Much Ado About Love Research Paper

Much Ado About Love: The Pros and the Cons Rumors, gossip, and lies: the three main things that cause the most tension between people; the three main things that have the power to damage any friendship. In William Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing, a young man named Claudio falls in love with a girl named Hero, and they have a wedding arranged. While preparing for the wedding, their friends purposely cause more confusion, and eventually the wedding ends up becoming a disaster, reputations are ruined, and friendships are mixed up. Benedick and Claudio are two main characters whose characteristics and mindsets switch up through the play, which illuminates the meaning of the work: that love is capable of making life better...or worse. To start off, Benedick, a witty, confusing man impacts the meaning of the play after his view on love shifts. Earlier in the book, he stated that he wanted to live a bachelor, but after he realizes he is in love with Beatrice, his love life turns around. An example from the text is when he says, “Gallants, I am not as I have been...I have a toothache” (Shakespeare 46). Benedick is saying that now that he likes Beatrice, he is acting

Claudio is a young, slightly immature man whose love life turns around after he assumes that a rumor is true. Just before Hero and Claudio’s wedding, Don John tells Claudio that Hero is disloyal and he assumes it’s true. Evidence to support this is when Claudio says, “If I see tonight why I should not marry her, tomorrow, in the congregation… there I will shame her” (Shakespeare 50). Claudio is saying that if he hears anything that suggests that he shouldn’t marry Hero, then he is going to call her out in front of everyone at the wedding. This evidence supports my claim because it shows how Claudio’s love life with Hero ends up causing more drama, a negative impact in his