Introducing Shakespeare 1 b). The concept of love in Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing is a complex idea as well as an impulsive act and can been seen among many of the characters. In particular, the relationships between the young lovers Claudio and Hero as well as the mature couple Benedick and Beatrice both demonstrate how uncomplicated it can be to fall in and out of love, the different ways that exist to fall in love, as well as what little substance in needed to base any decisions of love on. The play begins with the citizens of Messina awaiting the return of the army of Don Pedro from war. As he returns he is accompanied by, among others, his close friends and fellow soldiers Count Claudio and Signior Benedick. Among the citizens present at the army’s arrival is the lovely Hero, the daughter of the Governor Leonato, along with her cousin Beatrice.
Once the army arrives the young soldier Claudio realizes that he has fallen in love with Hero. This feeling of love engulfs Claudio and forces him into a state where all of his thoughts lead to Hero. When Claudio was at war all he was thinking about was war, and now all he could focus on was Hero. He is so overwhelmed with the intense emotion of love that he tells the Prince that he wishes to marry her. The arrival of the army also reunited Signior Benedick and Beatrice who illustrate that they have a very verbally abusive relationship. Upon their meeting the two of them call each other names and seem to have a light-hearted quarrel.
Everyone around them laughs and enjoys their remarks but both Benedick and Beatrice mean more then what the others deem as jokes. Beatrice sees Benedick as a womanizing bachelor and Benedick sees Beatrice as a cold, distant woman. The meeting between Claudio and Hero has a very different outcome from the meeting of Benedick and Beatrice. Claudio and Hero quickly develop a common love for each other while Benedick and Beatrice seem to have a common dislike for each other. This rapid growth of love between Claudio and Hero demonstrates how unpredictable the idea of love in Shakespeare’s play is. The relationship between Benedick and Beatrice however, demonstrate the complexities of love as well.
The play continues with a masked ball thrown in honor of the arrival of the soldiers. During the celebrations the Prince tells Claudio that he will woo Hero in Claudio’s name so that they can arrange a marriage between them. The masked ball allows people to communicate in ways that they would never otherwise do. With everyone at the ball wearing masks, people pretend that they are not who they actually are.
The Prince is pretending to be Claudio because Claudio is not able to woo Hero for himself and needs the Prince’s experience to do it for him. As Claudio watches the Prince he is wrongly informed by Don Jon that the Prince is actually wooing Hero because he intends to marry her himself. As soon as Claudio hears this he instantly decides that he is no longer in love with Hero and does not want to marry her anymore,” Tis certain so, the Prince woos for himself. Friendship is constant in all other things save in the office and affairs of love. Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues. Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent, for beauty is a witch against whose charms faith mel teth into blood.
This is an accident of hourly proof, which I mistrust not. Farewell therefore, Hero” (2. 1. 170-180).
Claudio is so quick to believe that both his friend the Prince and Hero betray him. He instantly lets Hero go without any fight or any real proof as well as denouncing his close friendship with the Prince. He was quick to believe the deceitful Don Jon and not investigate the matter any further. This swiftness of falling in and out of love that Claudio experienced with Hero illustrates that the subject of love, especially loved based on almost nothing tangible, is very unreliable in nature. The relationship between Benedick and Beatrice continues to develop and demonstrate more trials and tribulations of love. In Act 2 scene 3 The Prince, Leonato, and Claudio trick Benedick to believe that Beatrice is in love with him when she in fact does not like him in the least.
They discuss how she pines for him and is so overwhelmed with feelings of love, but that she will never let Benedick know. Benedick is taken back by this news because he believed that Beatrice hated him, which was closer to the truth. After Leonato, Claudio and the Prince leave the garden Benedick thinks about what he had just heard and begin to analyze his own feelings about Beatrice. Before he heard Leonato, Claudio and the Prince he was not very fond of Beatrice but it suddenly changed, .”.. Love me? Why, it must be requited! … They say the lady is fair; ’tis a truth, I can bear them witness.
And virtuous; ’tis so, I cannot reprove it. And wise, but for loving me; by my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor no great argument of her folly, for I will be horribly in love with her! … here comes Beatrice. By this day, she’s a fair lady.
I do spy some marks of love in her” (2. 3. 233-248). This quotation demonstrates how Benedick suddenly goes from disliking Beatrice to asserting that she is very beautiful, fair, and virtuous and that he returns her feelings of love. He even claims to be able to see on her face that she is in love with him. His disposition has suddenly changed from a sarcastic womanizing man to a love struck idealistic boy.
That same day Beatrice is tricked into believing that Benedick is in love with her when she overhears Hero and her woman in waiting Ursula discuss Benedick’s feelings. Beatrice is taken back at hearing this unusual news, but nonetheless, she falls in love with Benedick as well, .”.. contempt, farewell, and maiden pride, adieu… and Benedick, love on; I will requite thee…
my kindness shall incite thee to bind our loves up in a holy band… .” (3. 2. 115-120).
Beatrice has also suddenly changed her opinions of both Benedick and love. She suddenly returns Benedick’s love and she even talks about marriage. This quickness of falling in and out of love is a common theme in the play Much Ado About Nothing. The similarities as well as the differences between these two couples can be clearly seen.
