Deception and villainy in Shakespeare's "Much ado about nothing"

Seminararbeit , 2008 , 15 Seiten , Note: 2,3

Anglistik - Literatur

Deception and the exploitation of the characters’ credulousness are leitmotifs within Shakespeare’s play “Much ado about nothing”. central theme in the play is trickery or deceit, whether for good or evil purposes.

However, the people being deceived are not as unintelligent as one might think at first perception. Most of them have a high social rank and this usually implies that people have access to higher education. This is proved by the character’s high command of rhetoric stylistic devices, their expression and the way they phrase their thoughts and feelings. Even Don Pedro, who generally seems to be above everything, can be easily deceived by his bastard brother Don John. The recipient notices this in scene 3.2 when Don John makes them believe that Margret is Hero who has premarital sexual intercourse and thus is infidelous towards Claudio.

There are three important forms of deception within the play of which I will inform you in section 2.. Furthermore I will state Don John’s character traits, define the villain’s function, name his intrigues and how they perfectly work. In the last section I try to explain the reason why it is apparently easy to deceive the fundamentally intelligent characters. On the whole, Shakespeare shows the characters’ dealing between appearance and reality and deception and self-deception. Nearly every character of the play is involved in a deception and has to learn to distinguish appearance from reality. Paradoxically, even the most intelligent characters are not excluded. Schabert characterises the appearance and reality theme as follows:

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Introduction
• Appearance and reality
• Forms of deception
  • Villainous deception
  • Good-willed deception
  • Hero's mock death
• Villainy
  • Don John's character traits
  • Don John's function within the play
    • Don Pedro supposedly woos Hero for himself
    • Hero's supposed cuckoldry
  • How Don John's intrigues work
• Deceivability
  • The characters' personality traits
  • Comedy and real-life
• Conclusion
• References

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte

This term paper examines the theme of deception and villainy in Shakespeare's "Much ado about nothing". It analyzes the various forms of deception employed by the characters, particularly focusing on the villainous actions of Don John. The paper explores the characters' susceptibility to deception and the play's exploration of appearance versus reality.

• Deception as a central theme
• Don John's villainy and its impact
• The characters' susceptibility to deception
• Appearance versus reality
• The role of language and miscommunication

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel

The introduction sets the stage for the analysis by highlighting the prevalence of deception and the characters' susceptibility to it. The first chapter delves into the interplay between appearance and reality, emphasizing how the characters struggle to discern truth from falsehood. The second chapter explores the various forms of deception, including Don John's villainous schemes and the well-intentioned deceptions used to manipulate Benedick and Beatrice. The third chapter focuses on Don John's character traits, his role in the play, and the effectiveness of his intrigues. The fourth chapter examines the characters' deceivability, exploring their personality traits and the play's commentary on the relationship between comedy and real-life.

Schlüsselwörter

The key themes and keywords of the text include deception, villainy, appearance versus reality, character susceptibility, Don John, "Much ado about nothing", Shakespeare, comedy, and the Elizabethan era. The paper explores the various forms of deception employed in the play, analyzes the motivations and actions of the villainous character Don John, and examines the characters' susceptibility to manipulation. It also delves into the play's commentary on the nature of truth and the challenges of discerning reality from illusion.

• Hochschule: Universität Hamburg (IAA)
• Veranstaltung: Literaturseminar: William Shakespeare: „Much ado about nothing“
• Note: 2,3
• Autor: Nadine Richters (Autor:in)
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2008
• Seiten: 15
• Katalognummer: V113326
• ISBN (eBook): 9783640140787
• ISBN (Buch): 9783640140855
• Sprache: Englisch
• Schlagworte: Deception, Shakespeare, Much, Literaturseminar, William, Shakespeare, Much ado about nothing, comedy, comedy of manners