Essay is written in response to Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing from a Year 12 Assessment. The essay addresses the question: ‘Very few characters from Much Ado About Nothing project a genuine representation of themselves and their feelings.’ Discuss.'
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‘Very few characters from Much Ado About Nothing project a genuine representation of
themselves and their feelings.’ Discuss.
The dark comedy, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ (‘MAAN’), by Elizabethan playwright William
Shakespeare, is centered around deception and dishonesty. Set in 15 th Century Messina, Sicily, the
play focuses on characters who manipulate one another and disguise their own insecurities and
emotions. They are molded by their society to act in a particular way and are influenced to put up
barriers to hide who they are, especially to maintain reputation. Additionally, some characters feel
that they are true to themselves, but they are still affected by their upbringing and environment.
In ‘MAAN’, characters believe that they are their own person when in reality they still shaped by the
people around them, who despite attempting to stay true to themselves, are still manipulated by
society. Don John is a treacherous man and acts in his own favour. He claims that he is a ‘canker in a
hedge’ and refuses to let the people around him ‘alter’ him, emphasising that he is a ‘plain-dealing
villain’. However, in doing so, he plays into society's expectations of him as ‘John the bastard’ and
fulfils the melancholic implications of being ‘born under Saturn’. Despite his desire to be his own
man, he has been brought up to have his ‘spirits toil in the frame of villainies’, foreshadowed by the
repetition of ‘trouble’ upon his arrival in Messina. Due to the illegitimacy of his birth, he is expected
to be evil, and he acts accordingly, creating lies and as he propels the main conflict of the play.
Similarly, Beatrice is also manipulated by those around her to act a certain way, despite her belief
that she has control over her life. From the beginning of the narrative, she is persistently ‘shrewd’
and refuses to be ‘fitted with a husband’. However, she is easily swayed by the ‘gull’ created by Hero
and Ursula and at the end of the play is ‘caught’ in the ‘yoke’ of her marriage with Benedick. She is
tricked into the ‘net spread for her’ and her ‘tongue’ is finally silenced with a kiss from Benedick. In
the process of realising what she believes to be her true feelings, she loses a part of herself and is
repressed by the men in her life. Characters in this play are eventually forced to do what is expected
of them without realising it and their personalities are ultimately subdued by their environment,
rendering them unable to properly portray their genuine personalities.
Characters in ‘MAAN’ also choose to hide their feelings from those around them in order to protect
themselves and their vulnerabilities. They act in selfish ways to make sure they are held in high
esteem by society, even if it means harming the people they are close to. Claudio has great honour
and performs ‘the feats of a lion’ but is insecure, scared of the humiliation of becoming a ‘cuckold’
and the negative impacts it will have on his reputation. His wavering trust in Hero is preyed upon by
Don John, who manipulates Claudio to believe that Hero is a ‘rotten orange’ and persuades him to
‘shame’ her at their wedding, without great difficulty. Throughout the play, Claudio disguises his
emotions and sees Hero as a ‘jewel’ that he owns, viewing her as a possession, without truly
expressing his supposed love for her He is willing to destroy her reputation to save his own, and
refuses to show any vulnerabilities. Hero’s father, Leonato, shares this trait of insecurity with Claudio
and works to maintain his ‘honour’. He repeatedly expresses that Hero is ‘mine’, but after hearing
about what she was rumoured to have done, he ironically disowns her ‘foul tainted flesh’. He claims
that he lived for his daughter but is happy to ‘let her die’ if it meant preserving his own high esteem.
Both Claudio and Leonato are insecure about their standing in society and act prematurely in the
conflict of the play to defend their own honour. Characters care more about their status than their
relationships and are not willing to risk it by displaying their true feelings.
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