A Comparison of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Its BBC Adaptation
Despite the four hundred years that have intervened between Shakespeare’s romantic comedy ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ and the BBC’s appropriation of the play in its ‘Shakespeare Retold’ series, both texts share the common ideas of love and marriage, the role of women in society and the representation of evil. When comparing these texts, however, we find similarities but also many differences due to the changing ideas and values from 16th century Elizabethan England to 21st century society.
A comparison of Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ and the BBC’s appropriation of the play reveals that the human need for love remains unchanged. Both texts follow the classic lines of comedy in bringing a sense of human happiness to the resolution. The union of Beatrice and Benedick at the end of both texts implies that we are happiest when supported by a loving partner. The BBC production makes the intertextual reference to Shakespeare’s sonnet 116 “Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments” a comment on the importance of mature and equal love while Shakespeare also reinforces this belief by concluding his play with the dance, in itself a symbol of graceful partnership. The “Gulling Scenes” in which Beatrice and Benedick are tricked into revealing their love for each other remain a constant feature of both Shakespeare’s original and the contemporary appropriation. These comic parallel scenes reinforce the belief that love is our human destiny and our secret desire. Shakespeare’s Beatrice changes from a woman who boasts of her “cold blood” to one prepared to “tame [her] wild heart to his loving hand”. Although the idea of marriage as a control in a patriarchal society has changed in the contemporary text, the idea of committing to a relationship as a sign of emotional maturity has remained. Benedick’s comic justification that “Love is something a man grows into, like jazz and olives” or his more serious metaphor “Perhaps I’ve had enough of playing games”
A comparison of Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ and the BBC’s appropriation of the play reveals that the human need for love remains unchanged. Both texts follow the classic lines of comedy in bringing a sense of human happiness to the resolution. The union of Beatrice and Benedick at the end of both texts implies that we are happiest when supported by a loving partner. The BBC production makes the intertextual reference to Shakespeare’s sonnet 116 “Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments” a comment on the importance of mature and equal love while Shakespeare also reinforces this belief by concluding his play with the dance, in itself a symbol of graceful partnership. The “Gulling Scenes” in which Beatrice and Benedick are tricked into revealing their love for each other remain a constant feature of both Shakespeare’s original and the contemporary appropriation. These comic parallel scenes reinforce the belief that love is our human destiny and our secret desire. Shakespeare’s Beatrice changes from a woman who boasts of her “cold blood” to one prepared to “tame [her] wild heart to his loving hand”. Although the idea of marriage as a control in a patriarchal society has changed in the contemporary text, the idea of committing to a relationship as a sign of emotional maturity has remained. Benedick’s comic justification that “Love is something a man grows into, like jazz and olives” or his more serious metaphor “Perhaps I’ve had enough of playing games”