Many plays, poems, novels and short stories have single straight plots that are usually easy to follow and comprehend. The themes and styles used are always modest for the audience to get the flow of events as easily as possible.
However, Shakespeare successfully blends different approaches to make various plots. He managed to create multiple plots in this comedy, while at the same time, maintaining the general plot development and advancement by the use of certain themes, character traits and literature styles.
The irony is used to describe the battles between Beatrice and Benedick who are the main characters faced with a great challenge that seems to separate them, but instead this ordeal works contrary to the reader’s expectations. We assume that in reality when people hate each other, the worst they can do is to fall in love with each other. However, in this particular case, this is the thing that happens as these long time foes turn to be good friends and fall in love. Naturally, it is very impossible for people who hate each other so deeply and then fall in love, but Shakespeare’s plot proves the contrary as Beatrice and Benedick fall in love after their hatred has been forced to end. The use of irony makes the plot develop further when Don John pushes Hero and Claudio to separate just before their wedding.
The plot is also advanced in terms of mischief and the will to do evil because the characters, like Don John, are described to have the traits that make them negative figures. For example, Don John’s main role in the play is to cause chaos. He is portrayed as a person who is driven by evil motives to attain his selfish goals in life. Don John being a dishonest person tries to misrepresent the plot of the story in a negative light and seek revenge regardless of the consequences involved. In this case, Hero and Claudio’s love affair is threatened by Don John who plans various plots to try and separate them. He even risks spreading such rumours that Claudio is dating Hero for him and creating scenes that make Claudio break his engagement with his beloved one. At the end of it, all these evils are exposed and force Don John to disappear from the scenes as Claudio and Hero marry and live a happy life thereafter.
Shakespeare used many contradictions in this play to define people whose minds are clouded with a lack of proper understanding of events. In this case, there is neither the desire to do evil nor any conflicts to be solved, but the characters are forced by their limited vision of the facts to be exposed before there is a solution to the issues. Beatrice and Benedick prove this with their hate for each other without understanding that this hatred results in them falling in love with each other. They are separated by their shared animosity and encouraged to reunite under the influence of other characters in the play, and lastly, they confess to love each other. The final trial of their love is when Benedick and Beatrice have to confess in public that they have fallen in love and buried their long-standing hatred. At first, it is very difficult to reveal their feelings until their love letters which expose their affections are disclosed. They have no choice but to make it public that they are in love, and this eventually brings them together.
William Shakespeare used the theme of obstacles and impediments in life as an approach to his work. This approach forms a distinct plot where any audience can analyse the play through the problems the characters face there. Through this, the plot is advanced using those who have an endless desire to create troubles, like Don John who plans to ruin the wedding of Claudio and Hero by creating a falsehood that Claudio dates Hero to win her for him. These problems develop the plot further because Don John who despite failing to ruin Claudio and Hero’s affair still plans to expose Hero as unfaithful. Moreover, he is still determined to make them separate. Meanwhile, Beatrice and Benedick deeper fall in love with each other and do not reveal it to each other or their friends, and this puts their reputation at great risk. They are viewed as pretenders and hypocrites who, despite their affection for each other, are committed to making it a deep secret. The main part of the story shows both Beatrice and Benedick becoming passive actors in the process of dropping the incitement we have come to associate them with as they are fixed in their hate and love situation. Naturally, we wish to make them realize their love. However, on the other hand, we are challenged by the fact that it might make them dreary and normal characters that would deprive them of all the traits and features that made them fall in love and change the setting of the play.
Uncertainty and fate are common in both the characters and the audience as the storyline are too unpredictable in the manner in which events unfold. As the story develops, the plot becomes so complicated that making out who is going to fall in love with whom or what is going to happen to their relationships become too challenging for the readers. The sequences of events that follow are unexpected and very tragic to the audience and some characters. The hero who is considered dead comes back to the story alive and falls so deeply in love with Claudio, and then they marry. Claudio and Don Pedro have to claim their reputation as being very honest and straight in their affairs. Beatrice and Benedick’s hatred comes to a surprising halt as they find themselves in love contrary to the expectations of everyone including the audience and the characters. Their hate results in love which faces a minor challenge of declaring it publicly. However, they simply overcome this after Claudio exposes the details of their love letters that prove that they have a love affair. The disappearance of Hero which makes everyone think she is dead and the attempted elimination of Claudio from the scenes make the relationship of Beatrice and Benedick seem so uncertain. That is why everyone wonders what is going to happen to them. Finally, Hero proves she is alive and innocent, and this further complicates the uncertainty as to who may vanish or be eliminated next. It also creates wide speculation as to the intentions of her appearance whether she had come for revenge or not. Benedick shows his affection for Beatrice by publicly declaring his love for her, and eventually, he decides to choose her; this is a step that she has been waiting long for.
Shakespeare succeeded to blend the aspects of the real life of human beings filled with emotions and feelings with the theatrical skills in this work by use of multiple plots in advancing the themes as well as different styles in his presentations. This has created a complex but exciting literature masterpiece that absorbs readers and viewers until the last page or scene is finished. This play blends writing skills and creativity with the inevitable desires that humans face in their daily activities.