Much Ado About Nothing Notes

Much Ado About NothingRomantic clowning * Much Ado about Nothing * Love and War Love as Warstarts with soldiers coming back from war and wanting bash love becomes a battlefield * Young Lovers Claudio and gun for hire * Not(h)ing Messina Confusions of Appearance and Reality * Love and War Love as War * 1. 1 World waiting for the sire of youth and love * Learn of soldiers even before they enter scene * Youthful Claudio, ll. 12-16 benedick (older man) introduced by Beatrice, ll. 28-9he is being introduced by mockery Beatrice makes the trick and marks her different from the other women in the playshe is loud, jokes about men, able to fight with words, witty, and Benedick is the same way * Beatrice and Benedicks merry war, ll. 56-9 * militant creation replaced by merry one * What happens when skills necessary for success on the field of battle enter domestic world? * Romantic Couples * Potential Lovers Claudio and adept (make up the main plot, but some of the least interesting cha racters in the playrelatively quiet) * Beatrice and Benedick (subplotto a greater extent mature, more worldly, and they are much more talkative/interesting) * Claudio and Hero * Claudios first line in play introduces interest in Hero, l. l. 154-70 Note * To matter notice of to consider or case carefully to pay attention to to mark (OED 5. a) * To become aware of to notice or perceive mentally to be struck by (OED 5. b) * Claudio and Hero * temper of Claudios love? ll. 278-289 Contrast amongst affections prior to and post military action * Hesitancy to use the word love * Don Pedros designing (ll. 300-312) * Disguise (Pedro says he go out disguise as Claudio for the ball and approach Hero) * seduction as military action * World of the Play Messina * Place of correctitude and hospitality * Disguise, deceit runs rampant through play * Inability to distinguish between appearance and reality predominant feature of life in the world of play 1) Not(h)ing Messina Confusion of Appeara nce and Reality 2) Educating Young Lovers From Appearances to Faith ) Merry Warriors Beatrice and Benedick * World of the Play Messina * GossipOverhearing, mishearing, and eavesdroppingcentral to play * Nothing and noting to take notice of to consider or study carefully to pay attention to mark (OED 5. a) * Pedros plan to woo for Claudio sets off chain reaction of misapprehensions * 1. 2 Antonio tells Leonato that Pedro plans to woo Hero for himself (when in reality, Claudio is trying to woo her) * 1. 3 Borachio overhears Pedro and Claudio discussing plan, tells Don John the Bastard (Don John gets the story right * 2. 1 Wooing by proxy * Masquerade/Disguise (dance to welcome back the soldiers) * Deceiving Claudio Don John and Borachio, ll. 155-63 (they pretend he is Benedick) * Claudios soliloquy ll. 164-74 * Does not question what he has been told Tis trustworthy so. (The prince woos for himself) * Love as impediment to friendship * Eye as lover (synecdoche A figure by which a mo re comprehensive term is utilise for a less comprehensive or vice versa as whole for part or part for whole, genus for species or species for genus, etc. (OED)) * Goes simply by what he sees Valediction (or rejection) to Hero * Leonato (Heros father) gives Claudio Heros hand, ll. 285-299 * Couple silent, must be prompted to speak * Beatrice cues them to speak * Hero is silent sense of youthful astonishment or amazement * they are overwhelmed and ignorant * Educating Young Lovers From Appearances to Faith * False Hero, Take Two Don Johns spectacle of infidelity * Claudios riddle with trust, 3. 2. 111-3 * Shame Hero publicly In plain view of all * 4. 1 Broken Marriage Ceremony * Claudio returns bride to father ll. 29-41 The blush sign of purity or experience? * Innocence How could you say these things? * Experience Busted * Exterior shows of virtue (39) * He takes it as guilt, not as innocence * He is completely wrong. She is innocent. * Claudios second valediction to Hero, ll. 99-107 * speaks to his youthfulness that he is so easily swayed by only outward appearances * Re-educating Claudio * 5. 1 Realization of mis-noting (He is wrong. Learns of Don Johns lies) * 5. 3 Mourning ceremony (spends night at tomb of Hero) * Agrees to marry Heros cousin without seeing or knowing her. Claudio publicly retracts slander ll. 3-10 * In death, shame trans runed into fame (Hero has become a hero through death) * Night gives way to dawn (shifts from grieving to hope cover of darkness or confusion to a wrapping up of the play) * 5. 4 Heros Resurrection * Scene re-works and reverses 2. 1 (masked ball) womens identities concealed by masks * Ceremony corrects Claudios initial error, in which he identified and valued Hero by outward signs * Merry Warriors Beatrice and Benedick * Beatrice I pray you, is Signor Montanto returned from the wars of no? (1. 1. 28-9) * Opening exchange between host and guests takes bawdy turn, ll. 90-106 * Joking suggests male suspicion of female sexual inconstancy * Doubting Womens Constancy * A womans well-heeled heart, but no acquainted / With shifting change, as is false womens fashion (Sonnet 20, 3-4) * stag, ry A derisive name for the husband of an unfaithful wife (OED 1) * view that deceived husband would grow horns which would reveal him to his community as a dupe of his wife and her lover * Fear of Being Cuckolded Horns (bovine rather than antlers) associated with visibility make things seen * Cuckold is emasculated, not merely by having his place taken by another, but in being rendered vulnerable to representation * Husband becomes spectacle of ignorance to all around him * oral Energy of Warring Words * Public protestations against love * Benedick vows to live as bachelor 1. 1. 227-256 * Beatrice against falling in love 2. 1. 5-17, 40-60 * Shared sentiments (and wit) mark Beatrice and Benedick as suited for one another * Gender and Speech Claudio on match with Hero 1. 1. 278-80 * Marriage as alliance * Economic concerns bind women * paternal (patriarchalseems like there are only dads in Shakespeares plays) desires seem to govern womens speech * Gulling the Reluctant Lovers * to pass the time prior to the spousal relationship of Hero and Claudio, Don Pedro Proposes another theatrical interlude (trick) 2. 1. 342-366 * Tricking couple involves making them a spectacle, a form of comedic entertainment without their awareness * Matching Beatrice and Benedick involves form of structural cuckolding * 2. hands Hunt Benedick * Tricksters pretend to speak truth, while Benedick notes their conversation (so he can listen in on their conversation) * Men describe Beatrices suffering from unrequited love, ll. 87-119 * to gull to make a gull of to dupe, cheat, befool, take in, deceive (v. 3, def. 1) * Leonatos authority and Heros virtue convince Benedick of truth * Benedick transformed, ll. 210-33 * Enumeration of Beatrices virtues contrasts Claudios interest in appearance * Converted into lover for I will be horribly in love with her (l. 23) * 3. 1 Women Snare Beatrice * Actresses follow Don Pedros script (? are they actually following the script) * Silent Hero? ll. 34-36, 47-56, 60-70, 72-80 * Focus on Beatrices faults rather than Benedicks virtues * Beatrice to temper her voice to Benedicks wishes, ll. 107017) * New Alliances Repudiation scene (4. 1) * All uncertainty Hero but witty lovers (Beatrice and Benedick) * Beatrice tests Benedicks love, ll. 262-289 * Kill Claudio (288)