Much Ado About Nothing - the relationships between men and women.

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Lewis Compton

Much Ado About Nothing Essay

In my essay, I will be studying the play by William Shakespeare, titled Much Ado About Nothing, and writing about how relationships between men and women are shaped through change and deception, in particular, I will be writing about the relationship which is formed between two of the main characters in the play, named Beatrice and Benedick. I will make four points in the essay to show how the relationship is formed between the pair, give quotes from the play to help explain my point and give a comment on the quote, give my opinion and show how the deception or change took place, and I will finish my essay with a conclusion.

        At the start of the play, all the characters from Messina, where the play is set, attend a party all wearing masks, to disguise their real identities

Beatrice        Nor will you tell me who you are?

Benedick        Not now.

Beatrice        That I was disdainful, and that I had my good wit out of the ‘Hundred Merry Tales’- well, this was Signor Benedick that said so.

Benedick        What’s he?

Beatrice        I am sure you know him well enough.

Benedick        Not I, believe me.

Beatrice        Did he never make you laugh?

Benedick        I pray you, what is he?

Beatrice        Why, he is the prince’s jester, a very dull fool. Only his gift is in devising impossible slanders. None but libertines delight in him, and the commendation is not in his wit but in his villainy, for he both pleases men and angers them, and then they laugh at him and beat him. I am sure he is in the fleet. I would he had boarded me.

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Benedick        When I know the gentleman, I’ll tell him what you say.

Beatrice        Do, do. He’ll but break a comparison or two on me, which peradventure not marked, or not laughed at, strikes him into melancholy, and then there’s a partridge wing saved, for the fool will eat no supper that night.

Act 2, Scene 1, Lines 116-139

This extract starts with Benedick’s masked character refusing to reveal his true identity to Beatrice. Beatrice isn’t wearing a mask, and approaches Benedick, who is. The deception in this part of the story is shown when Beatrice acts as if she doesn’t ...

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