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much ado about nothing

much ado about nothing What is love? Many people would answer this question differently. People fall in love, get married, and form families with children, pets and houses. Every family differs from one another. The reason that no identical families exist in this world is that people understand love in their own ways. There is no correct answer describing what love really is. That is why this topic is so frequently discussed and analyzed by psychologists, writers, and just by common people in personal conversations. In this essay I would like to emphasize different ideas of how love is understood and discussed in literature. This topic has been immortal. One can notice that throughout the whole history writers have always been returning to this subject no matter what century people lived in or what their nationality was. In the comedy Much Ado about Nothing written by William Shakespeare in 1600, love is the major subject discussed by the author, which is presented to the readers. The author does not give a direct answer to this question - he lets the reader find it and think about it from his or her own point of view. There are two love relationships developing throughout the plot. The reader witnesses "love from the first sight" between Claudio and Hero, and laughs at Beatrice's scorns and attitude towards Bene*censored*. However, as the plot develops, these relationships develop too. Although they change, there is one thing that remains constant - the contrast between these relationships. "Love may grow soft or even rotten (Claudio's "rotten orange" at the altar is more nearly a description of himself at the moment than it is of Hero), or, at the other extreme, it may harden into a shell of pride," writes Harold Goddard in The Meaning of Shakespeare. The characters fall into the extremes of possible love relationships. In the beginning of the play Claudio and Hero seem to be love and to be perfectly created for each other. Nice and sweet Hero conqueres the romantic heart of young Claudio. Everybody thinks they made the cutest couple together, and Hero's father, Leonato, happily blesses his daughter. The other couple, Beatrice and Bene*censored*, seem to be the enemies for life. They are the center of fights and jokes. They argue and scorn each other all the time. Even after Bene*censored* just returns from the war, they already fight like a cat and a dog. Beatrice hates the thought of getting married, and she constantly reminds everyone about it. "I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me," says she to Bene*censored*. Bene*censored* calls her "My Lady Disdain", and Beatrice makes a remark that "scratching could not make it worse an 'twere such a face as yours [Bene*censored*'s] were." The first impression the reader gets from the beginning of the play is that Hero and Claudio are perfectly in love with each other and they definitely would get married sometime during the play. Bene*censored* and Beatrice are surely great enemies, and everybody is waiting for some day when Beatrice would finally scratch Bene*censored*'s face. However, as the plot develops, things change. The roles of the main characters change by the middle of the play. The Prince decides to make Bene*censored* and Beatrice fall in love with each other and get married. Everyone, the characters and the readers as well, think of that idea as of the craziest one. However, the other characters are willing to help the Prince in that big joke. Bene*censored* "accidentally" hears that Beatrice is madly in love with him, and Beatrice, in return, hears a conversation that Bene*censored* is in love with her, too. Of course, all those "accidental" conversations have been planned and acted out by the Prince himself, Claudio, Hero, and Margaret, the waiting gentlewoman to Hero. The Prince's plan has worked! Bene*censored* and Beatrice end up swearing their love to each other. At the same time, several things happen to the relationship between Hero and Claudio. Don John, who was defeated by the Prince in the war, is hateful towards everyone, and he decides to destroy the perfect love of Claudio and Hero. He sets up a scene, which makes Claudio believe that Hero cheated on him the night before their wedding. The day after, Claudio publicly accuses Hero in adultery and refuses to marry her. Hero is shocked so much that she faints during that scene. So, "the love from the first sight" has been destroyed so easily - only by a scene set up by Don John. In this point of the play the reader adores Beatrice and Bene*censored*, and is totally furious with Claudio. "The gullible Claudio needs only to hear it breathed that Hero is false; as if exhilarated, he devises a practice as inhumane as the villain's," wrote Bertrand Evans in the Shakespeare's Comedies. When Claudio thinks that Hero might have been cheated on him, he exclaims: "If I see anything to-night why I should not marry her to-morrow, in the congregation, where I should wed, there will I shame her." Only selfishness is seen in this speech. Claudio publicly accuses Hero in cheating on him without trying to talk to her first. And even if she did cheat on him, why did he want to hurt her so much? This aspect makes the readers think that probably he loves himself, but not Hero. He obviously never loved Hero. It even seems that Claudio is incapable of loving anyone. He could not even woo her! "He is a brash and ambitious would-be sophisticate, who might be thought more likely to ravish a heroine than be speechless,” says Bertrand Evans. He is a hero in the war, and he needs Don Pedro to woo the woman he loves on his behalf! It is very obvious to the readers that there is no love in Claudio's heart. At the same time, the relationship between Beatrice and Bene*censored* wins all the sympathy of the readers. "Beatrice and Bene*censored* are in love with each other without knowing it," thinks Harold Goddard in his book The Meaning of Shakespeare. The readers think the same thing at this point of the play. "Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much? Contempt, farewell!" exclaims Beatrice when she learns about Bene*censored*'s love. Bene*censored* also "bids good-by to wit-cracking and opens his arms to Beatrice" (Goddard, 276). Shakespeare made the two characters fall in love, and he makes the impression that he was preparing them for this great love since the beginning of the play. William J. Rolfe writes that "being, as we have seen, ready to love, they become inflamed with mutual passion, but have not declared it to each other." In the plot their passion lasts only till the moment they declared it to each other. The final part of the play changes the relationships of these two couples again. Bene*censored* and Beatrice find out that they both learnt about their passion from other people at the same time. They realize that they both fell for the joke. They do not deny that they love each other, but they both understand that it is not the passionate love they feel towards each other. Beatrice says that she loves Bene*censored* "truly, but in friendly recompense". Charles Cowden-Clarke agrees that "there is no avowal of passion . . . It is merely an acquiescent one - 'If thou dost love me, my kindness shall incite thee' to tie the knot." They have a great companionship, but not love. Nobody believes in Claudio's love anymore, either. Thomas Marc Parrott says in the Shakespearean Comedy that "only in romantic comedy could such a character be at last rewarded with the hand of the lady he had so publicly slandered." It makes the reader angry that Hero is still willing to marry him after what he had done to her. The reader begins then doubting whether the love was ever real between the characters of the comedy. Why did it take so little effort to influence the characters? It was enough for Beatrice to hear that Bene*censored* loved her so she fell in love with him, too. The same applies to Bene*censored*. The both couples remain in contrast again, but this so-called love has no presence in both relationships. Despite the dramatic events, the comedy has a happy ending. The both couples got married. The lies of Don John became revealed, so Claudio loved his Hero again although it took her to pretend to be dead to bring her Claudio back again. Bene*censored* and Beatrice had an honest conversation that their love might not be that passionate towards each other. However, they think that the friendship is well enough to base their relationship on, so they got married on the same day as Hero and Claudio did. Shakespeare made the end happy, and the both couple found their love. However, if to look into the depth of the play, the reader understands that it was not real love reigning in the lives of the young people. Even the name of the comedy confirms this idea. Much ado about nothing - that was the best description of the development of the events. "Every principal person has become involved in an error," said Bertrand Evans. The final marriage was an error, too. Although people have different opinions about real love, there is one thing that is always common about this subject: love comes once, it never leaves, never fades, never causes doubts. When two people experience real love, they fly in the skies, but at the same time they are always ready to stand firm on the ground of every day life. Hero and Claudio never stand firm, when Bene*censored* and Beatrice never fly. Although love is the main topic of the play, it never appears in the plot. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1641

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