Claudio and Hero as well as Benedick and Beatrice fall madly in love with each other without much analysis of their situations. In the beginning of the play Claudio and Hero fall in love without even exchanging more then a few words to each other. Benedick and Beatrice clearly demonstrate a common dislike for each other, however, once they simply hear news that the other person has feeling for them, they too fall deeply in love without even mentioning their previous harsh feelings. The intensity of feelings is a strong theme throughout the lives of these people. They follow any feeling that they have at any given moment. There is no real introspection as to their true desires.
These characters not only fall in and out of love in unconventional ways, but they are also matched in alternative ways. For instance Claudio asked the Prince to woo Hero for him because his youth and his inexperience made him unable to do it. When getting Benedick and Beatrice together; everyone else, Claudio, the Prince, Leonato, Hero, and Ursula, needed to convince one person that they other was in love with him or her. 2 b).
The character Malvolio in the Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night demonstrated complex events surrounding the desire to be loved and the need to be a member of the upper class. He does this in terms of his idealized relationship with his mistress Olivia as well as with his dysfunctional relationship with , Olivia’s uncle. Malvolio is a very firm and proper servant in the house of his lady Olivia, an Illyrian countess. He is loyal and dedicated to his position; however, he holds certain desires that become more vivid throughout the play.
In Act 1 Scene 2 lady Olivia follows the procession of her just passed brother. He was to look out for her after the recent passing of their father, a count in Illyria. Olivia continues to live in her home with her servants and her uncle Sir Toby. Sir Toby leads a life very different from that of Malvolio.
He enjoys one of drinking, dancing, singing and enjoyment, while Malvolio does not. Malvolio disagrees with the lifestyle that Sir Toby leads and yet, he is also jealous of the status that Sir Toby has. Malvolio feels like his hard work is not rewarded and Sir Toby is not grateful for his high social status. Malvolio does not take kindly to lifestyles that are different from his own and at the same time is not happy with his own life. He is very rigid and does things in a systematic manner because he feels most comfortable with things that are constant. This stable lifestyle that Malvolio possesses gets on the bad side of Sir Toby as well as his friend Sir Andrew, who Toby wishes to marry Olivia too, and the servant Maria.
In Act 2 Scene 3 Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Maria, and the jester Feste; dance, sing, and drink in the house very early in the morning. This celebration upsets Malvolio, who enters in a fury,” My masters, are you mad? Or what are you? Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night? Do you make an ale-house of my lady’s house, that you squeak out your cozier’s’ catches without any mitigation or remorse of voice? Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you?” (2. 3. 87-93).
This speech by Malvolio makes him seem of a higher status than Sir Toby because he lectures him as if he were beneath him. Malvolio does not notice that it is not his place to talk in such a manner to the kinsman of his mistress Olivia. He belittles Sir Toby’s status and inflates his own. Malvolio continues to demean Sir Toby with a lie and tells him that he came down because it was his mistress Olivia’s bidding. He wrongly adds that although Sir Toby is Olivia’s kinsman she will not tolerate such reckless behavior and if he continues then he will be asked to leave. This again gives Malvolio power over Toby and clouds the division of classes.
Malvolio makes it seem that he will have the ability to stay in Olivia’s house while her own family Sir Toby will not. Malvolio’s degrading of Sir Toby angers him. To get back at Malvolio, Sir Toby emphasizes that Malvolio is only a servant, “Out o’ tune, sir? You lie. Art any more than a steward? Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?” (2. 3. 113-115).
This comment sets Malvolio in his place by making him more self-aware of his steward position. Malvolio leaves with a heavy head but not without mentioning that he is loyal to his mistress and that if anything goes wrong he will inform her. It is at this time when Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria devise a plan that feeds off of his dreams to be loved and a member of the upper class by making him believe that lady Olivia is in love with him. Maria writes a letter in a handwriting resembling Olivia’s that implies that Olivia has feelings for Malvolio. The letter is placed on a bench in the garden while Sir Toby and Sir Andrew listen close by.
Malvolio enters the garden talking to himself and describing his dreams of marrying lady Olivia and becoming a count. He mentions what he would do if he was in a new position of power as a member of the upper class. As Malvolio describes his dream Sir Toby and Sir Andrew laugh at the fact that Malvolio would ever think it was possible for him to socially advance. Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria all get pleasure out of Malvolio’s misery. Once Malvolio finds the letter he is taken back by this news but is also delighted. If this letter were true, which he wholeheartedly believed it was since he could distinguish the writing to be that of Olivia’s; he was closer to achieving his dreams of love and status.
If Malvolio were to marry lady Olivia then he would have found both love with Olivia as his wife, as well as a way to socially advance himself and become “Count Malvolio” (2. 5. 34). Malvolio wishes to marry Olivia because he wishes to gain control of people. In many ways, he wishes to be like Sir Toby.
When in the garden, describing his visions once he was count he mentions that he will be of higher status than Sir Toby, and it will be Sir Toby who will have to answer to Malvolio and listen to his orders. Malvolio’s life is very one-dimensional. He feels that falling in love and becoming of noble status will enrich his life. He is a mature man with very naive characteristics. He allows dreams to overtake him and in the end degrade and take away from all that he had worked for.
