Act 4 Scene 1 is often considered a key scene in 'Much Ado About Nothing' - How is its dramatic significance conveyed?

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Act 4 Scene 1 is often considered a key scene in ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. How is its dramatic significance conveyed?

The play is a comedy, which centres on two couples and their love affairs, although there are other subplots, which involve disguise and trickery.  The scene itself focuses on the wedding of Claudio and Hero during which Claudio strongly rejects Hero. It is a dramatic scene where the tension of the audience is most raised during the play. This is due to the characters theatrical behavior and language. It also opens new doors for other relationships to evolve such as Beatrice and Benedick, who overcome their hatred for each other and fall in love. In some ways this scene has its advantages and disadvantages. If this scene had not happened in such a dramatic way then Claudio and Hero would have been married straight away and the ceremony would have been very ordinary with no excitement or tension and Beatrice and Benedick probably wouldn’t of come together in such an unexpected way.  

Before the scene commences Dogberry, known as the local policeman/detective tries to tell Leonato that he has arrested Don John’s followers who thought up the plan. Don John has wrongly accused Hero by deceiving Claudio and Don Pedro.  He did this by showing Claudio and Don Pedro one of his three followers at the window making love to Margaret, who’s hair looked similar to Hero’s.  Don John’s plan worked and he deceived his fellow friends.  Dogberry uses persuasive language to try and get Leonato to listen, however Leonato won’t listen because he his too busy with preparations for the wedding.  This builds up the tension in the audience as they already know about what Don John has done and in someway would make them agitated with the character of Leonato because he did not listen to Dogberry.  This makes Dogberry worried and now knows that the wedding could be a total disaster.  Leonato’s excuse for being too busy to listen because of the wedding is known as dramatic irony because something this important should make Leonato listen.  Because of Leonato not wanting to listen to Dogberry, the audience are given the expectation that the wedding may not be a perfect affair.

The part of the scene where Hero is rejected is very powerful.  In many productions of this play the character of Claudio is made violent, this also happens in the production by Kenneth Brag  , which we studied.  Such ways as pushing Hero and shouting at her with abusive language of that time make Claudio’s behavior vicious and shocking.   Claudio rejects Hero in a very dreadful approach using various techniques of behaviour and body language.  His behavior is strong and alarming, he shuffles her on her arms, almost shaking her and pushes her onto the ground in a disgusted manner.  As well as his shocking behavior, Claudio also uses abusive language to bring out his feelings.  Such examples of language that he uses are “ a rotten orange”, that she is a bad thing, that she looks virtuous on the outside, but not on the inside.   Another example of language that he uses is “approved wanton”, in those days known as a proven whore that she is not worth a lot, in fact very little.  Throughout Claudio s behaviour he uses the word ‘seem’ which is repeated often throughout.  The effect of this is that he believes what he saw and bases the charges towards her on what he saw.  He talks about Hero being worse than an animal; this is shown through this line where he says:  “Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton”. An approved wanton is another name for a whore, known back in Shakespearean times as some kind of animal.  Through this we see a different side to his character and learn more about him.  The powerful and violent rejection from this play would have been seen as very dramatic and out of the ordinary, shown in Elizabethan times to an Elizabethan audience because they would not be used to it. However, when this scene is shown to a modern audience, the audience has less understanding of the importance of virginity.  It shows the differences between the original play and a modern remake.  The characters behave differently in this scene to make it more dramatic and alive.  

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Some other characters particularly the men are seen in a bad light.  Claudio’s friend Don Pedro supports Claudio.  His behaviour is dramatic and cruel and this destroys his reputation as well as feeling dishonoured and is shown as believing men not women.  Don Pedro joins in the public humiliation and in Shakespeare’s time this would have been very important as women were expected to be virgins at marriage or they would be considered soiled goods.  Joining in the public humiliation Don Pedro uses harsh language: “ I stand dishonoured that have gone about/To link my friend to a common ...

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