Consider the effectiveness of Act I, scene I as the opening scene of 'Much Ado About Nothing'.

Authors Avatar

Consider the effectiveness of Act I, scene I as the opening scene of 'Much Ado About Nothing'.

        

        An audience have expectations that the opening scene offers them the chance of escapism and to enter the play's illusion of plots, setting, characters and themes. To do this effectively in 'Much Ado About Nothing' Shakespeare has compelled audiences with emotional engagement enhanced with a hint of quirky humour to soften the more tragic aspects of the play.

        Shakespeare had the ability to verbalise the main issues he wished to convey to the audience and then firmly root them in the foundation of the plots with imaginative stagecraft. Much Ado About Nothing is centered around three main plots and throughout the exposition of the opneing scene effectively prepares the audience to understand the later complexities to come.

        In 'Kenneth Branagh's' 'Much Ado About Nothing' I believe that the opening credits serve as an exhilirating interpretation of one line in the play, 'Don Pedro arrives' ( from war ). This is an exciting visual play that thrives on the audience interacting with the excitement and passion of the characters.

        The story is primarily about love, however its opening scene is ironically based on the aftermath of war, the underlying continuation of 'battlement' is obvious from the language such as 'encounter' which Don Pedro refers to which is used as an effective military metaphor. Maybe the use of the military styled language was to prepare the audience for forthcoming events involving conspiracy and deception which are main elements of war; Shakespeare is drip-feeding us the essence of the dark side to prepare the audience for the plot involving the antagonist 'Don John'. Another plausible reason for Shakespeare's usage of the darker side of humanity to open the scene is to emphasize the opposition which would be the play's foundation, 'love'.

        The conventional lovers, 'Hero and Claudio' are weaved into a plot involving the ettiquettes of society and strict social costums. Shakespeare has effectively used this plot to demonstrate the convenient and eloborated love that is constructed due to society pressure. The concept of idealised love in the Elizabethan era appealed to the majority of the audience at the time. Due to 'love at first sight' being a popular occurence in the Elizabethan era Claudio decides to comply and fall for Hero in the opening scene. Shakespeare has introduced Caludio instantly falling in love with hero to exemplify his nature of being fickle and complying with the fashion of love. To further demonstrate this capricious nature this occurs in the opening scene of the play which means it's the first interaction the audience has with this character and his love for Hero and due to this occurence happening so quickly we question the genuinity. The plot also effectively thickens and drives the play by being able to effectively introduce other characters such as 'Leonato' and 'Don Pedro' as they act as the fatherly figures helping to 'construct' the marriage between the two idealised lovers.

        In contrast to the conventional lovers, we have 'Beatrice and Benedick' who are involved in a plot which thrives on the 'merry war of wit'. This wit would bring humour into the play and soften the effects of war and melt the constraints of convention and this would provide light hearted banter for the audience to be entertained by. These characters would relate to the majority of the audience as they speak without much fancy phrasemaking and do not comply with courtly euphuism which would seem too eloborated. Each are established as witty scorners of the oppostite sex and both are first to deflate the pompous atmoshere and therefore the quick tempo of skirmish wit will be language which the audience would be able to relate to and react in humour with. The plot of 'Beatrice and Benedick' reflects opposingly to 'Hero and Claudio' and allows Shakespeare to devwl into the variations of love and their consequences. Shakespeare has effectively introduced the main strands of the plot into the play and has enabled the audience to incorporate themelves by hinting and questioning the characters and their foreshadowed agendas within the plots. The language is richly varied from the courtly and artificial to the blank and course. The wit of the prolific repartee between Beatrice and Benedick , with its constant pun, hints at deception of appearances and power of illusion.

Join now!

        Shakespeare has designed the characters from 'Much Ado About Nothing' so that they are in balanced groups of twos and threes. The symmetry of the plot structure is suggestive of a masquerade or a dance, appropiate in a play dominated by spying and deception. The opening scene in which Claudio reveals his love to his friend and patron , who promises to promote it, is followed by two scenes in which spies misreport that confession to thier patrons. Shakespeare has decided to construct it in this way as the opening scene enables the audience to engage with Claudio's revelance of ...

This is a preview of the whole essay