CWL 320

Much Ado About Nothing Part I

Themes
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Courtliness/civility vs. warfare/soldiering Inside/outside The carnivalesque Character types 2.0 Misrepresentation and misunderstanding How love works Loyalty Comedy vs. tragedy The pleasure of wordplay

Civilians & Soldiers

Relevant Quotes
Romeo and Juliet: Civil blood makes civil hands unclean. Hamlet: Such a sight as this/ Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Much Ado: There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her: they never meet but there's a skirmish of wit between them (I.i.59-62).

Inside & Outside

Inside & Outside

The Carnivalesque
Mikhail Bakhtin Topsy-turvydom Temporary subversion of the status quo Locus of comedy Allows for transformative return to improved version of status quo (typically marriage)

Relevant Quotes/Plots
There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her: they never meet but there's a skirmish of wit between them (I.i.59-62). Leonato: Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your Grace, for trouble being gone, comfort should remain (I.i.97-99). The masquerade Don Pedro: The time shall not go dully by us (II.i.354-5) and We are the only love gods (II.i.378).

Character Types
Authority Figure Villain Trickster Don Pedro Leonato (see I.i.156-7) Don John Benedick? Boracchio? Beatrice? Margaret Boracchio? Dogberry Hero Beatrice? Claudio

Clever Slave Fool Young Woman Ugly Old Woman Irresponsible Young Man

Relevant Quotes
Don John: I cannot hide what I amI had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in *Don Pedros+ graceIf I can cross him anyway, I bless myself every way (I.iii.13,25-6, 66-68). Beatrice: We must follow the leadersif they lead to ill, I will leave them at the next turning (II.i.148-9, 151-2).

Misrepresentation and misunderstanding

The carnivalesque reveling (I.i.315) of Act II. The Prince and Count Claudiowere thus overheardthe Prince discovered to Claudio that he loved my niece your daughter (I.ii.9-15). Leonato to Hero: If the Prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer (II.i.66-7). Beatrice and Benedick II.i (p. 45): That my Lady Beatrice should know me and not know me! (II.201-202). Leonato, Don Pedro, Claudio tricking Benedick (II.iii). (Benedick: This can be no trick *II.iii.223 and following soliloquy].)

More Quotes
Borachio: And that is Claudio. I know him by his bearing. Don John: Are you not Signior Benedick? Claudio: You know me well. I am he. (II.ii.153-162).

How love works

Benedick: It is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted; and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart, for truly I love none (I.i.122125). Claudio: When you went onward on this ended action,/ I looked upon her with a soldiers eye,/ That liked, but had a rougher task at hand/ Than to drive liking to the name of love./But now I am returned and that war thoughts/Have left their places vacant, in their rooms/Come thronging soft and delicate desires,/ All prompting me how fair young Hero is,/ Saying I liked her ere I went to war (I.i.292-300).

More love quotes

Benedick: I do wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool where he dedicates his behaviors to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by falling in loveand such a man is Claudio (II.iii.8-13).

Loyalty
Beatrice: He hath every month a new sworn brotherHe wears his faith by the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block (I.i.70-71, 73-75). Beatrice: Indeed, my lord, he lent *his heart+ me a while, and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one (II.i.273-4). Don John: The lady is disloyal (III.ii.97).

Comedy vs. tragedy

Don John: I cannot hide what I am. I must be sad when I have cause, and smile at no mans jestlaugh when I am merry (I.iii.13-16).

The pleasure of wordplay

Benedick: The body of your discourse is sometimes guarded with fragments, and the guards are but slightly basted on neither. Ere you flout old ends any further, examine your conscience (I.i.279-83). Leonato: Niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue (II.i.18-19). Beatrice: That I had my good wit out of The Hundred Merry Tales! (II.i.126-7). Beatrice and Benedick I.i.109-142

More Wordplay
Benedick: She speaks poinards, and every word stabs (II.i.244-5). Leonator: If they were but a week married, they would talk themselves mad (II.i.344-5). Act III, scene iii (Dogberry and the Nights Watch).