Much Ado About Nothing
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Much Ado About Nothing is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare set in Messina, Sicily. The story concerns a pair of lovers named Claudio and Hero who are due to be married in a week. To pass the time before their wedding day they conspire with Don Pedro, the prince of Aragon, to trick their friends, Beatrice and Benedick, into confessing their love for one another. The prince's illegitimate brother Don John, however, jealous of both Don Pedro's power and his affection for Claudio, plans to sabotage the coming wedding.
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[edit] Date and text
The earliest printed text states that Much Ado About Nothing was "sundry times publicly acted" prior to 1600 and it is likely that the play made its debut in the autumn or winter of 1598–1599.[1] The earliest recorded performances, however, are two that were given at Court in the winter of 1612–13, during the festivities preceding the marriage of Princess Elizabeth with Frederick V, Elector Palatine (14 February 1613). The play was published in quarto in 1600 by the stationers Andrew Wise and William Aspley. This was the only edition prior to the First Folio in 1623.
[edit] Setting
Much Ado About Nothing is set in Messina, a coastal settlement on the island of Sicily which is located next to the toe end of Italy. Even though Sicily was ruled by Spain at the time the play was set, the characters clearly reflect a more Southern Italian heritage. The action of the play takes place mainly at the home and grounds of Leonato, although some scenes are set in the city itself.
[edit] Characters
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[edit] Synopsis
At Messina, Don Pedro, an Italian prince from Arragon and his deputies, Claudio, and Benedick have just returned from a successful battle. Leonato, the governor of Messina, welcomes them for passing by the city and invites them to stay for a month and to have a masked party.
Leonato's niece, Beatrice, and Benedick, longtime adversaries, carry on their arguments. Claudio’s feelings for Hero, Leonato's only daughter, are rekindled on his seeing her, and Claudio soon announces to Benedick his intention to court her. Benedick tries to dissuade his friend, but is unsuccessful in the face of Don Pedro’s encouragement. While Benedick teases Claudio, Benedick swears that he will never get married.
Don Pedro laughs at him and tells him that when he has found the right person he shall get married.
A masquerade ball is planned in celebration, giving a disguised Don Pedro the opportunity to woo Hero on Claudio’s behalf. Don John uses this situation to get revenge on his brother Don Pedro by telling young Claudio that Don Pedro is actually wooing Hero for himself. Claudio then becomes furious at Don Pedro and confronts him. The misunderstanding is quickly resolved and Claudio wins Hero's hand in marriage.
Don Pedro and his men, bored at the prospect of waiting a week for the matrimonial ceremony to take place, harbor a plan to matchmake Beatrice and Benedick. The men, led by Don Pedro, proclaim Beatrice’s love for Benedick while knowing he is eavesdropping on their conversation. The women, led by Hero, do the same likewise to Beatrice. Struck by the fact that they are apparently thought to be too proud to love each other, Beatrice and Benedick, neither willing to bear the reputation of pride, each decides to requite the love of the other.
Meanwhile Don John, 'The Bastard', Don Pedro's illegitimate brother, is a malcontent who plots to ruin Claudio and Hero’s wedding plans by casting aspersions upon Hero’s character. His follower Borachio courts Margaret, Hero's chambermaid, calling her “Hero”, at Hero’s open bedroom window while Don John leads Don Pedro and Claudio to spy below. The latter two, mistaking Margaret for Hero, are convinced of Hero's infidelity.
The next day, during the wedding at the church, Claudio climactically refuses to marry Hero. He and Don Pedro humiliate Hero publicly before a stunned congregation. The two leave, leaving the rest in shock. Hero, who has fainted from shock, revives after Don Pedro and Claudio leave, only to be reprimanded by her father. The presiding Friar interrupts, believing Hero to be innocent, and he convinces the family to fake Hero's death in order to extract the truth and Claudio’s remorse.
Leonato and Antonio, Hero's uncle, subsequently blame Don Pedro and Claudio for Hero’s death, and both challenge Claudio to duels. Benedick, forcefully prompted by Beatrice, does the same.
Astonishingly, however, on the night of Don John's treachery, the local Watch has apprehended Borachio and his ally Conrade. Despite the Watch's comic ineptness (headed by constable Dogberry, a master of malapropisms), they have overheard the duo discussing their evil plans. The Watch arrest them and eventually obtain the villains' confession, whilst informing Leonato of Hero's innocence. Though Don John has meanwhile fled the city, a force is sent to capture him. Claudio, though maintaining he made an honest mistake, is repentant; he agrees to not only post a proper epitaph for Hero, but to marry a substitute, Hero's cousin (not Beatrice), in her place.
