The Themes of Love in William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
In this essay, it is necessary to discuss the main themes of love in
the play, 'Much Ado About Nothing.' In the play, one of the main
themes is Love. There can be many facets of love found in the play. It
will be essential to discuss these facets, to find out whether the
theme of love is crucial to the understanding of the play.
There are many romantic relationships, which are important in the
play. The first is the one of, Claudio and Hero. As being two main
characters in the play, they are frequently mentioned. This means that
their love for each other is expressed vividly in many references from
the play. This is how Claudio describes Hero in the earlier stages of
the play,
" She is the sweetest lady I have ever looked upon"
This shows us his love for the beautiful lady he wishes to marry.
Benedick and Beatrice have a hidden love. They show this love through
hate. This may seem ridiculous, but in the early stages of the book,
they seem to express their love through a hate relationship. They are
constantly bickering. Later in the play they express their feelings
for each other, and both characters feel the same way. They both have
an undying love for each other. This love is first found through
letters, which, near the end of the play were passed on to each of
them by friends. This then leads to their marriage!
Two unknown relationships in the play are he ones of Antonia and
Ursula, and, Borachio and Margret. They are not mentioned frequently
in the play, as couples but we know of them due to their cheeky
references.
Family love is another topic that experiences misery and the happiness
of love. The first relationship I am going analyse is the one between
Leonato and his daughter Hero. There father, daughter relationship is
very traditional. They love each other very much, but he wants what is
best for her.
Many characters in this play have trust in each other. They trust each other with their lives, resulting in the death of many people. Loyalty is the final theme that is evident in this play. There are people who are loyal, and then there are people who are not loyal. The actions that these different characters make create a multitude of themes.
When you walk down the street you notice millions of different kinds of people. Some with a piercing, some with bunch of friends and some with a book in their hands. What is it that makes people so different from one another? Our personality and our character are not born with us, but they are influenced by our actions and the people around us. When we are young we are around our family and they teach us their tradition, which becomes the building blocks for our personality. However, where do traditions come from and what happens when someone fails to follow the traditions? Questions like these have no definite answers but different point of views. Shakespeare for example shares his point of view about traditions in his two famous plays “Romeo and Juliet” and “Much Ado about Nothing.”
The main theme of the play is trying to put across a strong view to
by using it as a comic device, but also to sort out situations so that
As mentioned, the act of Claudio forfeiting Hero’s hand in marriage and denouncing her at their wedding ceremony due to her unloyalty, not only proves that a woman’s virtue is critical to his “love” for her but also reveals a deeper meaning to the play as a whole at various degrees. Men are only satisfied when they completely dominate a woman. This means not only obtaining her heart, but her virginity and virtue as well. In this time period, their wives were seen as their property and a man would rather throw his whole fiance away than tread on previously marked territory. If Claudio genuinely loved Hero in the first place, he would have confronted her about the situation in private before he unjustly demolished her publicly based on a loose
William Shakespeare said: “Women may fall when there's no strength in men” (Romeo and Juliet). Throughout history gender role have been a big, whether someone is a feminist or someone believes there is no equality between males and females; everyone has different opinions when it comes to the matter of gender roles. The same thing can be said about William Shakespeare who was a feminist (Shakespeare of Stratford). This ideology can be seen in his play Much Ado about Nothing. In this comedy Shakespeare focuses on two pairs of lovers named Claudio and Hero who are set to be married in a week but before their marriage day, they plan to conspire with Don Pedro, the prince of Aragon to trick their friends Beatrice and Benedick to admit their love for each other. Don John, the brother of Don Pedro, meanwhile plots to prevent marriage of Claudio and Hero by accusing Hero of being unfaithful. Don John initially succeeds in his plan as Hero is accused and ashamed at the marriage ceremony, but at the end Claudio and Hero are united and marry each other. Also, Beatrice and Benedick finally declare their love for each and dance at the end of the play. Shakespeare uses a lot of sources for this comedy and one of them is “Orlando Furioso” written in 1591, which gave Shakespeare the idea of Hero and Claudio’s marriage and Don John’s plot to prevent it. Another source Shakespeare used to write the play is the courtier written in 1588, which gave him the idea of the romance between Beatrice and Benedick. And also “La Prima de la Novelle” written in 1554 by Matteo Bandello gave Shakespeare the idea of putting the setting in Messina, Italy (Shakespeare in quarto). Because Shakespeare was a feminist, some of the women appear as supporting and central...
are two main plots in the play, both based upon the theme of love. The
Much Ado About Nothing is traditionally known as a comedy, but gender is an obvious theme in this play. To me this play challenges the gender inequality of this time period through its main female roles. Beatrice is a challenge to the traditional woman of the Elizabethan era, who is represented by Hero. Beatrice is seen as a sharp, outspoken, independent woman, while Hero is a quiet, polite and obedient woman. The stark differences between these characters shines a light onto the gender inequality of Shakespeare time. This paper will argue that Beatrice and her cousin Hero are used to show the gender inequality of the the Elizabethan era.
Exploring Love in Much Ado About Nothing In Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare depicts different kinds of loving relationships - romantic love, family support and loyal friendship - and shows how various characters react to love and marriage. By exploring the effects of this powerful emotion Shakespeare highlights its universal relevance, a relevance that transcends time. The main plot of Much Ado About Nothing is that of the relationship between Claudio and Hero. Their story is a melodramatic saga concerning the realities of relationships based on love at first sight.
reach into the ideas and themes of the play so we will have a good
The cycle of love and life continues. After they died, Beatrice, Benedick, Hero and Claudio were again born in the Earth. In their rebirth, Claudio and Benedick were still friends and the Hero and Beatrice were friends too, not cousins. The society where they were born considered it a crime for poor’s to be friends with rich’s. Benedick was a poor orphan, yet he was still friends with Claudio who was from a rich family. Similarly, Beatrice and Hero were friends too, even though Hero was a poor orphan while Beatrice was from rich. Beatrice’s father, Bwo and Claudio’s father, Cwo who both hated poor’s were friends, even though Beatrice and Claudio didn’t knew each other. It was Friday, Bwo and Cwo as usual were having party at Bwo’s mansion.
The title of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing has sparked scholarly debates about its meaning for centuries. Some say it is a play on the term “noting”, revolving around the theme of all sorts of deceptions by all sorts of appearances (Rossiter 163). Others claim it has more to do with everyone making a fuss about things that turn out to be false, therefore, nothing (Vaughn 102). Regardless of these speculations, there is something rather profound going on in the play that is worth making a big deal about: four characters in the play learn about love, and eventually, how to love.
each other very much, if at all. This can be seen in Act I; Scene I, (line 121-
The theme of the play is also change. At the end of the play when
Some of the most important themes of the play are shown in Act 1 Scene