Much Ado About Nothing

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Much Ado About Nothing

• A Comedy By William Shakespeare
• First printed as a play in 1623

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Background Information

• Set in the town of Messina in Sicily, Italy.
• Tragicomedy or Comedy happy ending with the
  potential for ending in tragedy
• The five acts follow two pairs of lovers. Romance
  between Claudio and Hero forms the main plot, the
  action is in fact mostly concerned with their
  counterparts, Benedick and Beatrice, whose
  love-hate relationship develops over the course
  of the play.

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Nothing or Noting- a quadruple entendre

• Nothing was pronounced as noting or observing
• ClaudioDidst thou note the daughter of Signor
  Leonato?
• Benedick I noted her not, but I looked on her.
• Noting also an allusion to musical notes (stop
  arguing and make music).

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4th meanings of noting

• No thing or a vulgar term during
  Shakespeares time for a woman.
• Innuendo and bawdy language is part of the humor
  in this play.
• Puns words that look alike but have different
  meanings
• A man to a man stuffed with all honorable
  virtues he is no less than a stuffed man.

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Comedy Word play

• Malapropism misusing words ridiculously
  confusion of words that are similar in sound.
• Ex oderous for odious
• Dogberry You are thought here to be the most
  senseless and fit man for the constable of the
  watch(sensible).

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Prose rather than verse

• Most of the characters speak in prose
• Verse spoken by the young lovers Claudio and
  Hero
• Verse spoken by those in authority Leonato
  (governor) and Friar Francis (priest).

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Themes

• Road to marriage is often lined with pitfalls and
  impediments
• People often wear masks to hide their true
  feelings
• All is not what it seems
• Love is NOT blind
• Love IS blind
• A womans chastity is a treasure no man should
  possess except in marriage

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