William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing - Research Paper Example

? Much Ado About Nothing number Much Ado About Nothing Much Ado About Nothing is one of the most famous of William Shakespeare’s plays and is notable for the fact that it uses several theatrical devices for the purpose of conveying the message of the play. This paper shall look at this aspect of theatricality in the play that is important in deciding whether the ideology of the playwright is sexist, as some would argue, or not. For this, it would be important to look at some of the attitudes towards sexuality in Elizabethan times, when this play was written. A look at some other works of Shakespeare may also be relevant to this study. These include plays in which cross-dressing and expressions of female sexuality are a part. Social attitudes towards these issues and the contemporary literary representations of them had a lot to do with the manner in which Shakespeare treated his female characters. This paper shall also discuss the aspect of Elizabethan drama where a boy was required to play the role of woman and what implications this had for the theatrical aspect of the depiction of marriage. This shall be explored in relation to the larger role that women are shown to play in the Elizabethan society, in the play. The relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is one of the main attractions of the play. The chemistry that these characters share has been the basis for interest in the play over a long period of time. Nevertheless, their relationship does not start on a very pleasant note, with both parties choosing to talk of marriage as an unnecessary encumbrance. This is not the way in which the society of the time viewed marriage. During Elizabethan times, marriage was considered, officially, to be the natural culmination of the youth of people. Any form of revolt, in the context of a play, would finally end in the reluctant couple bowing down to their own love for another person and conforming to the dictates of the society. While there was a certain kind of questioning of the institution of marriage, there was also an acceptance of the fact that it was the method that was acceptable to religion and society as the one for procreation. It was thus, the method that was employed to extend the lines of aristocratic families and also to create more peasants to work the fields for the aristocracy and the Crown. In this context, it is interesting to see a couple that works against the economic ethos of the time. They are however, finally, by the end of the play, made to conform to the stereotypes of the time. The aspect of the boy playing the role of the women is important in this respect. In the Elizabethan times, young men who were just on the verge of attaining manhood and had voices that were quite similar to those of women were considered to be attractive by both men and women. This form of attraction that men felt for people of their own sex was considered to be detrimental to the way society was organized. It would introduce an element of sexuality that was not for the sole purpose of sexuality and opened up debates about the role of sexuality in a country that was ruled by a monarch who was not married and was widely referred to as the virgin queen. By employing boys to play the role of women who were protesting the idea and institution of marriage, Shakespeare brings together two marginalized sections of the society and makes them critique it. The underlying message of the two men being together at the end of the play as a part of a married couple breaks conventional stereotypes, only when it is combined with the reluctance that Beatrice displays towards the institution of marriage as it existed in the days of Shakespeare. Her reluctance gives her a certain amount of power that she is able to employ even after she gives in to her own feelings of love. During this, she articulates her argument for homosexuality that twentieth century criticism has termed one of the potent forces against hegemonic forces that use sexualities and repression as a means of ensuring conformism. This can be seen to a great extent in this speech of Beatrice’s. What should I do with him—dress him in my apparel and make him my waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him. (II.i.28–32) This idea of frivolity is also associated with the stage. The frivolity that Beatrice associates with marriage and its importance in the life of a person can be seen even in the title of a play. The ‘Nothing’ of the title can be a reference to the lack of action that happens in the play and the comic mistakes that are made in the play about identities. The playwright seems to suggest that the play does not, through its thematic content, convey much. However, what the play conveys by means of stating its own lack of importance is precisely the unimportance of the social institutions that it talks of. This is what lends importance to the play underneath the cloak of frivolity that it wears. This is the same frivolity that is generally attached to the stage and theatre as well. The importance of the institution of marriage is undercut; this is done along with an exploration of the nature of the stage and the theatricality of life. Nothing is also what happens on stage, according to the critic Walter N. King who points to the fact that what happens on stage is not real (King). Shakespeare points to this very aspect of the stage, simultaneously looking at the fact that the institutions that are given a lot of importance by the society are basically nothing but constructs of the very same society. Marriage, for Shakespeare is one of these constructs and is as real as the stage is. The lack of reality that the stage has can be seen in these lines by Dogberry. Dost thou not suspect my place? Dost thou not suspect my years? O that he were here to write me down an ass! But masters, remember that I am an ass. Though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass. No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow, and which is more, an officer, and which is more, a householder, and which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina, and one that knows the law, go to . . . and one that hath two gowns, and everything handsome about him. Bring him away. O that I had been writ down an ass! (IV.ii.67–78) The changeable position that he occupies within the stage is commented upon by Dogberry in a witty manner that serves to veil his real intent. In Shakespeare, many dialogues that may appear to be irrelevant or silly have such important messages couched within them and this is probably the reason why research is still conducted upon