The characters’ likings change in the play is troubling, where Lysander is intensely in love with Hermia at first and with Helena at another point. “Transparent Helena! Nature shows art that through thy bosom makes me see thy heart” (Shakespeare and Foakes Act II). The aim of the play is not to observe the nature of true love but reasonably to mock misunderstandings that love brings. Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena are destined not to be romantic classics, but somewhat sympathetic figures thrown into perplexing situations of romantic farce.
He believed every lady loved him, which shows he is not shy when it comes to sharing his thoughts. However, not all the ladies love him, he just thinks too much of himself. Benedick also assumes that he is too good for anyone and there is no lady good for him, and therefore he cannot have any lady, and says he never will. It also demonstrates that Beatrice and Benedick have a fiery relationship based on the childish bickery. Shakespeare portrays a rude and independent character of Benedick.
Unlike most of the other sonnets which are full of love and praise, Shakespeare’s Sonnet 138 is about a less than perfect relationship which is based on lies and is complicated and difficult, yet “both speakers practice, again and again, a self-deceptive illusion, compulsively complying with it rather than giving it up” (Vendler 294). They continue to flatter each other for the sake of their sexual needs and the persona simply ignores his mistress’s adultery. When we look at the first two lines of the first quatrain, we see that there is a mutual deception. The persona complains that when his lover swears that she is true and faithful to him, he believes her but at the same time knows that she is lying. It is a paradoxical situation and it gets more paradoxical when we see that Shakespeare’s use of the word ‘lie’ perhaps is not a coincidence, as it has both meanings which suit the themes in the sonnet.
“All’s well that ends well”. To what extent do you agree that Much Ado about Nothing follows this convention of comedy? To a large extent I agree with the statement that “All’s well that ends well” as I believe all the loose ends, evident within the play, are tied up. For example Beatrice and Benedick get married, Claudio’s better judgement and Don John is caught. However it could be argued that the character of Beatrice did not meet a resolved ending as her likeable independence is somewhat dented through her marriage to Benedick, therefore not is “All’s well that ends well”.
Romeo doesn’t love Rosaline but instead loves the idea of love, he demonstrates physical desire and lust rather than actual love and a romantic connection, a stark contrast with the love he shares with Juliet. Mercutio is anti-romantic; for him, love is a physical pursuit, which he emphasizes through his lewd dialogue, “If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking and you beat love down.” Mercutio's repeated references to the sexual aspect of love, contrasts with Romeo’s romantic connection with Juliet that is portrayed as going beyond simply a physical attraction, illustrating his cynical belief that romantic love does not exist. Moreover he curses specific people, the houses of Montague and Capulet, rather than an external force such as fate or love. The Nurse, similar to Mercutio, makes lewd references to the sexual aspect of love.
They also believed that they were superior to women and that women should remain obedient and oppressed, and not question their husbands or fathers. The conversations that the females in the play have when they are not in the presence of men seem to prove that they have accepted society’s expectations of them, and that when they are in the company of men, they behave the way men believe to be natural. It is for this reason that when Desdemona married Othello without her father, Brabantio’s consent, he states that her actions were “against all rules of nature” (I, iii, 101). Many feminist critics view Desdemona as submissive and oppressed. Desdemona, herself, gives evidence to this claim when she states that she is “obedient” (III, iii, 89) to Othello no matter what.
In Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing, deception is a key theme throughout. There are several main deceptions, beginning with Don John trying to deceive Claudio that the prince woos Hero for himself. When this conniving scheme fails, he embarks on a new master plan, which involves the shaming of Hero at the marriage between her and Claudio. Another key deception, arguably the most important storyline to the play, is the deception of Beatrice and Benedick, who despite their previous feelings about courtly love and romance, gradually begin to fall for each other, under the careful guidance of Don Pedro, Claudio, Hero, Ursula and Leonato. However, throughout the first few scenes, we as the audience are exposed to Beatrice and Benedick’s ‘merry war’ as they exchange witty and sarcastic banter.
Love Though Romeo and Juliet is arguably the most archetypal love story in the English language, it portrays only a very specific type of love: young, irrational, passionate love. In the play, Shakespeare ultimately suggests that the kind of love that Romeo and Juliet feel leads lovers to enact a selfish isolation from the world around them. Romeo and Juliet eschew their commitments to anyone else, choosing to act selflessly only towards one another. Sexuality does pervade the play, both through bawdy jokes and in the way that Romeo and Juliet anticipate consummating their marriage, but it does not define their love. Instead, their youthful lust is one of many reasons why their relationship grows so intense so quickly.
The audience get their first indication of what Beatrice thinks of Benedick from her first line in the play whereupon she asks “I pray you is Signior Mountanto returned from the wars or no?” Here she makes a joke about Benedick’s arrogance as the title ‘Signior Mountanto’ can be translated as ‘Sir Stuck Up’. However behind the joke it is apparent that she cares about him otherwise, she would not have asked. The audience is now becoming aware of Beatrice’s verbal wit and dexterity but also her apparent disdain for Benedick. What might be seen as her attempt to mask her true feelings is often greeted with delight in the theatre. Leonato then explains the situation to the messenger, stimulating the audience to want to know more about the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick.
The play of Much Ado about Nothing, written by Shakespeare is based upon deliberate deceptions, some malevolent and others benign. The deceiving of Claudio and Don Pedro results in Hero’s disgrace, while the ruse of her death prepares the way for her redemption and reconciliation with Claudio. In a more lighthearted vein, Beatrice and Benedick are fooled into thinking that each loves the other, and they actually do fall in love as a result. Much Ado about Nothing shows that deceit is not inherently evil, but something that can be used as a means to good or bad ends. Shakespeare starts his play with love that Claudio speaks for Hero, the passion and affection is shown by Claudio throughout the play even though in Act 3, there was deception