Review And Analysis Of Much Ado About Nothing By William Shakespeare
Shakespeare tells us throughout the play that in order to be happy, both sides of the relationship must be in love and be 100% loyal to who they are in love with. That a relationship needs to be built upon trust, you should have the trust between you and your partner to be in love with them. Both the guy and girl need to interact with each other and put effort in order to get to know each other. Throughout Much Ado About Nothing it showed that once you find or get love you become happy but when you don’t it’s like you need to find someone so you can experience that feeling with and become happy like everyone else.
In the play Beatrice and Benedick interact but not in a nice way. Shakespeare makes Benedick and Beatrice a similar character, both of them fight with each other in the start because by the end, it turns out both of them were hiding their true feelings for each other. When a situation is tough, people will start to believe the rumors or stories they have been hearing. In the film when Claudio thought he saw Hero with someone else in her bedroom, Claudio believes it’s actually her and he can’t trust Hero anymore. This caused Claudio to resort to humiliating Hero which then led to her fake death. If you don’t trust the person you love you will start trusting the rumors you hear which can lead to an argument in the relationship.
The title Much Ado About Nothing to me means that making a big deal out of something that isn’t true. People are usually quick to jump to conclusions and make a big deal out of something that isn’t worth talking about. This play could be true in some instances. People do tend to make a big deal over somethings that are not as they seem. By making a big deal or changing up the story it can lead to some problems. When Claudio thought he saw Hero with some other guy, he didn’t go up to Hero to talk about what he saw, but instead he made it a big fuss on the wedding day and it ended up not being true. Universally I wouldn’t say this film is true, because it’s not that easy to fall in love with someone. When Claudio and Hero looked at each other they thought it was love at first sight, today it’s like you might find someone attractive but you also keep in mind is that person actually my type, can I trust them. Some parts were true, thematically and relationally but if you’re thinking universally it’s not true. In certain ways yes the play was realistic in terms of how people lived in Shakespeare's time because the girls in the play were more gently and followed the rules besides Beatrice. The girls respected the men that came from battle, they wanted to look presentable so they can catch a men’s eye. The men were also presenting themselves to catch a girls eye. Both genders were polite to each other, the men trying to act like heroes coming back from the battle to express the ladies. The between Claudio and Hero was realistic in that time because it showed how they fell in love easy by just looking at each other basing their love off looks and actions. Another thing that makes it true is girls back then weren’t like Beatrice speaking what’s on their mind most of them were quiet, listened to orders.
I would say it’s not as realistic, because people don’t behave the same as they did before. Today a lot of people have different believes so mostly whatever believes/rules they had back then don't really apply in today’s society. People now know that you don’t need to find love or fall in love with someone (the opposite gender) to be happy, you can be happy doing what you like and being around your family that supports you. In the play it was more about find someone to love, that also loves you back so you can be happy, but that’s not how it works today. Women were supposed to be silent, gentle, passive and dutiful as shown in the film but now girls are more direct and independent. They want to be on the same level as men, girls want the same respect that men receive because girls are trying to prove that they can get the same roles as men. There’s more LGTBQ groups/people and they’re coming out more so you can see that difference in the film. In the play it was a guy loving and girl, and vice versa. In today’s society you see individuals not caring about the stereotype about you need to love someone the opposite gender you can be free to love anyone you want. I found the play to be mostly light and humorous there was some parts were it got serious. When Claudio got the wrong idea about Hero cheating on him but that cleared out by the end.
The love in the play was more funny then romantic. The love between Claudio and Hero is laughable in some way because the two never actually had a full on conversation until their wedding day. Their love was more stereotypical representing how easy it is to fall in love just because you find someone attractive. The love between Beatrice and Benedick is a different story, it’s funny because Beatrice and Benedick are over emotional in their own way. It was fun to watch their relationship since they always made jokes about each other, and then suddenly they came to terms with loving each other. The way that their friends and family set both them up was humorous both of them realizing they have feeling for each others and ended up finding out they wrote letters expressing their feelings. I rather be Beatrice because in the beginning you could tell Hero was basing her love off looks which I personally don’t think about when meeting or talking to someone. She had no history with Claudio but went to him because she thought he was charming. Beatrice had history with Benedick even though she did call him names and made jokes about marriage/love she still thought passed that when she found out that someone had feelings for her. Beatrice was being herself throughout the play not following the silent, gentle and passive role of a woman which I found interesting because she was the only girl in the play being more dominant. She spoke her opinion and followed her own roles. She had the confidence to speak out for what she wanted, to talk back to a man which was a big deal because girls usually have to listen to the man but in her case others were listening to her. The scene when the men came back from their battle and Claudio saw Hero for the first, and a couple of minutes later when Beatrice saw Benedick they both started making jokes about each other was a scene that showed appearance versus reality and gender expectations and differences.
The first theme I noticed was gender expectations, in Shakespeare's time you wouldn’t expect a girl to make jokes about a guy to his face for example when Beatrice saw Benedick. She wasn’t like the other girls being polite, staying quiet, and listening to the men talk. She was putting herself out there and she didn’t care who was listening or looking at her because she was being herself and saying what’s on her mind about Bendedick. This scene shows that the gender expectations is now our stereotype.
Second theme that popped up was appearances versus reality. When Hero and Claudio saw each other they didn’t talk to one another everything was based on looks, since they found each other attractive both of them thought they fell in love just like the saying “love at first sight”. The final scene shows love and marriage very well because that’s when Hero and Claudio get married, and when Beatrice and Benadrick found out that they do actually love each other, reading each other’s letters they wrote explaining how they find each other attractive personality wase and look wase.
I would say that Beatrice and Benedick are the main characters in the play because they had the most conflict and most of the action was about them. They both covered the reality about loving someone, going through arguments, making jokes about each other, realizing that they’re both similar in a way. Benedick is a soldier under Don Pedro. He’s friends with Claudio. Benedick isn’t about love, he doesn’t trust woman, so he doesn’t want to get married. He has this love/hate relationship with Beatrice mostly hate in the beginning and then love at the end. He doesn’t show any love towards a girl. Beatrice is a very similar character like a girl version of Benedick. She is very open, she’s best friends with her cousin Hero. She likes making fun of herself and others mostly Benedick. Beatrice is shown as a powerful girl in the play the only girl that isn’t afraid to speak what’s own her mind. Throughout the play Beatrice was shown as a girl that had the same respect/power as the men meaning she acted the way she wanted and no one could stop her.
