Much Ado about Nothing Project Document

Much Ado About Nothing Lit 473 Presentation


Joe:
So, I thought that the way the word “nothing” was used was really interesting. There is, of course, the concept of Nothing being a pun on “noting”, which was the pronunciation of Shakespeare’s day, but there is also, I think, a deeper meaning.

The basic miracle occurs when something comes from nothing. Creation, transubstatiation and most myths surround this question. How did something unexplainable come to be, or how, out of nothing, could the world, our lives, our experiences come to be? Shakespeare’s answers, as with many myths, hinge on imagination. The human imaginative ability allows something (such as Shakespeare’s plays) to come from nothing on a daily basis. Similarly, in this play, human imagination, or the miracle of nothing, plays a tangible part in the entire narrative.


Lisette --So as I am reading my secondary text by Harold Bloom, a lot of good questions and points are arising. “They make much ado about nothing because they know that nothing will come of nothing, an so they speak again” (Bloom 193). We all know that Beatrice is a drama queen and will do what ever it takes to be noticed. The way Beatrice is the way she is, Bloom says is because she as a character craves the audiences attention and response to what is happening. “Her wildness is her freedom, and that sense of liberty, more even than her wit, captures her audience” (Bloom 199).
Then this is a love story right. A love play. Romantic comedy to narrow it down even more. Bloom raises the question of LOVE. What is it about love? Why love? Well love is nothing and it is everything in the same. Can this one feeling be both and nothing at the same time? “Love is much ado about nothing” (200). There is a nice piece of advice that Shakespeare gives “Get married and expect to be cuckolded” (201).
Although love is a major theme of the play, he players spend their time running around the idea of love. They never come out and say that they are in love, nor do they admit to not being in love. Even if love seem to be a simple topic it isn’t. It can open a can of worms is the wrong idea is said, and if someone one finds out from a secondary source.

Benedick:
Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I m loved of all ladies, only you excepted; and i would i could find n my heart that i had not a hard heart, for truly I love none.
Beatrice:
A dear happiness to women! They would else have been trouble with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that. i had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me. (1.1124)

The true definition of Much Ado about Nothing is: A great deal of fuss over nothing of importance. *Fun fact! Noting which means nothing in a sense is the Elizabethan slang word for vagina or any other sexual organ*
Why don’t we all play this love triangle game beat around a bush that pretends to not be there, and get over it. And in in the end, something came out of nothing- a merryful wedding.

Nathan---Since everyone in the group seemed to want to hit on themes, understanding, and contextualizing the events of the play, I thought I would fill in with what I like most, structure and style characteristics. I turned to The Arden Shakespeare edited by Claire McEachern, which does an amazing job of parsing out how Much Ado isn’t the model of the preceding Shakespearean comedies. Hopefully I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes with what I want to talk about, but if I am, let me know. Sorry for grammatical and syntax errors, I’ve not edited this yet.

Structure and Style:


Much Ado About Nothing when viewed through the lens of structure and style is not at all characteristic of the comedies preceding it. Characteristically, it is important to note the mixed tones, sadness – happiness, which occur simultaneously throughout the play. These mixed tones provide moments when the comic and the tragic are indistinguishable, leaving the readers (audience) unsure as to whether laughter or tears are the appropriate response (51).

Significant to viewing this play is the amount of comedy vs. tragedy working through the plot providing a play that is a bit confused in its forms. What is necessary for the comedy is to begin with problems and disorder, and then work through the play to a happy solution. Inversely, the characteristic of a tragedy is the fall from felicity to misfortune, or happiness to problems (death). McEachern uses Frye when explaining how Much Ado uses many tragic forms, specifically, “In New Comedy the dramatist tries to bring his action as close to a tragic overthrow of the hero as he can get it, then reverse this movement as suddenly as possible”(52). The issue with Much Ado is that it begins entirely without a problem, and every character seems quite content, rather the play begins without a problem of the conventional sort, such as the disgruntled father. The problem is Much Ado is that there is no problem, although we anticipate one as readers and viewers. The walk-on bad guy, Don John the Bastard, injects the problem in this play later in the play. Characteristic of comedies after the late 1590s are the more untraceable obstacles, and Don Johns malevolence is in some ways more threatening because he is almost entirely unexplained, and introduced without background (56).

Turning from structure to style, Much Ado can be broken down into three main parts chronologically. Part one, 760 lines through 2.1 and nearly 1/3 of the total, takes up the action of an afternoon and evening, while the second part, 870 lines, represents a week. The third part, the remaining 1000 lines, in which much of the play’s action occurs, occupies a 24 hour period. The first and third parts of the play both represent the events of a day, while the middle section spans an entire week. This middle section creates a type of “time hammock” as McEachern says, in which all is relatively calm between two sections of compact busy chaos. Again, against most comedies that spend the majority of their plots in confusion, Much Ado maintains relative peace for two thirds of its length.

Returning to the comic vs. tragic elements while remaining on structural interests, Shakespeare does a brilliant job of changing tones throughout the play, especially once Hero is denounced, and provides us with real moments of tragedy, although played inside what the audience and readers know to be a comedy. These moments are often explicitly tragic, such as when Benedict and Beatrice profess their love for each other shadowed in what we believe to be Hero’s death. Although the audience and readers know resolution is coming, they witness real suffering.

