Much Ado About Nothing
William Shakespeare
“Much Ado About Nothing”, a comedy dating from the mid-career period of “William Shakespeare”, was probably written just prior to 1600. The play has the trappings of a theatrical farce with its use of assumptions and misunderstandings. Main characters “Benedick” and “Beatrice” are duped into announcing their love for each other while “Claudio” is fooled into spurning “Hero” at the altar when he mistakenly believes that she has not been faithful to him. The theme of lovers being tricked into thinking one or the other has been unfaithful was common in the Shakespearean era, though no definitive source or Inspiration for this play is agreed upon.
Infidelity and deception serve as major themes in the play. A wife’s infidelity or cuckoldry, real or feigned, drives the plot. Women are able to use the fact that men cannot be completely certain of a wife’s fidelity. Deception is used as a thematic device to great success in creating the atmosphere of bewilderment. Deception, even when aimed at a noble end, such as bringing lovers together, often backfires, leading to the misunderstandings that are essential to the farcical genre that predates “Shakespeare” and stretches to the Hollywood ‘screwball’ comedies of the 1930s and beyond.
“Shakespeare” uses the idea of ‘the pastoral’ to create different spaces in which comedy can take place. This allows for a controlled chaos and means the characters feel free to escape the restraints of social conventions. “Shakespeare” suggests that the setting in which the characters stands affect their beliefs and how they act towards each other. For example being ‘within nature’, l.e. In the garden or countryside. A place in which anything could happen, “Shakespeare” presents the pastoral as a place for extraordinarily improbable events to take place. But the pastoral is also able to create a certain mood and gives a mischievous feeling to a scene.
“Shakespeare” uses setting to create the perfect space for comedy by using a range of pastoral environments, e.g. Leonatos orchard, his garden and then his courtyard. This creates a landscape which leads the audience to associate the outdoors with comedy and mischief, but also happiness.
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