Themes to Note

1. Themes to Note

2. Heroic World Meets the Pastoral “The world that knows no war” –H. Whitby

3. Arranged Marriage vs. Marrying for Love Leonato: Daughter, remember what I told you. If the _______ do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer. (II.i.44-60) ************************** Antonio: Well, niece, I trust you will be ruled by your _______. Beatrice: Yes, faith, it is my cousin’s duty to make curtsy and say, ‘Father, as it please you.’ But yet for all this cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another curtsy and say, ‘Father, as it please ______.’ (II.i.46-49)

4. The Buying and Selling of Wives Benedick: Would you buy her, that you enquire after her? Claudio: Can the world buy such a _________? Benedick: Yea, and a case to put it into. (I.i.164-66) Claudio: Hath Leonato any son, my lord? Don Pedro: No child but Hero. She’s his only _________. Claudio: Will you with free and unconstrained soul Give me this maid, your daughter? Leonato: As freely, son, as God did give her me. Claudio: And what have I to give you back whose worth May counterpoise this rich and precious ________? Don Pedro: Nothing, unless you render her again. Claudio: There, Leonato, take her back again. Give not this rotten orange to your friend! (IV.i.23-31)

5. “Falling in Love” : How important is the perception that the other person loves you? It seems her affections have their full bent. Love me? Why, it must be requited. . . . I will be horribly in love with her. (II.iii.213;224) And Benedick, love on. I will requite thee, Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand. (III.i.111-112)

6. Shakespeare Wonders:How Do We Know Our World and the People in it? • Looking (especially from a hiding place). • Listening in on conversations. • Reading written communication.

7. Eye & Ear : Spying and Eavesdropping • Claudio watches as masked Don Pedro proposes to Hero • Antonio’s servant overhears Don Pedro telling Claudio he will propose to Hero • Benedick overhears his friends talk of Beatrice’s love • Beatrice overhears her friends talk of Benedick’s love • Claudio & Don Pedro spy on Margaret & Borachio impersonating Hero & a secret lover. • A Watchman overhears Conrad & Borachio bragging • Other examples?

8. Seeing Is Believing I looked upon her with a _______ eye . . . (I.i.272) I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a _______ by daylight. (II.i.73-74) In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on. I can see yet without _____, and I see no such matter. (I.i.171-74) I do spy some marks of ________ in her (II.iii.234-35) Go but with me tonight, you shall see her chamber _______ entered . . . (III.ii.98-99) Is this face Hero’s? Are our eyes our own? (IV.i.70)

9. Seeing Is Believing . . . Until You’ve Been Fooled! She’s but the sign and semblance of her Honour.Behold how like a maid she ______ here. Would you not swear--All you that see her--that she were a _____,By these exterior shows? But she is none.She knows the heat of a luxurious bed.Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty. (IV.I.32-41)

10. Some Eyes See Better than Others! By noting of the lady, I have mark’dA thousand blushing apparitionsTo start into her face, a thousand innocent shamesIn angel whiteness beat away those blushes,And in her eye there hath appear’d a fireTo burn the errors that these princes holdAgainst her maiden truth. . . Trust not my age,My reverence, calling, nor divinity,If this sweet lady lie not guiltless hereUnder some biting error. (IV.I.157-169)

11. Much Ado About NOTING:Another Way of Knowing Reality • I learn in this ____ that Don Pedro of Aragon comes this night to Messina. (I.i.1) • Get the learned writer to set down our excommunication . . . (III.v.60) Write down Prince John a villain. (IV.ii.37-38) • Hang her an _____ upon her tomb And sing it to her bones . . . (V.i.227-28). • Don John is the author of all, who is fled and gone. (V,ii.90-91) • For here’s a paper written in his hand, A halting sonnet of his own pure brain, Fashion’d to Beatrice. • And here’s another, Writ in my cousin’s hand, stol’n from her pocket, Containing her affection unto Benedick. (V,iv.86-88)

12. Gender Politics:Men’s Fear of Women >>Anxiety • The joke’s on the cuckold! Don Pedro: I think this is your daughter.Leonato: Her _____ hath many times told me so.Benedick: Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her? • If ever the sensible Benedick bear it [the yoke of marriage], pluck off the ____ horns and set them in my forehead, and let me be vilely painted and in such great letters as they write ‘Here you may see Benedick, the married man.’ (I.I.240-44)

13. It isn’t always funny. There, Leonato, take her back again. Give not this rotten _____ to your friend! (IV.I.30-31)

14. More Gender Politics:Men’s Anxiety over Free Speech Among Women Female Silence was regulated by lawin the Middle Ages • “My Lady Tongue” She speaks poniards, and every word _____. (II.i.229) • “By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be so shrewd of thy _____.” (II.i.16-17) Shrews: women who talk back to husbands Gossips: women who meet together to share grievances

15. Turning the Class System Upside Down • We have recovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was known in the commonwealth. (III.iii.155-56) • What your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow _____ have brought to life, who in the night overheard me confessing . . . (V.i.225-27) The Watchmen --- Can’t speak properly but they do a better job of “seeing” than the upper-class.

16. The Dark Side of Comedy • War • Illegitimacy • Betrayal • Injustice • False accusation • “Kill Claudio”

17. So . . . list some themes. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.