Much Ado About Nothing

1. Much Ado About Nothing Setting, structure and contrasting character patterns

2. Messina • Not a magical or fictional setting like most other comedies – a known agricultural region • No convenient revelations or random accidents, so... • No sense of a higher power at work (apart from DP “we are the only love gods”) • Most comedies: marriages symbolic of political settlements. Stability of the state is reinforced through various unions. • Messina and Aragon are stable – the men have been AWAY at war • Holiday-like mood.

5. Resembles an English town more than the Messina of the Renaissance. • It’s not particularly flashy or urban. Hero’s wedding dress is charming in its simplicity. According to Margaret it is “a fine, quaint, graceful, and excellent fashion” (3.4) • It is rather rural, and Leonato is at pains to cope with his celebrated guests. • Leonato’s excessive formality suggests he doesn’t entertain such noble guests that often. • L: “Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your grace; for trouble being gone, comfort should remain” • DP: “You embrace your charge too willingly” 1 2

6. Some rooms are out of use – Borachio overhears the plan to woo Hero whilst he is “smoking a musty room” (burning nice smelling herbs to air it out). (1.3) • Leonato doesn’t put on airs (apart from around DP). He calls townsfolk like Dogberry “neighbour” or “friend”. (3.5) • A generally tolerant/liberal household dominated by women (only males around are L and his brother, A). • L allows Bea. to speak out of turn in 1.1 in asking the messenger about Ben. • He chides Bea: “By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.” (2.1) 3

7. However, L. Then buys into Bea’s wit, seeming to tolerate (and even enjoy) her rather long joke about bearded and non-bearded suitors. • L leaves it rather peaceably at: “Well, niece, I hope to see you fitted one day with a husband” (2.1) • Largely female household makes it easier to discredit Hero. • Apart from chapel where Hero is denounced (and possibly where C. Does his penance in 5.3). The rest of the scenes are set in, around or near L’s manion. 4

8. Social setting - hierarchies • Awareness of social hierarchies lurk in the background • See 1.1: • L: “How many gentlemen have you lost in this action?”Messenger: “But few of any sort, and none of name.” L: “A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers.” • Titles tell us rank • Don = title usually reserved for royalty • Signior = nobleman • How characters refer to one another shows hierarchies. • DP only ever referred to as “your grace” and “your lord” 5

9. Only equals or superiors can use first names • DP – “signiorLeonato” and then just “Leonato” • Same goes for the women – servants called by first names, ladies go by “lady ______” • C and DP can be rude about L because their party has higher status: C: “We had like to have had our two noses snapped off with two old men without teeth.” (5.1) • NB: their behaviour would still have seemed impolite to audiences • DP and C’s status – part of the reason L believes them • Critic Stephen P. Zitner: “Leonato depends on what he thinks he knows, that princes and counts are men of honour and women sexually unreliable”. 6

10. Importance of honour • Your respectability/worthiness. Crucial – social currency. • Way to rouse suspicion? Suggest honour will be damaged: • B: “Go you to the prince your brother; spare not to tell him that he hath wronged his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio--whose estimation do you mightily hold up--to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero” (2.2) • DP and C question Ben’s ability to behave honourably towards Bea • C: “He would make but a sport of it and torment the poor lady worse.” 10

11. 7 • Ben: “I hear how I am censured:…I must not seem proud: happy are they that hear their detractions and can put them to mending.” • Masculine honour = good reputation, authority, bravery in battle • Female honour is inherently linked to sexuality • DJ: “the lady is disloyal...Leonato’s Hero, your Hero, everyman’s Hero” (3.3) • DJ to C: “If you love her then, tomorrow wed her. But it would better fit your honour to change your mind” (3.3) • That DP feels his own honour is in danger is reflected in his eagerness to “join with thee [Claudio] to disgrace her [Hero]” • Painful cost of female dishonour obvious in 4.1. 8 9

12. 11 • C’s first slight to H is also a criticism against L’s poor hospitality: “Give not this rotten orange to your friend;/ She's but the sign and semblance of her honour.” • DP’s first line in 4.1 reflects how the slight to C impacts him: “I stand dishonour'd, that have gone about / To link my dear friend to a common stale.” • C swear’s “upon mine honour” that he saw H with a man. • His honour holds more currency than hers. • L promises revenge “If they wrong her honour / the proudest of them shall well hear of it” • H’s honour returns with her death. • Friar: “The supposition of the lady's deathWill quench the wonder of her infamy” 12 13 14

13. Honour defended in duels • Male family members to fight • Bea seeks a challenge because C “hath slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kinswoman” • 5.1 L seems swept up in deception of H’s death: “Know, Claudio, to thy head,Thou hast so wrong'd mine innocent child and meThat I ...Do challenge thee to trial of a man.” • L demands C and DP publicly absolve H any wrong-doing: “Possess the people in Messina hereHow innocent she died” 15 16

