Much Ado About Nothing
Some notes and ideas to think upon:
--Does the play suggests that courtship and marriage are too fussed over?
--Traditionally marriage was the basic form of social organization--chastity secured a social structure based on legitimate inheritance of lands, wealth, property, rank, and name. (Think about how Odysseus tests Penelope over and over again.) Does it remain a form of social organization today? How is it changing? What are the changing views of marriage and individuals’ roles in a marriage?
--Women’s passivity in courtship; virginity is a woman’s social currency;
--But women can become agents of men’s humiliation and defeat--the play’s many comments about cuckoldry
--Is the play interested in overcoming the resistance to courtly love expressed by Beatrice and Benedick and confirming the traditional power/inheritance structure of marriage? OR Does the play have a more modern message for us? How would you play it? What modern contexts could we place the story in?
-The play is structured with a multitude of parallel scenes:
End of 1.1 (guys), Beginning of 2.1 (girls)
2.3 & 3.1 (tricks)
Two weddings
Parallel couples: Claudio/Hero vs. Benedick/Beatrice
What do these parallel scenes suggest about male spheres and female spheres? How could a director use these to design a production?
--How is wit viewed in this play? How does it undermine characters? How is it undermined?
--Shakespeare is always meta, always an awareness of players and playing...there are “plays” within plays in Much Ado:
Don Pedro posing as Claudio at the Masque
Margaret as Hero
Hero as her cousin
--Language
--“Game of love” -- nature of attraction between man and woman, the role of marriage in society, gender roles, romance, standards of relationship mores.
--Nature of truth and realty vs. appearance - how one lover constantly tries to determine the other lover’s faithfulness through outward sign and actions.
--“Nothing” and “Noting” sounded very similar in Shakespeare’s day. Many times characters mention noting, or observing, another’s actions or other events. Suggestion, gossip, overhearing, observation of real and staged scenes pervade the whole play. Motives fuel the action.
--See handout on Marriage Customs
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