MAAN Analysis

Much Ado About Nothing-Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

• Clothing- Clothing is often used to inform us of a persons status and it is quite symbolic. This may have been a reference to the social context, as in Elizabethan times your clothes could determine the friends you had, the job you had and the places you stayed.
• For more information, go to this website: http://www.shmoop.com/much-ado-about-nothing/symbolism-imagery.html
• Shakespeare also used words to represent harsh things, Words such as horn were used to show adultery from a female, and with adultery playing a large part in the story, words like this are used many a time.

Setting

• Messina is a bustling port city, but its climate makes it agricultural as well, meaning the men returning from battle with Don Pedro would likely view Messina as a welcome respite from the battlefield. The whole point of the soldiers coming to Messina is that they’re in an idyllic setting, away from the action of the war.
• While most of the play occurs around Leonato’s house, Leonato’s orchard (or garden) figures as a central place of action as well.
• The setting is also bigger than its physical realm – we learn that Messina is a respite from the battlefield because it sets the scene for the play to take place in a holiday-like mood. While the play is not a true pastoral play in the sense that everyone is unfamiliar with Messina, the soldiers’ presence in Messina shakes things up – the space is suddenly set up for matchmaking and merriment. The soldiers are in a loving mood now that their minds have turned from war, and Leonato’s house is excited to have the soldiers visit. The mood, like the atmosphere, is generally festive.
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• Bildunterschrift: Messina,Italy

Genre

• The plot has two classic Shakespearean tip offs that this play is probably a comedy: nobody dies, and there are some marriages. Also a good sign that we’re dealing with a comedy: the play is funny. There’s probably a temptation to call the play a romance, because the play is technically centered on love, but really, the love is more funny than romantic. The love between Claudio and Hero is laughable in the sense that the lovers never have a single on-stage conversation until their wedding (which turns out not to be a lovey-dovey affair). Their feelings are stereotypical representations of young love – handed over easily and taken back just as easily. The lack of depth and development in their relationship is clear; they end up being caricatures of what happens when a relationship isn’t internally strong, and is impacted by external stuff. Troublesome fun abounds as a result, forming the action of the whole play.
• The love between Beatrice and Benedick is funny in a different way. Beatrice and Benedick are hysterical in their own right, but their relationship also highlights the comedic side of love. Their initial interactions are sparky because of how much they hate each other, and it’s rather funny to watch them suddenly come to terms with loving each other. Benedick and Beatrice’s hatred of each other is so perfect that it’s even more ludicrous that they might love each other.

Tone

• It seems deliberately difficult to relate to Claudio, who is about as fascinating as a limp dishcloth... except when he’s being an awful jerk. We love Beatrice and Benedick the most when they’re sharpest and cruelest with each other:
• These characters are most rich and complex when they’re portraying the darker side of life. This is not a play celebrating the gauzy happiness of love. Instead, Shakespeare is a bit dismissive about the more common, typical parts of people—he makes them uninteresting when they’re most stable.
• Still, Shakespeare doesn’t let everything go to pot and dance on the ashes of the chaos (as he does in the tragedies). Ultimately he’s compassionate to the characters because they all succeed in the end— except the bad guy, of course.
• BENEDICK Then is courtesy a turncoat. But 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.
• BEATRICE A dear happiness to women! They would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humor for that. I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me. (1.1.122-130)

Writing Style

• This is one of Shakespeare's more easy to follow plays. He uses words which when defined by context, se perfectly easy to understand. The play seems to be a kind of mark, in which Shakespeare was free to say what he wanted to say, as the play does not have any real tragedy. The war of words waged between Beatrice and Benedick allows Shakespeare to really show off his talent.
• The characters in the play tend to be rather melodramatic and excessive in their speech (though not necessarily in their feelings). For example, Beatrice and Benedick will never marry, Hero is the sweetest lady Claudio’s ever seen, and everything Dogberry says needs to be as formal and lofty as the King James Bible... even though he misuses words all over the place.
• The kind of grand speech the characters use, whether in their style or their fervor, is contrasted by the strange starts and stops of the action of the play. Disaster is constantly imminent and just barely averted, like Claudio losing Hero to Don Pedro, Benedick killing Claudio, or Beatrice deciding in the last minute to forsake her love for Benedick. The best example of this purposeful anticlimax is in the lead-up to the actual climax. Hero is going to be publicly denounced at her wedding and the whole disaster is nearly averted by the bumbling Dogberry, who is ever so close to getting Leonato to talk to Borachio and discover the plot.
• Even when the juicy bits of the scandal happen, they’re undone nearly as quickly as they arise. Borachio suddenly discovers his conscience and repents before Benedick can kill Claudio, and without leaving Hero much time to play dead. The swiftness with which the problems are resolved (and the arbitrary evil of the main villain, Don John) means you can’t take the problems all that seriously.