Themes in Much Ado About Nothing

1. Themes in Much Ado About Nothing Deception-trickery, concealment of one’s feelings Honor verses Shame-humiliation, violation of social expectations Love- Romantic and Filial (Duty to family) Gender expectations- roles of men and women Personal transformation-personal growth, enlightenment, rebirth

2. Motifs • Recurring pattern or repeated action, element, or idea in a work of literature. AS you read, track the following motifs: • Entertainment (spectacle, dance, music) • Expression of Grief (personal and public)

3. Motifs continued • Language and Wordplay (blank verse vs. prose, pun, double entendre, innuendo, malapropism, simile, metaphor, dramatic irony) • Noting- eavesdropping, observing, taking special notice of) • Pairing or juxtaposition of characters- (lovers, servants, brothers, villains, comics)

4. Motifs • Taming of that which is wild- (a metaphor for social taming) • Warfare- (figurative, in verbal confrontations and arguments)

5. Motifs continued • Language and Wordplay- • Noting- Take “note of” to notice something. • Pairing or juxtaposition of characters- Who ends up with who? Who is the antithesis of the other.

6. Symbols • A concrete object or place that has significance in a literary work because it communicates an idea. Keep track of how the author develops the following symbols in Much Ado About Nothing • Beards and beardlessness (especially in reference to Benedick) • Beatrice’s heart- what does it reveal, hide etc.

7. Symbols • Dance at the double wedding- What does it represent? • Hero’s “death” and “rebirth”

8. Allusion • A figure of speech that makes reference to people, places, events, literary or artistic works, or myths, either directly or by implication. • You should be able to identify allusions in this work and with the aid of some research, describe how those allusions complement the themes and motifs in the play.

9. Allusions in Much Ado About Nothing • Cham’s beard • Cupid • Dian in her orb • Ethiope • Europa • God Bel’s priests • Hector • Hercules • Hyman

10. Allusions • Jove • Leander • Pharaoh’s soldiers • Philemon’s roof • Phoebus • Pigmies • Prester John’s foot • Saint Peter • Troilus

11. Allusions • Venus • Vulcan

12. PlotExpositon • The introduction to the situation and the characters when the play opens.

13. Rising Action • The “tangling” of the plot; setting up of conflicts; complications

14. Climax • The turning point between the rising action and the falling action

15. Falling Action • The unwinding of the plot toward its conclusion

16. Conclusion • The denouement or ending; the final scene, in which the main conflict is resolved and order and stability are finally restored.

17. Dramatic Techniques • Author’s use them to convey their intent to the audience or reader. • Track the following through out this play: • Antithesis- a figure of speech in which sharply contrasting ideas are juxtaposed in parallel phrases or grammatical structures.

18. Dramatic Techniques • Dramatic irony- creating a specific scene on stage, when the audience knows something one (or more) of the characters does not know as the scene plays out.

19. Dramatic Tecniques • Pun- a form or wordplay that suggests two or more meanings by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or similarly sounding words, for an intended rhetorical or humorous effect.

20. Poetic Techniques • Iambic Pentameter- a pattern of rhythm; a line of poetry written in iambic pentameter is composed of five iambs, or “feet”; each iamb is made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllabe.

21. Poetic Techniques • Blank Verse- unrhymed iambic pentameter. In Much Ado About Nothing, characters reflect moments of high drama or of more intense emotion through blank verse.

22. Poetic Techniques • Prose- writing without a regular poetic meter. In Much Ado About Nothing, characters speak in prose most of the time (with exceptions noted above under blank verse)