Love, as we know, is a mystifying emotion. Even Sophocles, one of the three Greek tragedians whose plays have survived, stated: “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love”. As these four simple letters come together, everything else in the world is forgotten. This complicated emotion is held responsible for starting as many battles as it has ended and overall creating the world’s strongest bonds. Yet, what is love? The Oxford dictionary defines love as a strong feeling of affection but in the end, there are millions of ways that each individual defines love according to their experiences. One individual in particular is Shakespeare, who is widely known for expressing the significance of love in various plays of his, as he portrays several branches of love such as friendship, parental love, and romantic love. In Much Ado about Nothing, Shakespeare demonstrates the ways in which Claudio and Hero’s love shows the triumph of imagination over intelligence compared to Benedick and Beatrice’s love which also shows the triumph of imagination over intelligence throughout the beginning but slowly progresses into intelligence over imagination towards the end. Claudio and Hero’s love revolves around imagination over intelligence as a result of their sudden romance while Benedick and Beatrice’s love revolves around intelligence over imagination because of the true love that they express towards each other. Claudio is quite possibly the primary character
Many people experience love in their life whether it’s with family, friends, or with a partner. WIlliam Shakespeare’s book, Much Ado About Nothing, contains many different forms of love such as the love between daughter and father, friends, and lovers. Some of those relationships, however, are questionable like the relationship between Hero and Claudio. Throughout the book Hero and Claudio are faced with many obstacles that help the reader conclude that they aren’t truly in love with each other.
William Shakespeare’s play Much Ado about Nothing traverses the complex social, and emotional trials and triumphs of romantic relationships; Shakespeare’s perspective on the subject is both very similar to ours today, and different. Although filled with sexual innuendos, and humorous trickery and shenanigans, Much Ado about Nothing also dives into the complexities of social anxieties, defense mechanisms to cope with the social pressures, and the emotions involved.
‘Shakespeare wrote his play in accordance with the conventions of an easily identifiable genre – history, comedy or tragedy.’
evil. The evil is in the mind of Don John who is seen plotting evil
This is a key point in the play as the main plot is around Claudio and
The presence and display of love in Much Ado About Nothing is very different depending on which character or relationship one focuses on. Benedick and Beatrice show their love for each other like a school boy, who picks on his crush to show he likes her. In contrast, Hero and Claudio’s relationship is much more innocent and simple. Shakespeare shows the themes of love, the difference between appearance and reality, and deception, through Hero, Claudio, Beatrice, and Benedick and their relationships with each other.
‘’Beatrice and Benedick display a kind of agility which is a condition of true life, and compared with them most other characters appear wooden and immobile’’. How far would you agree with this view in terms of the presentation of Benedick and Beatrice in this dramatic comedy?
According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, love is defined as “strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties; attraction based on sexual desire; affection and tenderness felt by lovers; affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interest; or an assurance of love.” In William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, three different types of love are experienced: friendship love, true love, and self love. Each character experiences a different type of love, and in some cases it is not what they originally expected. The twisted, yet intriguing love story allows the reader to get lost in each characters emotions and development throughout the play. Many instances of love in the play are overwhelmed with a
BEATRICE: You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it, he is a
Analysis of Shakespeare’s powerful female characters in the play “Much Ado about Nothing” and “King Lear"
Power is often a theme of Shakespeare’s plays. It is what separates the nobility from the commoners, and it often what the various characters seek. Yet when it comes to power in Shakespeare’s plays, it is often associated with male characters that are seeking it, such as King Richard of Richard III and Macbeth of Macbeth. There is little discussion of power concerning women because unlike their male counterparts, women of Shakespeare’s (and even modern) time are often overshadowed by the men in their lives. Women are expected to be gentle, soft-spoken and often hesitant to go against the grain. As a result, this type of characters often lacks any sort of power. However, the more characteristics associated with males that a female character adopts, the more power she gains. This phenomenon can be witnessed in both Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It.
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in England. He died in 1616 at the age of 52 from a fever. Shakespeare was born to a poor family, and was the third of eight children. Not much is known of his early life, but what is known is that Shakespeare married at 18 and had three children with Anne Hathaway. In these “lost years” it is also assumed that he started to act on stage, and writing play. In 1594, Shakespeare was a partner in a theater company, that owned the Globe, were he would both acted and wrote many of the company’s plays. By 1597, William Shakespeare had published 15 plays consisting of a mixture of comedy and drama. Much Ado About Nothing is just like Shakespeare’s normal plays by there being a drama with comical relief. In the Globe, Shakespeare’s plays became famous causing him to be known as one of the best English writers in history.
The Comedy of Nothing Rylee Ertle Shakespeare & Poetry 9/18/17 What is a comedy? A comedy is funny and has a happy ending, right? Well, that͛s only half correct. Comedy goes all the way back to Ancient Greece and the very first plays. The Greeks had two genres, comedy and tragedy. That was it. Thankfully, a lot has changed since then. Over the years, talented playwrights have come up with a lot more genres than tragedy and comedy. Equally prolific critics have also come up with guidelines to categorize these new plays. Lots of guidelines. In the end, though, it doesn't have to be too complicated. To be a comedy, you need three important things: 1)A comic hero or heroine 2)An ordinary world 3)And a happy ending 1You don't even have to have jokes! Believe it or not, they, along with a lot of other minor elements are optional. Much Ado About Nothing is generally considered one of Shakespeare͛s best comedies, because it combines elements of robust hilarity with more serious meditations on honor, shame, and court politics. It was probably written in 1598 and 1599, as Shakespeare was approaching the middle of his career. Much Ado About Nothing, though interspersed with darker concerns, is a joyful comedy that ends with multiple marriages and no deaths. Although the young lovers Hero and Claudio provide the main impetus for the plot, the courtship between the older, wiser lovers Benedick and Beatrice is what makes Much Ado About Nothing so memorable. Benedick and Beatrice argue with delightful wit, and Shakespeare develops their journey from antagonism to sincere love and affection with a rich sense of humor and compassion. Since Beatrice and Benedick have a history behind them that adds weight to their relationship, they are older and more mature than the typical lovers in Shakespeare͛s comedies, though their unhealthy competitiveness reveals them to be childish novices when it comes to love.
wit in a manner that is all too cosy. The irony is that, were it not
Love, who can truly define this word? Many people have attempted to define it throughout the years. The reason it is so difficult is because there are so many different types of love and each type would have a different way of being described. The play A Mid Summer’s Night Dream by William Shakespeare has love displayed in many different ways throughout. Hermia and Demetrius are great examples of forced love while Hermia and Lysander are an example of forbidden love, and Oberon uses manipulative love with Titania during this play. Forced love, forbidden love, and manipulative love are all different, but they eventually lead back to the same idea and that is love.