Angel Fang
Mr.Hayes
English 4th/8th
18 May 2025
Shakespeare: Love Turns People Into Fools
Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing effectively uses dramatic gestures and added comic elements to enhance Shakespeare's exploration of love as a force that can turn people into fools, which reveals irrationality in human nature.
By adding comic elements into the movie, Branagh deepens the theme that no one is able to resist love’s foolish influence, even the most determined people. At first, Benedick disdains love as he condemns Claudio for “[dedicating] his behaviors to love…[which] become the argument of his own scorn, by falling in love” (Shakespeare 2.3.9-10). He vows, “Love shall never make me such a fool” (Shakespeare 2.3.20-21). However, Shakespeare did not give a detailed description of Benedick’s reaction when he overhears Don Pedro, Claudio and Leonato’s conversation. This gives Branagh an opportunity to reinterpret this scene by adding his own thoughts. In the movie, Benedick immediately falls from a chair and his eyes are filled with astonishment in the close-up scene when he hears that Beatrice is madly in love with him. The little comic scene highlights his astonishment and makes a contrast between his earlier disdain for love and his eagerness to believe what he eavesdrops. His wide smile and his body language reveal his excitement and joy, which drives him to ignore the skeptical details and get lost in his desire for love.
Branagh also uses dramatic gestures in the scene to emphasize the theme that love can make people act like reckless devils when fueled by misunderstanding. When Claudio first meets Hero, he immediately falls in love with her. He tells Benedick that “in [his] eyes, she is the sweetest lady that ever [he] looked on” (Shakespeare 1.1.139). However, his superficial impression of Hero collapses when Claudio believes in what Don Jon the Bastard says and what he thinks he sees. After he witnessed “Hero” having an affair with another man, he refuses to marry Hero and publicly humiliates her the next day without seeking any proof beyond what he thinks he saw. The lines in the play already contain intense emotions, but the film makes the emotions even stronger by using exaggerated movements. In the movie scene, Claudio suddenly grabs Hero on her wrists and swings her aside. His violent gesture reflects the impulsiveness and fury Claudio has in his mind, which suggests that the humiliation has overtaken his judgement. When he declares, “You seem to me as Dian in her orb”, Branagh directs the actor to add a more tragic tone to the line which implies his affection for Hero while showing his disappointment (Shakespeare 4.1.51). Then he starts to accuse Hero of “ [being] more intemperate in [her] blood, Than Venus", transforming from love to cruelty (Shakespeare 4.1.53-54). The intensified emotions and dramatic physical movements in the movie illustrate how love would lead to cruelty and irrational behaviors when covered by jealousy and disappointment.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Branagh, Kenneth, director. Much Ado About Nothing. BBC Films, 1993.