Later in Act 3 Malvolio was seen as mad and unreasonable and was even locked away. These desires of love and status took him away from the person he was and made him into someone that no one wanted to deal with. Malvolio’s dreams were not what he intended them to be. They were not ideas that he would work to accomplish, but were in fact concepts that would imprison him.
4 b). In Shakespeare’s play Othello the title character gives a final speech before taking his own life, that is meant to derive sympathy from his peers but instead it demonstrates how he misled himself into thinking he was guiltless. Othello is the general of the armies of Venice. He is greatly respected and admired by all who surround and know of him. He is so respected that he was appointed the total martial and political ruler of Cyprus.
He is of African race and considers this a disadvantage and holds it as an insecurity he must deal with his entire life. In the play Othello marries Desdemona, the daughter of the Venetian senator, who he is deeply in love with. Although there are many differences between them, especially race; they have a very deep love for each other. In Act 2 Othello’s ensign Iago plans to convince him that his new wife Desdemona is having an affair with his lieutenant Cassio.
Iago wishes revenge on Othello because he was not promoted to lieutenant. He is extremely jealous of Cassio, who acquired this position, and therefore uses him in his evil scheme. Iago uses Cassio’s youth, good looks, and friendship with Desdemona as support of an affair. These aspects of Cassio are also qualities that Othello is very sensitive about.
This sensitivity will push Othello to see things that he normally would not have noticed and charge his wife with infidelity. Iago plays Othello and convinces him that he is his friend, although he detests him, “Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains, yet, for necessity of present life, I must show out a flag and a sign of love” (1. 1 151-153). Iago’s acting ultimately wins him the title “Honest Iago.” However, it is Iago’s lies and deceitful nature that drive Othello to the brink of despair and the point where he kills his beloved wife. Othello’s final speech takes place after he has killed his wife and the truth about Iago’s deceit comes to light. He speaks to Ludovico, Gratia no, and other fellow soldiers.
In his speech Othello gives an important assessment of himself. He talks about how he sees himself and of how he wants others to see and remember him. He believes that he is a man who loved his wife too much and that even the act of murdering her was out of love. He claimed to be so in love that it drove him crazy.
He does not consider himself a man who could be made easily jealous. However, this comment seems untrue when looking back at how he wholeheartedly believed Iago and not even his own wife on the claims of her infidelity. If Othello truly was not a person who was easily made jealous then perhaps his wife would still be alive. Othello argued that the murder of Desdemona was an extreme situation and that it is not typical of his nature.
He called Desdemona a pearl that he threw away, .”.. Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away richer than all of his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes… .” (5. 2. 342-344). Othello admits that he was wrong and that he will forever be sorry for what he had done, but since he was not himself he did not feel like he should be held accountable for these “unhappy deeds” (5.
2. 337). Othello asked his peers to not judge him on what he just did and instead look at the man he was. Othello does not want this moment to define who he was as a person.
All of these claims feed into Othello’s insecurities. His uneasiness about his race and feeling like an outsider, may influence how people interpret him killing his wife, therefore, he makes certain he tells everyone that this is not who he usually is. Othello begs for the forgiveness and understanding of his peers. He reminds them of what service he has done for Cyprus. However, it is clear that all that he had said in his final speech was not a sign of his true qualities but was in fact Othello trying to deceive himself as to the man he had become. In this speech he discussed how the situation was unusual; however, by doing this he belittles the fact that he murdered his wife.
Othello loved Desdemona but his fears and insecurities influenced him to the point where he believed the lies of Iago and not the innocent truth of his wife. Othello did not want to be taken advantage of, especially by a woman. He felt he needed to make sure no one had any reason to doubt who he was as a soldier, as a leader, and as a man. If what Iago was telling him were true then he would lose respect. Because Othello was not secure with who he was the loss of respect would have made him nothing in the eyes of the citizens of Venice. He could not lose that, even if it meant that he would lose his true love.
Othello was very easily manipulated. It seemed at times, that Iago did not have to try to hard to change the views of Othello. In Act 3 Scene 4 when Othello tried to investigate the rumors of Casio and Desdemona’s affair he would not even listen to what Desdemona had to say because he already had his mindset. Othello was so easily manipulated that he even believed Emilia, in telling him that Desdemona was innocent, just as easily as he believed Iago when he told him she was guilty. Emilia, on the other hand, had real evidence when she told Othello that it was Iago who gave her the handkerchief and that Desdemona did not give it to Cassio. Othello had no real opinion of his own and was always listening to others.
He acted as if he really did not love Desdemona to believe Iago over her so easily. Once he had an idea in his head he could think of no other alternatives. He believed that Iago was so “honest” and he never questioned where he got any of this information on even though it was such a serious claim. Othello’s actions were not of a kind and noble man. He loved Desdemona from the beginning but was so unhappy and self-doubting about who he was that those feelings overtook his better judgment. Desdemona’s death was a conscious decision that he was planning for some time and reflected the person that Othello had become..