his works where newer layers are being unearthed about the knowledge that Shakespeare had about his work and the novelties that he introduced into his plays. Masks are an important method of making the issue of theatricality and the mask that Hero wears at the end of the play reveals the dramatic nature of the proceedings where a boy is disguised as a woman who is disguised as another. This process points to the very nature of the genre of drama where people play different roles as decided upon by the dramatist. This is exemplified by the speech that is given by Dogberry. The song that Balthasar sings regarding the fidelity or the lack of it, that women display, also is something that can be called a theatrical device that serves to cast light upon the nature of marriage in Elizabethan society. The song talks of the infidelity that is a part and parcel of marriage and of how men are supposed to learn to live with the burden of being cuckolded by their wives. The fact that his song is not of great merit is held up as indicative of the undercutting of the message. In different interpretations of the play, however, Balthasar’s song is sung with a great amount of skill, an episode that is enabling for a female audience. This can be seen in conjunction with the other plays that Shakespeare wrote where women had a prominent role and where devices of theatricality were employed to question the patriarchal social codes that were a part of the society. In As You Like It and Twelfth Night, cross-dressing plays an important part and the aspect of boys playing the roles of women is an important part of the play. In both the situations, women occupy powerful roles while they are shown to transcend their socially assigned gender belonging. However, by the end of these plays, the women are resigned to accepting their conventional roles in the society that they live in. Rosalind and Viola, even though they are able to lead revolutionary existences for a while, are finally made to fall into the same old role that women were supposed to play during the Elizabethan age. Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing portrays Messina as a site of numerous misperceptions of reality. The play posits the idea that it is through the state of love that a comprehensive understanding of reality can be obtained. The numerous dalliances within the play are reminiscent of Baldassare Castiglione’s discourse on love in The Courtier. In Book IV of The Courtier, Pietro Bembo establishes a connection between love and various forms of knowledge (Castiglione). The characters Beatrice and Benedick may be seen in this context. Beatrice gains innate knowledge about Hero and Benedick knows by conviction. Claudio can be seen as the archetypal young lover that Bembo describes who attains knowledge and judgment through the sensual faculties. His acceptance of the veiled lady based on trust reveals his attainment of higher understanding. The central focus of the play’s treatment of the theme of love lies in its depiction of love as redeeming sacrifice. The most immediate manifestation of this is seen in the allusions to Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection in Hero’s contrived death. The most important thing which distinguishes Much Ado About Nothing from many of Shakespeare’s other comedies is the fact that there is no alternate, utopian world in which the action occurs. Unlike the fairy forest of A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Arden of As You Like It, Much Ado is set in what can broadly be called the real world. However, the “other world” in Much Ado is more of a psychological, spiritual state rather than a palpable place. The reconciliation from ignorance to knowledge and “false” infatuation to “true” love happens at the level of interiority. In the context of the Elizabethan society where the ideas of observation and perception were different, it would be interesting to look at an Elizabethan play, in order to understand the social codes and ethics of the time. The play becomes a record of people’s inability to assess situations correctly and understand other people properly. This inability to understand different aspects of people’s personalities is something that may cause troubles in marriages. According to Shakespeare and this play, people’s perceptions are very important in maintaining relationships. The different perceptions that result from the problems that are created by Don John result in mistrust between people who love each other. Unlike Beatrice and Benedick, the relationship between Hero and Claudio seems to be strong at the beginning of the play. This is one of the important reasons for the fame that the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick has acquired over the centuries. The unlikeliness of their pairing makes for interesting viewing. Here, as in many of his other plays, Shakespeare talks of the unreliability of love and the difficulty in telling who may be attracted to who. The fickleness of relationships is thus explored in a situation that leads to a debate regarding the very role of marriages in the society that one is a part of. This then leads to greater debates about the institutions of the society and how they create and modify the perceptions that people have about them. Much Ado About Nothing is a play that has many layers. A deceptively simple tale of mistaken identities, it brings to the fore many of the questions that Shakespeare discussed during his career as a successful playwright. Arguably the greatest literary genius in the history of mankind, Shakespeare in this play created characters who seemed silly but spoke truths about existence in general and about Elizabethan society in particular, through tropes and theatrical devices that were well known to the audience. The play is celebrated as one that used the trope of the mask with great aplomb. It also articulates the miseries of the condition of being a woman in the Elizabethan age, where, despite there being a female monarch, the women who needed any semblance of agency needed to resort to underhand means of many sorts. It is thus, a true picture of such a society, painted with the help of many theatrical innovations. Works Cited King, Walter N. “Much Ado About Nothing”. Shakespeare Quarterly 15 (3), 1964. Web. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2868316 Accessed 9th August, 2012. Mukherjee, Souvik. The Courtier, Book IV, Bembo's Discourse on Love: a fitting conclusion to The Courtier?Web. http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/castiglione.html Accessed 9th August, 2012. Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. New York: Wordsworth, 1995. Print Read More