Introduction
Comedy is an engaging literary genre that is primarily intended to amuse the reader and can be light-hearted, but it can also be a means of identifying problems in society and making fun of them. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare is a piece of comedy that combines various techniques to reveal larger human truths and raises important issues such as marriage and its impact on freedom, chastity, family honor, deceit, perception, and reality.
Discussion
Shakespeare aims to produce tragicomic effects and feelings in this play in order to stress the gravity of the topics presented and provide the reader with a diverse range of emotions. As a result, the play is complicated and bordering on the tragedy in many aspects. Even the play’s ironic title, Much Ado About Nothing, attempts to downplay the existence of grave moral dilemmas that almost result in a tragedy, such as Claudio’s accusations of the Hero’s chastity and her abandonment during the wedding ceremony, the Hero and Beatrice’s purported demise, and his command to Benedick to kill Claudio in a duel (Shakespeare, 2018). This highlights how important various comedy techniques are to this piece.
There is also a pun in the play’s title, Much Ado About Nothing. The term “noting” was pronounced in the same manner as “nothing” by the Elizabethans, and the play is sort of a dramatized joke on the idea of misnoting (Izmir, 2021). The high point of the major action, the scene at the church, centers entirely around the notion that hearing or seeing equals believing. The contrast between reality and all of the key characters’ misinterpretations determines a lot of the action’s impact. In the following exchange between Don Pedro and Balthazar, the singer makes use of the phrase “noting,” which is used throughout the play to describe perception and its approximate pronunciation of “nothing” in Elizabethan English.
Shakespeare uses comedic techniques in Much Ado About Nothing to reveal larger human truths, such as senseless selfishness and gender opposition, and he pokes fun at this issue by finally demonstrating the pointlessness of hating each other. In the verbal confrontations between the heroes, exaggerations are often used, for example, Benedick’s mocking and sarcastic response to Don Pedro’s saying that all men, even the wildest of them, eventually agree to marry – “The savage bull may, but if ever the sensible Benedick bears it, pluck off the bull’s horns and set them in my forehead, and let me be vilely painted, and in such great letters as they write ‘Here is a good horse to hire’ let them signify under my sign ‘Here you may see Benedick, the married man.” (Shakespeare, p. 13). This comedic technique is hyperbole and helps to reveal how strongly people are convinced that marriage is incarceration and the end of a fun and carefree life for men. This further reveals the truth that no matter how strong a person’s prejudices are, they can change over time.
Beatrice demonstrates a similar view when she says, “He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man, and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him.” (Shakespeare, p. 20). This statement by Beatrice recalls antithesis and expresses her antipathy to marriage and her conviction that no guy would ever be able to fulfill her needs. But by the end of the play, everything changes for both characters. In this way, the author ridicules human prejudice and fickleness and demonstrates that love can change a lot.
Conclusion
Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare’s best comedies, in which the playwright built the plot structure very well and used various comedic techniques to reveal larger human truths. Marriage is the primary source of the drama unfolding in the play and the main factor that moves its romantic plot forward. Much Ado About Nothing explores this topic among others and, with the help of humor, reveals how many prejudices people have about marriage and how easily those beliefs fall apart when love comes into play.
Works Cited
Izmir, Sibel. “Shakespeare’s mastery of plot and comedy in Much Ado About Nothing.” Sanat Dergisi, vol. 37, no. 1, 2021, pp. 84-94. Web.
Shakespeare, William. Much Ado about Nothing. Independently Published, 2018.