Lastly, I’m fascinated with prose vs. verse in this play. Much Ado is second only to the Merry Wives of Windsor in the amount of prose it uses, 70% (2485 lines) vs. 90%. Since much of the play’s context is about social rank and confusion, it is fitting that so much prose should be used to further complicate the matter. What is typically Elizabethan is for the aristocratic characters in the play to speak in verse, and the non-nobility to use prose. Shakespeare, not just in this play, uses less of a set distinction between who uses prose and who uses verse, although there are situations when verse is used corresponding with the formality of the situation, not the character. McEachern makes the observation that everyone’s speech comes naturally and beautifully in Much Ado, be it prose or verse. All characters are noble or aspire to be noble, and the setting is one of high social class. The first section of the play leading up to the church scene in 4.1 uses prose, while the more somber latter half moves to verse. All of these distinctions between social ranking and class get mixed up when prose is used more often for social criticisms, and when Shakespeare designates the heavy hitters in other plays, such as Falstaff and Hamlet to using prose.


Lauren:The idea of Deceit
Claudio and Don Pedro are deceived into thinking that Hero has lost her virtue by sleeping with another man. Beatrice and Benedick are tricked, or deceived into thinking that each one loves the other which leads to a real romance within this trickery. There is even deceit in the staged death of Hero after she is shamed at her own wedding for a crime she did not commit. Leonato publishes an announcement that Hero has died in order to answer the question of who wronged her name and virtue.

Also the idea of ‘song’ being important to the drama. Page 381 “The Song”. It even discusses the idea of men being deceivers. This notion of song and dance being important to the plays is echoed throughout many of Shakespeare’s works. In Much Ado, songs are played during pivotal moments during the play:
DON PEDRO

Come, shall we hear this music?

CLAUDIO

Yea, my good lord. How still the evening is,
As hush'd on purpose to grace harmony!
Act 2 Scene 3

This music and song comes right before the men talk of Beatrice’s ‘love’ for Benedick. its as though music leads the way for crucial mood changes in the scenes. these songs are entertainment for both the characters as well as the audience. Balthasar also has a song in Act 2.3 in which he talks about the treachery of men, “...the fraud of men was ever so...” (Line 71). Through the art of entertainment the characters are allowed to say as they feel in a cathartic manner that does not lead to repercussions. At the end of the play, after all has been put right, Benedick addresses the group saying, “Come, come we are friends. Let’s have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts and our wives’ heels” Act V.4 Lines 15-17. When all is said and done, song dance, and thus entertainment proves to be an escape from the follies of the world.

Virtue and Virginity: Hero is wrongfully accused of shaming her family by losing her virtue and virginity before her marriage to Claudio, and to a man that is not her fiance. on the day of her wedding, Claudio and Pedro scorn Hero publicly calling her a, “rotten orange” (IV.i.30). At the news of his daughters ‘dishonor’ even Leonato chimes in and says, “the wide sea / Hath . . . / . . . salt too little which may season give / To her foul tainted flesh!” (IV.i.139–142). Family honor and Hero’s virtue is so important that at the news of her disgrace, Leonato threatens to kill his own daughter.

Benedick as the fool, or jester of the play: Benedick falls for the ploy that ultimately makes him fall in love with Beatrice. At a masked ball one night, Beatrice is dancing with Benedick unknowingly and speaking of him saying, “...Why, he is the prince’s jester, a very dull fool” Line 131 Act 2.1. At first it appears that Beatrice’s words are of mere wit and slander, but these words prove seemingly true. but, at his defense, Beatrice too falls for the same trickery that her ladies incite upon her, so does that make her a fool as well?

We chose to perform Act 3 Scene 1 because it incorporates comedy, romance, trickery, and multiple characters.

http://youtu.be/2AlFkbElh44



Brian:
The play starts in the Italian town of Messina where Leonato, the governor, lives in house with his daughter Hero, niece Beatrice, and his older brother Antonio. A close friend of Leonato’s, Don Pedro, returns from war to visit with Claudio of Florence, Benedick of Padua and Don John, the bastard brother of Don Pedro. Immediately after they arrive Claudio falls in love with Hero and soon after, they decide to get married. In the meantime, the others trick Beatrice and Benedick to fall in love after all they were doing was arguing. John the Bastard decides to wreck everyones’ happiness by having Borachio make love to Margaret (Hero’s Servant) outside of Hero’s window at night. He then brings Don Pedro and Claudio to watch making Claudio believe the Hero is being unfaithful to him. On the day of their wedding Claudio accuses Hero of committing lechery and abandons her at the alter. After the humiliation, Hero’s family members decide to hide her away and pretend that she is dead until everyone learns the truth. While this is happening, Borachio is overheard bragging about what they did, Borachio and two other of Don John’s followers are arrested which ultimately leads to everyone discovering the truth about Hero, except Claudio who still grieves her death. Claudio is then given the punishment by Leonato of having to confess Hero’s innocence to the whole city as well as well as marry Leonato’s niece, a woman who looks like Hero. At the wedding Claudio is ready to Marry this mysterious masked woman but Hero removes the masked and Claudio is completely overwhelmed. In all of this Benedick asks Beatrice to marry him and, of course, after some arguing they agree. The characters all marry and celebrate to end the play.