Preview

The Theme of Friendship in the Play Much Ado about Nothing

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
254 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Theme of Friendship in the Play Much Ado about Nothing
In my opinion one of the most important statements made in "Much Ado About Nothing" is that of Claudio's concerning friendship, he says "Friendship is constant in all other things / Save in the office and affairs of love". I say this because in more than one occasion friendships have been broken and trouble ensue just because of love.

The first instance of this is when Don John tells Claudio that the Prince woos Hero for himself. Claudio being gullible and extremely jealous, immediately looses all the trust he has in Don Pedro just because of Don John saying that he heard the Prince "swear his affection".

The betrayal of a friend occurs again when Beatrice asks Benedick to "Kill Claudio". Even though he refuses after this and says "Not for the wide world", he eventually changes his mind after Beatrice says, "You kill me to deny it". He goes to Claudio and threatens to "protest [his] cowardice" if he refuses to fight and if it had not been proven that Hero was innocent, Benedick could have possibly killed his friend.

Throughout the play almost all the characters have had strain on their friendship with another person. For example the friendship between Claudio and Don Pedro with Leonato suffered after Hero was accused of infidelity at the wedding. As well as the relationship between Hero and her father until Beatrice proved that she was innocent for she was her bedfellow. Even though after all of this everyone is forgiven, except Borachio and Don John, and they become
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Character Analysis Of Beatrice In Much Ado About Nothing
    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page

    Character Analysis Of Beatrice In Much Ado About Nothing

    In the play, “Much Ado About Nothing,” by William Shakespeare, Beatrice is distraught when Claudio shames Hero, and as a result she manipulates Benedick into agreeing to duel Claudio. She knows that Hero is innocent: “O, on my soul, my cousin is belied!” (4.1.155.133). She is furious with Claudio and wants him to pay for what he has done: “Ah, how much might the man deserve of me that would right her!” (4.1.275-276.141). She wishes that she could get this revenge herself: “O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market-place,” (4.1.320-321.143). However, she knows that she cannot do this on her own. For this reason, she tricks Benedick into agreeing to kill Claudio. Claudio and Benedick are best friends so when Beatrice first…

    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Claudio And Benedick Foil
    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Claudio And Benedick Foil

    Claudio and Benedick are foils of each other,Claudio is a person who is looking for love “didst thou note the daughter of signior Leonato” (shakespeare 8). This shows how claudio is interested in people, Also in the book much…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Benedick Foil
    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Benedick Foil

    One reason of how Benedick and Claudio are foils is how different their personalities are. Claudio is submissive, backing down against a fight, while…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Much Ado About Nothing - Benedick Analysis
    • 366 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Much Ado About Nothing - Benedick Analysis

    Benedick has probably had a lot of experience with women, only one of whom was Beatrice. He vehemently declares his intent to remain a bachelor and disparages Claudio for wanting to marry Hero, "Leonato's short daughter." He restates his disdain of love and marriage in a monologue alone on stage — even more likely to express his true feelings than his teasing comments to a companion he will lose through marriage. Throughout the early scenes, his exchanges with Beatrice create a feeling that he "doth protest too much" — that is, he really harbors at least affection for Beatrice.…

    • 366 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Is Beatrice A Foil To Hero
    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Is Beatrice A Foil To Hero

    Beatrice and Hero are complete opposites to each other. One of the ways is by their personality, Beatrice is known for her fiery personality and happens to be outstandingly loyal, whilst Hero is quiet and doesn’t seem to care about much. “Sweet Hero! She is wronged, She is slandered, She is undone” (Shakespeare 75). Beatrice was outraged by Hero’s shaming so much that she started crying. Beatrice was so uneasy about this that she went as far as to order Benedick to kill Claudio. Beatrice is very…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Much Ado About Nothing Literary Analysis
    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Much Ado About Nothing Literary Analysis

    In the novel, Benedick and Beatrice hate each other with all their might. They talk bad about each other to one another any chance they get. The first form of trickery in Much Ado About Nothing is when the Prince and Leonato plot a story to trick Benedick. They knew Benedick was listening to their conversation so they knew exactly what to say. Benedick believed their lies and began to change the way he saw Beatrice…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Much Ado About Nothing Honor Quotes
    • 2231 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Much Ado About Nothing Honor Quotes

    This is how Benedick and Beatrice came to believe the other was madly in love with them. Leonato, Claudio, and Don Pedro acted out a scene about how insanely in love…

    • 2231 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Ideal Couple: Character Analysis of Beatrice and Benedick from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
    • 1031 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Ideal Couple: Character Analysis of Beatrice and Benedick from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

    In this play, the reader can compare the two different couples and quickly realizes that Beatrice and Benedick take their time, don’t rush, and compared to Hero and Claudio it wasn’t love at first sight. Right from the beginning of the play, during their first conversation they try to use a type of language that hides the real feelings they have behind for eachtoher. " What my Lady Disdain! Are you yet living? " This quote is said by Benedick to Beatrice, when he comes back to Messina. They try to be very unpleasant to each other and act like they don't care, as they don't want to admit it to the other but to themselves as well. It’s not until the end of the play that Benedick and Beatrice share their feelings and tell each other that they are in love, which shows how they took their time, and really waited for the right moment to let everything go. " Do not you love me? " " Why no, no more than a reason." This quote shows that they still hide their real feelings from each other until the last minute,when they finally feel like it's time to deliver their feelings. Those words said by Benedick show the delivery of all this secret " A miracle! Here's our own hands against our hearts. Come, I will…

