Much Ado about Nothing

Much Ado about Nothing

Thesis Statement: In Much Ado about Nothing, by William Shakespeare most of the characters had interesting relationships with each other.

Introduction

The play revolves around attempts and complications in finding love. Hero and Claudio fall deeply in love, while Benedick and Beatrice hated each other, which lead to them falling in love as well. Claudio is a flawed lover though, as he is gullible and suspicious by nature. Hero has a passive and submissive character throughout the play, which is the opposite of her cousin Beatrice who is cynical and feisty.

Deceptions

Things are not always what they seem: A common theme in the works of Shakespeare, and his play, Much Ado About Nothing, is no exception to this statement. The plot of the play is based upon a recurring theme of deception. This deception, sometimes malignant and other times benevolent, aids in the development of the plot. The deception of Claudio and Don Pedro results in Hero's seeming corruption, while the ploy of her death leads to her redemption and appeasement with Claudio. On the other hand, deception plays a benign role by tricking Beatrice and Benedick to fall in love with each other. Much Ado About Nothing shows that deception is not all malevolent, but something that can be utilized as a route to good or bad ends.

In the play, Much Ado About Nothing, the deception of Claudio and Don Pedro results in Hero's seeming corruption. Don Jon the bastard uses malevolent deceit to trick Claudio into thinking "Leonato's Hero, your Hero, every man's hero" has been disloyal and has lost her chastity to his right-hand-man Borachio (46). This malevolant deception leads to Hero's corruption. When Claudio refuses to marry Hero, saying that he would not "knit his soul to an approved wanton," Hero's father, Leonato, although shocked, wastes no time disagreeing and automatically believes the accusations of Claudio and Don Pedro because the are of higher authority (60). Leonato's stubborness of not challenging the princes phony incriminations about his daughter results in her "death".

Soon after Hero's reputation is degraded, her father discovers the truth and must make a ploy out of her death in order to restore chaos. When Dogberry reveals the truth to Leonato, he and his household disseminate that Hero has died in order to punish Claudio for his mistake. Leonato then tells Claudio that in order to make up for the mistake he has made and the so-called death of his daughter, he has to marry a woman who is supposedly his niece, when in actuality it is Hero in disguise. When Claudio returns to take the hand of Leonato's "niece," a group of veiled women confront him and he must wed blindly. When Hero is unveiled, Claudio is thankful for the opportunity to wed her again and there is a realization that deception is not all negative, but that it can be benign as well.

Meanwhile, benevolent deception is utilized once more in order to delude Benedick ...