Much_Ado_About_Nothing

| April 29, 2010 | In William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” he develops several characters that can be compared and related to people today. He uses his figurative language, the way the character’s role plays a big part, and how the theme works very well with the way the play goes. He uses these many ways to show how the characters are very specific to the plot so that the reader can relate to the specific character. He uses different angles in the play to portray a certain character which can in turn relate to a certain person in our everyday lives. He uses this technique in many varieties of plays he wrote. Confusion is one of the biggest emotions in this play and most of the characters feel this emotion in some way or another. For Beatrice and Benedick, it’s the confusion of their love for each other. Since the beginning of the play they are so focused on denying their love and trying to prove themselves that they overlook their love. Even towards the end of the play after they profess their love, they still don’t want to be embarrassed when Benedick asks Beatrice for her hand in marriage. Like in Act 5 Scene 4, “Do you not love me' Why no, no more than reason. Why then, your uncle and the Prince and Claudio have been Deceived. They swore you did. Do you not love me' Troth, no, no more than reason. Why then, my cousin, Margaret, and Ursula are much deceived, for they did swear you did. They swore that you were almost sick for me. They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me…..” In this quote you can see that even after they profess their love they still try to deny it to everyone. Mistaken Identities is another major part that adds to the confusion of this play. The main bulk of the confusion about nothing is because all the characters have mistaken someone’s identity in the play. The one real part that adds tension and a real sense of evil to his character is when Don Jon tells Borachio of his evil plan to defame Hero. “They will scarcely believe this without trial. Offer them instances, which shall bear no less likelihood than to see me at her chamber window, hear me call Margaret “Hero,” hear Margaret term me “Claudio,” and bring them to see this the very night before the intended wedding…..” Act 2 Sc 2 in this scene the mistaken identity of Hero for Margaret. This intended mistaking of identity is designed to provoke anger and destroy a marriage and almost succeeds. This event is the main cause of all the trouble’s that lie ahead. Also this scene gives more evidence to Don Jon’s character as a very evil man that enjoys making everyone miserable just like he is. Since “Much Ado About Nothing” is a comedy, comedic humor is also a major role in the developing characters. In this play it is portrayed by Dogberry and Verges. They use malapropisms and other kinds of humor to send a more comedic vibe to all of the chaos. Even though Dogberry really tries hard at being really smart, he comes up short, which in turn adds humor to the play. Such as in Act 3 sc 3 Dogberry is giving very important orders to the watch of that night. “You are though here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore bear you the lantern. This is your charge: you shall comprehend all vagrom men; you are to bid any man stand, in the Prince’s name. As you can see Dogberry is trying to be very official and know exactly what each person is supposed to do, but in the end it doesn’t go the way he planned. One thing all these points/characters have in common is that they can relate to the real world. Shakespeare liked to relate the characters to modern time. Very many people are like Beatrice and Benedick who can’t make up their mind about loving each other. They might even argue and fight just like Benedick and Beatrice in this play. Another trait people might share with them is just not being able to say that they love each other. Throughout the whole play neither Beatrice nor Benedick admitted that they love one another. Also even though they aren’t very good people to have around, there are people like Don Jon that may have gone through a bad time that made them sad or angry and wanted everyone else to feel the same as he did. This is how we get murderers and other bad people in our world today. A last thing that people could relate to is Dogberry and Verges. Many people in our world try to be smart and sophisticated even though they don’t have a high understanding. Those types of people are usually very funny. Shakespeare uses all these emotions to bring out certain characters in his play. This ranges from confusion of love to the evil plots of a villain. Even though these are just characters in a book, we can relate to all of them in our world today. I think it is amazing how Shakespeare could come up with characters like that, which are still with us today hundreds of years later. A lot of his plays have really in depth characters that really move the whole plot, and not only that, it takes the play even higher. All these different characters and different personalities can cause chaos and confusion in our world. Then it usually ends up to be, like the main title, “Much Ado About Nothing.