Transcript Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About
Nothing
William Shakespeare
• Born in Stratford
• The 3rd of 8 kids
• Married at age 18
• (his wife was 26)
• Worked as an actor
• By 1594 at least 6
plays had been
published
Shakespeare’s Life
• Perhaps the most brilliant author in the
English language.
• Incredibly well-developed characters. He
was tremendously perceptive in creating
complex character with a full range of
emotions and internal conflicts, intensely,
deeply rich in psychological reality.
• Exquisite use of poetic language.
Shakespeare’s Life
• Plays are phenomenally well-crafted, and
structurally, nearly flawless.
• Thematically, Shakespeare is unmatched
in his ability to touch the human soul, and
to speak lucidly and profoundly to human
lives.
• Most quoted, most translated of any
author on earth.
Shakespeare’s Life
• He left London when he was about 50 years old, and went back to
Stratford-upon-Avon, after investing in real estate, and buying the
best house in town. He died in 1616, near his birthday, April 23rd, at
age 52. He is buried in Stratford, in Holy Trinity Church.
• He did not want to be buried in Westminster’s Abbey, in London,
where many of England’s famous artists are buried. On his
tombstone is the following verse:*
Good friend for Jesus’ sake forebear
To dig the dust enclosed here
Blest be the man who spares these stones
And curst be he that moves my bones
Shakespeare’s Life
• In his will, he mysteriously left his wife his “second best bed.” His
property largely went to his eldest daughter, Susanna.
• Shakespeare did not think of himself as an intellectual, and during
his life didn’t go out of his way to have his plays published. Although
during his life some of the plays were published as quartos,
individual versions of plays that folks could buy and read.
• He did publish—with great success—his longer poems, and he
published his sonnets in 1609; some believe they are
autobiographical, although there is no concrete support for this, as
Shakespeare left almost no personal correspondence or diaries.
• For the most part, Shakespeare felt that plays were meant to be
performed rather than read. After his death, his more intellectual
friends did publish his plays in folio versions—something like a
modern collection.*
The Theater
• All social classes
attended
• No women on stage
– All parts played by men
• Including Juliet!
The Plays
• 38 plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare
• 14 comedies
• 10 histories
• 10 tragedies
• 4 romances
• Possibly wrote three others
• Collaborated on several others
The Poetry
• 154 Sonnets
• Numerous other poems
Much Ado Info
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Location: Messina, Sicily
Population: Very small
Governor: Leonato
Date written: 1598-1599
Genre: Romantic comedy
Mood: Light and silly
Character Relationships
Don Pedro 
(brothers)
Don John 
Borachio  + Margaret ?
Conrad 
Gov. Leonato  
(brothers)
Antonio 
Dogberry
Verges
Night Watchmen
Hero (daughter)
<3    <3
Claudio 
Beatrice (neice)
  <3
Benedick
Main
Characters
Who is Beatrice?
She is the orphaned and unwed niece of
Leonato
She is strong-willed and quick-witted
She is continually sniping at and challenging
Benedick
She is not afraid of taking men on, in jest or
in anger
She is considered by Don Pedro and
Leonato to be of a cheerful temperament
She is a good friend to her cousin Hero,
Leonato's daughter
She has already had an unfortunate
relationship with Benedick.
The Characters
Beatrice
Who is Benedick?
He is a gentleman (by rank if not by
behaviour) and a soldier
He is a close friend of Count
Claudio
He is quick-witted and can be relied
upon to entertain his colleagues
He is committed to being a bachelor
He is vain and arrogant about his
attractiveness to women
He may be hiding his deeper
feelings for Beatrice
He is a fair man who likes to see
justice done
He is not a romantic at heart, but a
realist
The Characters
Benedick
• For this section you will need a copy of the
text of the First Key Extract.
Much Ado About Nothing
Act 1, Scene 1, lines 1 - 123
Ideas, Themes and Issues
• The play as a whole is built around a number of key
ideas, themes and issues.
Trickery and deception - characters trick others into looking
foolish, getting angry, becoming jealous, or falling in love.
Self-deception and delusion - characters cannot see the
obvious, and have an unrealistic view of themselves (good or bad).
Love and marriage - described within a society where women
have little power and little say in whom they marry.
Status and honour - described within a society where anyone
of low birth gives way to those of higher status, and where everyone
is meant to keep to a strict social code.
Creating moods through actor’s words
• In Much Ado About Nothing,
the voices of characters are
important.
• In the First Key Extract,
Beatrice's use of words and
tone of voice paint a negative
picture of Benedick before the
audience even sees him.
• In the Second Key Extract,
Benedick's description of how
Beatrice treated him at the
masked ball makes the
audience feel sorry for him,
and like him more.
Jokes and Puns
• A pun is a form of
word-play, which
involves words that
sound the same but
have more than one
meaning
 Use of disguises/
mistaken identity
 Last speaker—highest in
rank (in tragedies)
 Multiple murders
(in tragedies)
 Multiple marriages
(in comedies)
Language
Shakespeare uses language in Much Ado About Nothing in
particular ways.
The title of the play could be a pun on the word "nothing",
which in Shakespeare's times may have been pronounced as
"noting". In turn "noting" meant to "observe" or to "watch".
The key feature of the play is that it is built on
misunderstandings - where things are not quite as they seem.
People are misled or misheard (mis-noted), and this leads to
comedy and drama.
Shakespeare's characters use language to insult each other, to
deceive and to entertain - the following are some of the
techniques he uses to achieve this.
Shakespeare’s Language
• Shakespeare did NOT write in “Old English.”
• Old English is the language of Beowulf:
Hwaet! We Gardena in geardagum
Þeodcyninga Þrym gefrunon
Hu ða æÞelingas ellen fremedon!
(Hey! We have heard of the glory of the SpearDanes in the old days, the kings of tribes, how
noble princes showed great courage!)
Shakespeare’s Language
• Shakespeare did not write in “Middle English.”
• Middle English is the language of Chaucer, the
Gawain-poet, and Malory:
We redeth oft and findeth y-write—
And this clerkes wele it wite—
Layes that ben in harping
Ben y-founde of ferli thing… (Sir Orfeo)
Shakespeare’s Language
• Shakespeare wrote in “Early Modern
English.”
• EME was not very different from
“Modern English”
Shakespeare’s Language
• A mix of old and very new
• Rural and urban words/images
• Understandable by the lowest
peasant and the highest noble
The Times
• Monarchy
– Queen Elizabeth
• 1558-1603
– King James
• 1603-1625
• The Plague