Much ado about nothing response

Much Ado about Nothing A response in one act

Shakespeare has a talent for recognizing people’s vices and virtues and for applying them into characters that anyone can relate to at some point in the telling, Much Ado about Nothing is no exception. In this wonderful story readers are introduced to the bickering Beatrice and Benedick, an unlikely pair that seem more likely to banter than fall in love. We are also shown the love at first sight pairing of Hero and Claudio, two naïve yet happy people that are content to fall into their respective roles as a couple. Many themes are present in this story but the one that stuck with me the strongest was the perception of love, how different it was between each of these characters and how they are portrayed to be as people because of it. In the story Beatrice and Benedick are presented as completely aware of the roles they play, Beatrice for example almost shrewish in her dismissal and wit against Benedick while he himself plays the misogynist. Their bantering it seems almost to be a game, although the subject of it would be distaste for what Hero and Claudio seem to share in a romantic love role leading to marriage. The love game of Beatrice and Benedick is very detailed despite what seems to be a simple distaste for each other in Much Ado, because I think that both of them are teasing something more than just conventional romantic love. They are comical in this respect because both test the antiromantic roles they play because they are secretly aware that if either slip in their act they could easily become a Hero or Claudio and turn husband or wife. I think this very much plays true even in today’s world. Everyone at some point in their lives, most in childhood goes through a crush on someone that we believe to be all wrong for us and start what I’ve come to call the pulling pigtails stage by pretending we don’t like them and banter with them trying to convince ourselves that we really don’t like this person but still secretly do. It’s also true that even as adults I think that we can recognize and empathize with these characters in that regard, the feeling of “Pulling pigtails” and understanding that our hearts sometimes confuse us. I think that’s what makes part of this play exciting is that really until the end of the play neither is really certain of what emotions really lie beneath all of the role playing, and that when they do their love is in fact I think stronger because at some point it is timid behind that bravado. Does this mean the couple is all wrong for each other? I think not. It is true sometimes those opposites attract, and I think this gives a prime example of it though it would seem in the end that these two are more alike than they thought. In the end love always win’s I believe, and throughout all of these two’s heartaches and troubles what they find with each other was worth every bit of the experience.