    • 1031 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Much Ado About Nothing Deceit Analysis
    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Much Ado About Nothing Deceit Analysis

    Well, this was signior Benedick that said so.”. (2.1.27-29) This quote is Beatrice acting as she does not know it is Benedick who is under that mask. It is debatable whether Beatrice knows that Benedick is the stranger behind the mask but if she does happen to know this then she is deceiving him to make a fool out of him. Of all of deception and trickery that runs through “Much Ado About Nothing” one of the most prominent is the love affair between Beatrice and Benedick. It starts of as “a merry war” that goes on with both Benedick and Beatrice denying the fact that they have romantic feelings towards each other. The signior Benedick and Beatrice first hide their love/feelings with each other. They have a love hate relationship in the beginning as Beatrice says, “What should I do with him? Dress him in my apparel and make him my waiting gentlewoman?” (2.1.34-35). Her meaning of this is that she has no interest in him only using him as a follower. This all changes with the help of being deceived by Hero, Ursula, Don Pedro, Claudio and Leonato lying telling Benedick and Beatrice are strongly in love with each other. With them thinking that the other is in love with them they start to show their true feelings towards each other on their…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Deceitfulness In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Deceitfulness In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

    Within the play, Much Ado About Nothing, there is a central theme of deceitfulness, as a way to solve a problem or an issue amongst the characters. Though deception is inherently perceived as evil, it led to positive endings after several conflicts throughout the play. In the creation of this theme, Shakespeare uses both negative and positive examples to contribute to his lesson on ruses. Within this particular scene, all of the cons that the various characters have put on are officially disclosed to each other. This scene highlights that deception is not always evil, nor is it always moral, but can be means to an end that can be beneficial or detrimental to a character’s arc. Shakespeare’s use of honesty within this particular scene, establishes the deconstruction of illusions within human relationships in order to complete a story.…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Much Ad About Nothing
    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Much Ad About Nothing

    In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare presents an interesting relationship between the characters of Beatrice and Benedick. We can compare their relationships with the poems ‘Sonnet 130’, ‘Sonnet 43’ and ‘Salome’ and the relationships presented in them. Although Shakespeare includes a conventional relationship between Hero and Claudio, he also decides to involve a different affair between Beatrice and Benedick.…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Types of Comedy in Much Ado About Nothing
    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Types of Comedy in Much Ado About Nothing

    EG: All the confusion of Hero supposedly being involved with another man when in fact she was seen with another woman in unusual clothing. Furthermore, the fact that Claudio is then willing (in the end) to marry someone different, despite being tricked into it and the woman actually being Hero, seems unlikely if he really did love Hero.…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Does Shakespeare Show Loyalty In Julius Caesar
    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Does Shakespeare Show Loyalty In Julius Caesar

    The theme of friendship is one of the main themes in Julia Ceaser. William Shakespeare delivers a theme to his audience y the relationship between and Cassius and Brutus. Cassius tells Brutus, “I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont to have:
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you” (Shakespeare 14). Here Cassius tells Brutus how he is worried about him and how they are good friends so he can tell him anything that is on his mind. Brutus then tells Cassius not to worry. Brutus reassure Cassius of there friendship when he says, “But let not therefore my good friends be grieved--
Among which number, Cassius, be you one--
Nor construe any further my neglect” (Shakespeare 16). Brutus reassure Cassius of there friendship. Shakespeare wants to deliver the idea the idea…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examples Of 16th Century True Love
    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Examples Of 16th Century True Love

    An example of Claudio grieving for Hero after he learns of her death shows his over-reaction to a situation based on false trickery. He soon learns that a second chance awaits him when Hero reveals her masked self. Claudio realizes that he must not be quick to judge. On the other hand, friends make Beatrice and Benedick believe that each of them is the secret passion of the other, and entangle both Benedick and Beatrice in a plot. By overhearing conversations, each of them writes a note to the other. It is not until later, that reveals the notes signify an aspect of what they wish. However, it is the actions of Dogberry and Verges who arrest the villains and obtain a confession that set forward motion to both couples in discovering the truth about…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Much Ado About Nothing Essay
    • 1839 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Much Ado About Nothing Essay

    Over the course of the play, we see various key conventions relating to the characters of Claudio and Hero. The relationship between these two can be described as inconsistent, yet conforms to the structure of ‘Separation’, ‘A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty, often presented by elders’ and finally ‘Reunification’ where the characters are granted a ‘Happy Ending’. A Shakespearean comedy is one that consists of a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters. Claudio and Hero’s unpredictable romance is the main plot, which begins the controversial action and ignites all subsequent events. They are a very conventional young couple as their relationship is based on first impressions where Claudio “look’d upon her with a soldier’s eye”, further connoting his naivety and how Shakespeare used aesthetic ideals, reiterating beauty over substance. However, we could argue that Claudio isn’t in fact romantic at all as he questions, “Hath Leonato any son, my lord?” perhaps suggesting he isn’t as romantic as we first thought. He wants to know if Leonato has a son so if he were to die, Leonato…

    • 1839 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More

Related Topics