14. Structure • Act 1 • Setting of Messina and the two “parties” – the locals and the soldiers. • establishing the characters • Basic conflicts (DP/DJ; B/B) • DJ’s first plot • Act 2 • The masque • Foiled plot against DP and C (a dummy run? Foreshadowing the second plot?) • Plot to “misuse” C and DP • H and C’s engagement; DP’s plot to bring B and B together. • Ben’s duping

15. Act 3 • Duping of Bea. • “News” of H’s disloyalty • The capture of Borachio and Conrad by the Watch • L brushing off Dogberry’s news • Act 4 • The shaming of H • The Friar’s plan • B and B’s confessions of affection • Ben accepting Bea’s request to challenge C • Borachio’s confession • Act 5 • DP and C hear Borachio’s confession

16. Ben.’s attempts to write love poetry (LOLZ) • C’s penance (to worship at H’s tomb) • Unmasking of H. • Revelation of B and B’s true feelings for one another with the discovery of their love letters • Double wedding planned • News arrives that DJ has been captured. • Both plots come to a climax in 4.1. H and C ‘s crises brings B and B together to announce their love. Part of the reason Bea accepts Ben is because he suspects DJ and his concern for Hero.

17. Both plots connected by eavesdropping devices. People are often “mis-noting” in this play. • Writing clears up confusion. Makes the truth concrete in both plots. • L will not hear what Dogberry has to say in 3.5 • Only once it is written down is the truth able to be carried to L and to DP and C… • Sexton: “I will go before and show him their [Borachio and Conrad’s] examination.” (4.2) • Having the plot to shame H exposed BEFORE the marriage scene creates a false sense of security. • BUT different layers of awareness is also a characteristic of tragedy. (R&J; Othello)

18. 17 • Ben and Bea’s letter s used against them in 5.4 to prove their feelings • C: “I'll be sworn upon't that he loves her;For here's a paper written in his hand,A halting sonnet of his own pure brain,Fashion'd to Beatrice.” (5.4) • H: “And here's anotherWrit in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket,Containing her affection unto Benedick.” 18

19. Contrasting doubles/triads – the lovers • Common practice in Shakespearean plays • Mythical Hero jumped into the sea to be with her dead lover - supposed to be very faithful • Hero – a passive young Shakespearean woman. • Obedient, conventional, but not without character • Volunteers to perform any “modest” (ie. Appropriate) task to brink B and B together. • Beatrice would have been played by the best boy-actor, Hero by the 2nd • Charming with the prince – perhaps even a little flirtatious: “I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away.” 19

20. 20 • H defends her wedding dress: “My cousin's a fool, and thou art another: I'll wear none but this” (3.4) • H is subtle enough to be interesting for the actor playing her – can create a physical performance to counter the lack of lines • Bea is witty, intelligent, outspoken. • H and Bea emphasise each other’s silence and voice • Bea is attractively self-deprecating – “I was born to speak all mirth and no matter” (2.1) • But also quick with her wit (puns, wordplay, imagery) 21

21. 22 • Ben and her trade jokes, feeding off of one another’s wit: BEN: What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?BEA: Is it possible disdain should die while she hathsuch meet food to feed it as SigniorBenedick? (1.1) ... BEA: But for which of mygood parts did you first suffer love for me? BEN: Suffer love! a good epithet! I do suffer loveindeed, for I love thee against my will. (5.2) • Only real exchange H and C have – 4.1 • Is C as innocent as H? Is less worldly than Ben. 23

22. Youth explains suspicion? • Fairly “minor” character – 1st two scenes he’s on stage for 60 lines before saying anything. • Unlike Ben, is only verbose when honour is threatened. • An “instigator of spectacle” (Zitner), like DP. • Do we really sympathise with him enough to buy into his excuse “sinned I not but in mistaking” (5.1)? • B and B the more “modern” lovers. • Ben – hides behind “misogyny as a persona...it is a rhetoric of masked fear” (Zitner) • Scared that love will “transform”, and “make me such a fool” – scared to lose sense of self? (2.3)

23. 24 • Bea. speaks for H when the latter won’t/can’t speak for herself • Bea: “it is my cousin's duty to make curtsyand say 'Father, as it please you.' But yet for allthat, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or elsemake another curtsy and say 'Father, as it pleaseme.‘” (2.1) • Speaks about Ben, whilst H never comments on C • Bea wins the battle of wits with Ben – he must “stop” her mouth with a kiss. • They accept “mutual imperfection” (Zitner) • Ben: for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?Bea: For them all together (5.2) 25

24. The brothers • DP, Ben and C are set opposite DJ, Bor and Conrad • Both princes plot, DP “positively”, DJ “negatively • DP’s tricks/deceptions reaffirm his potency as a ruler • By end, DP’s power has become obsolete – he’s the odd man out, being young(ish) and single amongst his married friends, and subject to Benedick’s advice to “get thee a wife” (5.4) • DJ’s attempt to undermine this potency and supplant the surrogate brother (C) • DP – articulate; DJ – sullen. Only speaks to explain/complain

25. Both princes have loyal followers. • Even they will turn if cause is just (Ben and Bor “switch” sides for H) • Youthful potency of DP contrasted with rather impotent presence of L and A in (5.1) • Older brothers have a more supportive relationship than younger