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Irony In Charlie Chaplin's Much Ado About Nothing

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"A day without laughter is a day wasted," said famous silent actor Charlie Chaplin. When reading Much Ado About Nothing, the reader is going to have a wasted day for sure. William Shakespeare attempts to make the play a comedy, but simply has too much serious issues, such as lying and swapping identities. The play also suffers from reusing the same character for the same kind of joke, and also having many stereotypes. This play is not a comedy, but rather a drama/romance with very poorly written "comedy".

The Shakespearian play, Much Ado About Nothing, was intended to be a comedy, but does not live up to this title for a variety of reasons. Instead of a comedy, this play strikes the audience as a romance/drama that has themes such as lying, …show more content…

Unfortunately for Much Ado About Nothing, these traits don 't lead to a good comedy. An example of characters swapping identities and lying is used when Borachio is on a balcony "shaking hands" with "Hero"(really Margaret). Seeing this causes Claudio, who is set to marry Hero in a few weeks, to publicly shame Hero at their wedding. After Hero did get shamed by Claudio, she fainted and and everyone thought that she was dead. All of this was caused by Don John, who set up Claudio to see all of this. So what is funny about this? Does a story full of this trickery and death make people laugh?" Not many people do laugh. Only people with twisted minds can even come up with this idea would think that it is …show more content…

Actually, most characters in the play are stereotypes. For example, Claudio and Hero represent the young and dumb side of love. They are quick to separate from each other; Claudio saw Borachio and Margaret "shaking hands” in the balcony, and also easily get back together when Hero revealed that she was not dead, Claudio instantly marries her. Another stereotype in Much Ado About Nothing is Dogberry, who is the bumbling cop. We have seen plenty of bumbling cops like Thompson and Thomson from Tintin, Chief Wiggum from the Simpsons and The Keystone Cops from comedy movies in the 1920s. Since Much Ado About Nothing was written in the late 1500s, the stereotype then was probably new, but now that it 's the 21st century, many readers will recognize these stereotypes and they won 't be

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Gossip is the main driver of the various plotlines in Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing. The conflict in the play is shaped entirely around false rumor spread by characters and the hearsay that accompanies it. The characters’ actions are enormously affected by the conversations they overhear and their willingness to believe secondhand information over direct experience. Patricia Meyer Spacks states in her novel Gossip, that rumor in the play “creates its own territory using materials from the world at large to construct a new oral artifact” (Spacks, 1985, Location No. 315).

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The audience may understand the concept of love and romance flowing within the characters because it was to portrayed that way but the critics would argue the fact that some of the characters like Beatrice and Benedick were made to fall in love with each other through deception. As simple as the characters were, the situations arousing in the play became more complexed as scenes passed by. What led to the trouble and chaos in the play also led to the solution in the end, when Claudio and Don Pedro were deceived into thinking by Don John that Hero was unfaithful. That very same idea also solved the problem in the end when Leonato, Hero’s father, deceived Claudio by making him believe that she is dead and that it is his duty to clear Hero’s name by reading out on her tomb and marrying the said niece who looks just like Hero. Again the plotting against own is present where the said niece turns out to be Hero and she comes back to life again.

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Within the play, Much Ado About Nothing, there is a central theme of deceitfulness, as a way to solve a problem or an issue amongst the characters. Though this deception may be evil, it can often lead to positive endings after several conflicts. In the creation of this theme, Shakespeare uses both negative and positive examples to contribute to his lesson on ruses. Within this particular scene, all of the cons the various characters have put on are officially revealed to each other. This scene highlights that deception is not always evil, nor is it always moral, but is always solved.

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Shakespeare reveals the theme that people deceive others out of love, embarrassment, and hatred. All evidence comes from Much Ado About Nothing. Love makes people act less rationally than they would normally behave. In this case, Claudio has fallen in love with Leonato’s daughter, Hero. In this love-dazed state, Claudio seems thoroughly confused at Don Pedro’s plan to win Hero over on his behalf, due to being lied to about the actual plan by Don John.

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