How Is Power Displayed in the Exposition of Much Ado About Nothing and the Great Gatsby

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The play "Much Ado about Nothing" is not about nothing. It shows strong themes in the areas of deception, love and the power of words. Also, the play is streaked with metaphors involving the taming of wild animals such as the referral of strong open minded women that are referred to as shrews. These ideas make proving the way that people were treated and expected to act much more easily to view although there are many oppositions to these ideas and they too are easy to see. One way in which the theme of power is displayed is through wealth, one way in which this is shown is when Claudio asks Don Pedro at the very end of the exposition “how much is she worth?” This suggests that Hero may not be worth the effort of Claudio because wealth was the one thing that made a marriage or a relationship worthwhile because in those times without money, you were powerless and weak. Although the way that Claudio talks about Hero makes it seem that he would settle down regardless of the place that Hero stood in society; this suggests that Claudio has truly fallen in love with Hero and as it is said there is nothing more powerful than true love, this also reinforces the symbolism and idealism of true love and the power that this has over people’s lives causing them to act without regard for others just to get their objective which in this case is Hero. Throughout the Great Gatsby Wealth is displayed as leading to power, one example of this is a few pages into chapter one where Gatsby is explaining about Daisy and her life. ”Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven – a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterwards savours of anti-climax.” This suggests that to Tom; Daisy is just an object and can be easily
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