Much Ado About Nothing-Themes

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Analysis of Major Themes: Much Ado About Nothing Sheila Croft February 2012 ENG 403, Shakespeare Adams State College Koos Daley, Ph.D., Professor Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is a play that at first seems full of joy and celebration, but then becomes solumn. While the play has many themes and patterns, the conflicting themes of celebration and deception are the most obvious. The themes are conflicting because by their very nature, these words connote specific opposing events, including a wedding (celebration) and a rumor which causes great harm to someone (deception). While the two major themes in the play are conflicting, they both control the direction of the play and are therefore important. These themes will be discussed in this essay. The theme of celebration is a positive one. It seems from the very beginning of the play that a celebration is in full swing, when Don Pedro and his friends return home from the war. They arrive at Leonato’s (a good friend of Don Pedro’s) manor and all of the people there are ecstatic to see them. A celebration of singing and dancing immediately ensues. This celebration creates an air of joviality and love and leads to Claudio (a member of Don Pedro’s military troop) falling in love with Leonato’s daughter, Hero. Hero is smitten with Claudio as well, and early on in the play they decide to marry, even over the objection of Benedick, another member of Don Pedro’s troop and a good friend of Claudio’s, who celebrates bachelorhood and promises never to marry. Because he believes it is evil, Benedick tries to convince Claudio that marriage should be avoided at all costs. He celebrates being a bachelor and tells Claudio that he will “live a bachelor.” (Act I, scene 1, l. .201). However, it is obvious to everyone around him that Benedick loves Leonato’s niece, Beatrice. Benedick refuses to admit that

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