How is Benedick’s attitude to love and marriage presented by Shakespeare in Act 2 Scene 3, lines 181-213 and how does this differ from Act 1 Scene 1, lines 119-182?
Shakespeare’s play, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ has a similar plot to a modern romantic comedy: the lovers fall apart from an obscure twist (generally deception for being unfaithful or disloyal to your partner), but later on, all of those problems would be resolved when the villain admits to his crime or gets discovered. This confession would bring the lovers back together again, in which the comedy would have ended.
Romantic comedies would also use very similar devices such as puns, play on words, repetition, elements of surprise, stupidity or hyperbole. These devices were all used in the play, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, which helped emphasise parts of the play or make it seem more humorous.
The title ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ also suggests to us that the actors have been quarrelling for no particular reason; we will expect a great amount of misunderstanding which follows the plot of a romantic comedy. ‘Nothing’ (from the play’s title) has a double meaning, which sounded very similar in the Elizabethan and Jacobethan reign.
Both Benedick and Claudio talk about ‘Noting’ (observing) Hero, Leonato’s daughter which is also seen in other parts of the play. There are a lot of ‘notings’ as well as ‘nothings’.
In Act 1 Scene 1, Benedick has strong feelings about his misogyny which are immediately showed after Claudio admitting his love to young Hero.
In the quotation, ‘Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak you this with a sad brow? Or do you play the flouting Jack, to tell us Cupid is a good harefinder and Vulcan a rare carpenter? Come, in what key shall a man take you, to go in the song?’ (Act 1 Scene 1 lines 135-138) is where Benedick is questioning Claudio’s love for Hero.
The sentence from the quotation, ‘Or do you play the flouting Jack, to tell us Cupid is a