare was very fond of satire. Even famous tragedies such as

MacBeth and Romeo & Juliet have strong satirical elements to them, and

this play is no exception. In fact, it is probably one of his greatest

satires, along with maybe Troilus & Cressida. It is impossible to

understand Much Ado About Nothing without knowing the mind of the

playwright, and his intentions. Nothing is as it seems and 'much ado'

is made of nothing whatsoever.

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