Much Ado About Nothing Essay: Love Found and Conflict Resolved

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Love Found and Conflict Resolved in Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing is a lighthearted play that Shakespeare wrote between 1598 and 1600. It has been described as one of his "more mature romantic comedies" (Bevington, 216). This play focuses on two different relationships, formed by two pairs of lovers. The comparison between how people went about getting married back then and how they do it now is similar in some ways. Much Ado About Nothing portrays the manner in which people fall in love, the way they interact with each other and how they manage to get through the rough times without changing their love for one another. The two couples include the young ladies, who are cousins, Beatrice and Hero, and the gentlemen, Claudio and Benedick. There is a lot of obvious love between Hero and Claudio and he has come to claim her as his own. However, there is some bad blood that runs between Benedick and his Beatrice. Little do they know that they are made for each other.

Messina, Italy, a small province facing the Straits of Messina, in northeastern Sicily, at the estate of the governor of Messina, Leonato is where this play is set. "Don Pedro of Aragon and his men are returning from a series of wars; stopping to visit Leonato, where they make plans to spend the next month. Among the group are Don John (Don Pedro's bastard brother who once led an unsuccessful revolt against him), young Claudio, and Benedick. The young men are reacquainted with Leonato's beautiful daughter Hero, and his spirited niece Beatrice...and once again, the verbal sparks fly between Beatrice and Benedick. Yet Claudio's fascination with Hero is born out of love, not scorn"

(http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/1743/ado.html)...

... middle of paper ...

...d Beatrice decide to get married at the same time as Claudio and Hero. In the end, everyone is happy, as expected. Hero and Claudio get what they want, and so do the other two lovers. This is one of the more light-hearted of Shakespeare's plays. It has all the elements of fun, family responsibility, and love. The main problem, the conflict between Beatrice and Benedick, is resolved.

Works Cited

Bevington, David. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. 4th ed. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1992.

Halliday, F.E. A Shakespeare Comparison. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1952.

"An Analysis of Much Ado About Nothing." http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~babydoll/coursematerial/fall96/fallstudentwork/jbpublic_html/maana.html (16 April 2000).

"Ye Olde Plot Summary: Much Ado About Nothing." http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/1743/ado.html (16 April 2000).

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