Masks Depicted In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

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Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing, serves as psychological barometer of the 1600’s combing a cheerful mood with an intricate series of deceptions and miscommunications, or as critic Muriel C. Bradbrook put it, this play, a comedy of masks where deeper issues are overlaid with mirth.” Explains quite perfectly the quirkiness of the romantic relationships of Beatrice/Benedick and that of Hero/Claudio as they traverse through a maze of masterful ruses bringing to light the importance we place on social constructs of marriage, feminine ideals, and ultimately an ineptness of authority. In Victor Cahn’s book The Plays of Shakespeare: A Thematic Guide, he points out that, “During Shakespeare’s time, marriage was a maledominated