Much Ado About Nothing: Language and Writing

by Indira Ghose, Dympna Callaghan (Editor)

Much Ado About Nothing presents a world of glittering surfaces and exquisite social performances. The language of the play sparkles with a fireworks of wit and dazzling bouts of repartee, most memorably in the "merry war" of words between the reluctant lovers, Benedick and Beatrice. A closer look at the language of the play, however, reveals it to be laced with violence and charged with the desire to humiliate others. Wit is deployed as a weapon to ridicule one's opponent; much of the humour circulates incessantly around the theme of cuckoldry, a major source of male anxiety in the period. The most drastic use of language is to slander Hero by accusing her of a lack of chastity - an accusation that spelt social death for a woman in the early modern age. The death that Hero feigns mirrors accurately the devastating effects of the assassination of her character by the smart set of young noblemen in the play. This study guide focuses on examining the array of the uses of language that the play displays, and probes into the ideas about language that it explores. The book looks at key film versions of the play by Kenneth Branagh and Joss Whedon which are often used on courses, whilst also offering practical questions and tips to help students develop their own critical writing skills and deepen their understanding of the play.

194 pages, Paperback

Published November 16, 2017

Reviews

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent intermediate-level study guide for Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing. Judging from the number of pages alone, it is about three quarters of the length of Claire McEachern's introduction to The Arden Shakespeare's 3rd series edition of the play and is easier to understand, for example, it has a section titled Rhetorical strategies in Much Ado About Nothing whereas McEachern's corresponding section is titled Euphuism. They both pay a lot of attention to language, wit, repartee, malapropism, innuendo, slander, the relation of prose to verse in the play, how the characters apply Baldassare Castiglione's principles of conduct as set out in his 1528 The Book of the Courtier, Elizabethan gender roles and expectations, and the differences between the film versions by Kenneth Branagh (1993) and Joss Wheydon (2012). Despite some overlap, I recommend reading both McEachern's and Ghose's texts.

Among the topics covered only by Ghose, it is worth mentioning the sections on honour and dishonour, appearance and reality, seeming and being, appearances and power, delusion and self-delusion, and meta-theatricality. McEachern delves much deeper into rhetorics, has particularly detailed and meticulous sections on sources and texts -as is usual for The Arden Shakespeare-, and includes particularly fine and far more complete sections in her final chapter on Staging Much Ado covering key staging choices that determine the play's tone, social representations, possible period and place choices.

Since it was written as a study guide, Ghose's book includes a section titled Writing Matters for each of its four chapters. These sections propose essay questions, food for reflection or hints to structure a study report or essay.

If you've read or watched Much Ado About Nothing and enjoyed Beatrice and Benedict's witty repartee, was somewhat confused by the dark overtones of the Claudia and Hero subplot and wondered about its boy's club like atmosphere or even Beatrice and Banedict's back story, this is a book I strongly urge you read. It won't solve your questions but it will sharpen them, set them in historical and dramatic context and show you a number of fascinating interpretative possibilities.