During Claudio’s second wedding, however, as the dancers enter, the "cousin" is unmasked as Hero herself, to a most surprised and gratified Claudio. An impromptu dance is announced. Beatrice and Benedick, prompted by their friends’ interference, finally confess their love for each other. As the play draws to a close, a messenger arrives with news of Don John’s capture – but his punishment is postponed another day so that the couples can enjoy their new found happiness.
[edit] Analysis and criticism
[edit] Themes and motifs
[edit] Opposite sex
Benedick and Beatrice fast became the main interest of the play; Charles I even wrote 'Benedick and Beatrice' beside the title of the play in his copy of the Second Folio.[citation needed] The provocative treatment of gender issues is central to Much Ado and should be considered in the play's Renaissance sociological context. While this was reflected and emphasised in certain plays of the period it was also challenged.[2]. Amussen[3] notes that the destabilising of traditional gender ideologies appears to have inflamed anxieties about the erosion of social order. It seems that comic drama could be a means of calming such anxieties. Ironically, we can see through the play's popularity that this only increased peoples fascination with such behaviour. Benedick is a witty stage misogynist voicing male anxieties about women's "sharp tongues and proneness to sexual lightness".[2] In the patriarchal society of the play, the men's loyalties were governed by conventional codes of honour and camaraderie and a sense of superiority to women.[2] Assumptions that women are by nature prone to inconstancy are shown in the repeated jokes on cuckoldry and partly explain Claudio's readiness to believe the slur against Hero. However, this stereotype is turned on its head in Balthasar's song, which shows men to be the deceitful and inconstant sex that women must suffer.
[edit] Infidelity
A theme common to Much Ado about Nothing and many other of Shakespeare’s works is cuckoldry, or infidelity of a wife. Several of the characters seem to be obsessed by the idea that a man has no way to know if his wife is unfaithful, and therefore women can take full advantage of that fact. Don John plays upon Claudio’s pride and fear of cuckoldry, which leads to the disastrous first wedding scene. Because of their mistrust of female sexuality, many of the males easily believe that Hero is impure, and even her father readily condemns her with very little proof. This motif runs through the play, most often in references to horns, a well-known symbol of cuckoldry.
[edit] Deception
In Much Ado About Nothing, there are many examples of deliberate deception and self-deception. In the play, the games and tricks played on people often have the best intentions - to make people fall in love, to help someone get what they want, or to make someone realise their mistake. Not all, however, are meant well.
[edit] Noting
Another motif occurring throughout the work is the play on the words nothing and noting, which, in Shakespeare’s day, were homophones.[4] Taken literally, the title implies that a great fuss (“much ado”) is made of something which is insignificant (“nothing”), such as the unfounded claims of Hero’s infidelity. However, the title could also be understood as “Much Ado about Noting.” Indeed, much of the action of the play revolves around interest in and critique of others, written messages, spying, and eavesdropping. This is a theme throughout the play, and is mentioned multiple times particularly concerning "seeming", "fashion" and immediate outward impressions. Additionally, nothing is a double-entendre; "an O-thing" (or "'n othing", or "no thing") was Elizabethan slang for "vagina".[5]
Examples of noting as noticing occur in the following instances: (1.1.131-132)
Claudio: Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signor Leonato?
Benedick: I noted her not, but I looked on her.
and (4.1.154-157).
Friar: Hear me a little,
For I have only been silent so long
And given way unto this course of fortune
By noting of the lady.
At (3.3.102-104), Borachio indicates that a man’s clothing doesn’t indicate his character:
Borachio: Thou knowest that the fashion of a doublet, or a hat, or a cloak is nothing to a man.
A triple play on words in which noting signifies noticing, musical notes, and nothing occurs at (2.3.47-52):
Don Pedro: Nay pray thee, come;
Or if thou wilt hold longer argument,
Do it in notes.
Balthasar: Note this before my notes:
There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.
Don Pedro: Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks —
Note notes, forsooth, and nothing!
Don Pedro’s last line can be understood to mean, “Pay attention to your music and nothing else!”
The following are puns on notes as messages: (2.1.174-176),
Claudio: I pray you leave me.
Benedick: Ho, now you strike like the blind man — ‘twas the boy that stole your meat, and you’ll beat the post.
in which Benedick plays on the word post as a pole and as mail delivery in a joke reminiscent of Shakespeare’s earlier advice “Don’t shoot the messenger”; and (2.3.138-142)
Claudio: Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a pretty jest your daughter told us of.
Leonato: O, when she had writ it and was reading it over, she found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet?
in which Leonato makes a sexual innuendo concerning sheet as a sheet of paper (on which Beatrice’s love note to Benedick is to have been written) and a bedsheet.
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