HOW FAR DO YOU AGREE THAT THE TRUE COMEDY OF THE PLAY IS SHAKESPEARE UNDERMINING THE CONSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE?
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedic play, revolving around two couples and the turbulence experienced as they profess their love for each other. The main couple, of Hero and Claudio, is expressed by means of trial and error as they endure a sequence of rumours and slander. The secondary couple, of Beatrice and Benedick, is expressed by means of a third party tricking the duo into confessing their love for the other.
I however agree that Shakespeare intends for the play to be the mimicry of marriage. The play was written in a time when all a woman could bring to a marriage was her innocence. More so, this was an era when sex was more than a method of reproduction, and the exploration of pleasure and all that jazz. It is therefore questionable as to why Claudio is undependable, in that he is too quick to make decisions about getting married -even though the promiscuity of men was to be considered 'normal'. The other reason is that the ending Act is not purely conclusive, as the idea of the marriages continuing underway is beyond the stage and up to the audience. That is to say: the entire drama of the play results in no marriage at all.
The main supporting character of this notion is Claudio. In the very introduction of Claudio, he announces how he wishes to get married as there is no war to occupy his mind. The manner in which he says it brings it out as if he is saying he has nothing better to do but get married at this point. He is not even particularly picky about his potential wife, as it is discovered in the last chapter when he says he wouldn't mind if he married an Ethiope.
Furthermore, Claudio’s gullibility is the main front of comedy as he is easily fooled and manipulated. Other comedic aspects are explored in Beatrice in Hero, in that they are often the centre of sexual innuendos, verbal wit and repartee, as well as the tools of the confusion of the play. The entire play may be considered a farce; in that it contains the comedy of innuendos, wit and intense word play, as well as basic stock characters.
