Much Ado About Nothing Notes

Much con About Nothing romanticistic Comedy * Much Ado close to Nothing * bask and War Love as Warstarts with soldiers glide slope back from war and wanting pick out love becomes a theatre of operations * Young Lovers Claudio and mill * Not(h)ing Messina Confusions of Appearance and Reality * Love and War Love as War * 1. 1 World waiting for the return of jejuneness and love * Learn of soldiers even before they enter scene * new-fashioned Claudio, ll. 12-16 benedict (older man) introduced by Beatrice, ll. 28-9he is macrocosm introduced by mockery Beatrice makes the spoof and marks her different from the other women in the consortshe is loud, jokes about men, equal to fight with words, witty, and benedick is the same manner * Beatrice and Benedicks wonderful war, ll. 56-9 * Martial world replaced by merry one * What happens when skills necessary for triumph on the field of battle enter domestic world? * Romantic Couples * Potential Lovers Claudio and Hero (make up the main plot, but some of the least(prenominal) pleaseing characters in the playrelatively quiet) * Beatrice and Benedick (subplot much mature, more worldly, and they are much more talkative/interesting) * Claudio and Hero * Claudios depression line in play introduces interest in Hero, l. l. 154-70 Note * To accept notice of to consider or study guardedly 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 * Nature of Claudios love? ll. 278-289 Contrast between affections prior to and post military action * reluctance to use the word love * enter Pedros plan (ll. 300-312) * overwhelm (Pedro swans he will disguise as Claudio for the ball and approach Hero) * conquering as military action * World of the Play Messina * Place of propriety and hospitality * screen, deceit runs rampant through play * Inability to check between appearance and reality predominant feature of life in the world of play 1) Not(h)ing Messina Confusion of Appearance and Reality 2) Educating Young Lovers From Appearances to confidence ) 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 mangle chain reaction of misapprehensions * 1. 2 Antonio tells Leonato that Pedro plans to woo Hero for himself (when in reality, Claudio is nerve-racking to woo her) * 1. 3 Borachio overhears Pedro and Claudio discussing plan, tells Don John the Bastard (Don John gets the bill 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 certain so. (The prince woos for himself) * Love as impediment to f riendship * Eye as lover (synecdoche A find out by which a more comprehensive term is used for a less comprehensive or vice versa as whole for start out 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 forefather) gives Claudio Heros hand, ll. 285-299 * Couple silent, mustiness be prompted to speak * Beatrice cues them to speak * Hero is silent sense of novel embarrassment or astonishment * they are overwhelmed and ignorant * Educating Young Lovers From Appearances to assurance * False Hero, Take Two Don Johns spectacle of unfaithfulness * Claudios problem with trust, 3. 2. 111-3 * Shame Hero publicly In subject field view of all * 4. 1 Broken Marriage Ceremony * Claudio returns bride to father ll. 29-41 The blush sign of innocence 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 younker that he is so easily swayed by only outer appearances * Re-educating Claudio * 5. 1 Realization of mis-noting (He is wrong. Learns of Don Johns lies) * 5. 3 Mourning honoring (spends night at tomb of Hero) * Agrees to marry Heros cousin-german without seeing or knowing her. Claudio publicly retracts slander ll. 3-10 * In death, discredit transformed 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 * sight 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 distrustfulness of female sexual inconstancy * Doubting Womens Constancy * A womans gentle heart, but no acquainted / With shift change, as is false womens fashion (Sonnet 20, 3-4) * Cuckold, ry A derisive piddle for the husband of an unfaithful wife (OED 1) * Idea that deceived husband would grow horns which would reveal him to his community as a dupe of his wife and her lover * precaution of Being Cuckolded Horns (bovine rather than antlers) associated with visibility make things seen * Cuckold is emasculated, not only by having his place taken by another, but in being rendered vulnerable to representation * Husband becomes spectacle of ignorance to all around him * Verbal nix 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 sen clock timents (and wit) mark Beatrice and Benedi ck as suited for one another * Gender and Speech Claudio on match with Hero 1. 1. 278-80 * Marriage as alliance * Economic concerns keep women * Parental (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 wedding of Hero and Claudio, Don Pedro Proposes another theatrical entracte (trick) 2. 1. 342-366 * Tricking couple involves making them a spectacle, a form of comedic entertainment without their cognisance * Matching Beatrice and Benedick involves form of structural cuckolding * 2. Men Hunt Benedick * Tricksters pretend to speak truth, while Benedick notes their conversation (so he plunder listen in on their conversation) * Men describe Beatrices paroxysm 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 induce 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 tame her voice to Benedicks wishes, ll. 107017) * New totallyiances Repudiation scene (4. 1) * All doubt Hero but witty lovers (Beatrice and Benedick) * Beatrice tests Benedicks love, ll. 262-289 * veil Claudio (288)