True Comedy: Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” Essay

Introduction

There are certain features that distinguish a comedy and set it apart from a tragedy. No matter how many faults are there in a comedy, the ending is always a classical happy ending. The other notable thing about a comedy is the plot of the story. The plot of any comedy is weaved in a way that the audience will have a sense of compassion mixed with affection for all the characters because every character has a unique essence which may be flawed to some extent. The audience finds it easier to relate to the characters due to their transformational nature.

Main body

There are two different types of comedies. This categorization of the comedies is based on the plot of the comedies. There is the comedy of action and a comedy of identity. One of the best examples of the comedy of identity is the play titled Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare. One of the features of comedy of identity is the existent of a plot that is based on dialogue and not actions. The play titled much ado about nothing has this characteristic because its plot has very few tangible actions. The plot is weaved around the dialogue of characters. One of the main things that make this play to be without actions is the themes that it explores. Most of the themes in this play can easily be expressed through speech and that is why it has very many characters doing little and saying much.

One of the major themes in this play is mistaken identity. This is one theme that can be expressed well through the dialogue of characters especially the place where there is dramatic irony. In this play, the lady hero is thought to be dead. Claudio, who was supposed to marry the hero, is now set to marry the cousin to the hero (Shakespeare 16). In actual fact, the hero is not dead and she is the one playing the role of the cousin that is supposed to marry Claudio.

The other theme that enhances dialogue in this play is the battle of the sexes where there is more talk than action. In this book, the battle of the sexes takes place between Beatrice and Benedict and it is their constant bickering that enhances the dialogue that is used within the plot of the play. The only actions that come out in this battle of the sexes are the fights between the two antagonistic characters (Hall 51). The physical fights are however overshadowed by the verbal fights which dominate a larger part of the plot of this book. The verbal exchanges between the two also create a battle of wits that adds humor and quality to the dialogic plot of this play.

The other feature of a comedy of identity that is evident in the play Much Ado about Nothing is the ability of the characters to transform due to self revelation. In the mistaken identity that is the core of this play, there are character transformations that takes place and this transformation leads to self revelation. The best instance of this transformation and self revelation takes place when the lady hero decides to disguise herself. In this attempt to disguise herself, people think that she is dead, yet she is the one that has become the fictional cousin that is chosen to marry Claudio now that she (the hero) is dead.

No one knows her plans until everything is revealed as the play ends and this happens when the said cousin removes the veil during the wedding. In this case, the transformations that had taken place are revealed and the comedic part in this whole debacle is that Claudio marries the person he was supposed to marry in the first place though in his mind, he was marrying someone else.

The other transformation that takes place in Much Ado about Nothing is caused by characters that are quick to jump into conclusions. For example, Benedict blames Claudio for the death of the lady hero while in the real sense, the death is faked. Benedict makes those conclusions, but he does not base them on real facts (Kass 90). Claudio may be at fault in the entire debacle but he seems to be very helpless because there were some circumstances that were unavoidable. This is a reflection of the impatience of human beings and Benedict is put to shame during the wedding when it turns out that the lady hero had transformed herself into another person.

Conclusion

The Shakespearean play, Much Ado about Nothing ends on a high note. The revelation that the lady hero is still alive creates one of the happiest endings ever in Shakespearean history. There is no other comedy that carries more features of a general comedy more than much ado about nothing. Its dialogic nature also makes it stand out from the rest.

Works Cited

Hall, Kim F., ed. A critique of Shakespeare. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.

Kass, Sarah. “Much ado about nothing.” Journal of Education 176.1 (1994): 85-101.

Shakespeare, William. Much ado about nothing: New York: Norton Books. 1978.