Exploring Comedy and Marxism in Much Ado About Nothing
Delve into the intricate themes of comedy and Marxism as portrayed in Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing. Discover the characters, their relationships, and the central plot elements that drive this classic comedy forward, alongside a critical analysis of the genre's effect and its historical context. Unravel the complexities of mistaken identities, contrasting pairs, and the dark undertones introduced by characters like Don John in this engaging exploration of dramatic literature.
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Much Ado: Moving on. Comedy and Marxism 16 September, 2024 Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Assumptions Knowledge of the plot Understanding of the characters at the centre of the play their relationships and their characters Understanding of the basic themes of the play An open mind which can assimilate ideas Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Genre and its effect: Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
A comedy Since 4thC BC, Comedy centres around a love story and the struggles of lovers to achieve a happy ending. A typical plot revolves around a pair who suffer a tragic misunderstanding which leads to the heroine being wronged, before all comes out alright after vital information is discovered. The plot turns on an element of recognition and is based on resolution of conflict. Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Recognition Easy to see this as NOTING Make a note for yourself to explore and revise the elements of recognition or NOTING which bring about the reconciliation in this play. Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Who is it really? In the New Comedy of Ancient Greece and Rome, plots usually hinge around mistaken identity. Consider MAAN. How does Shakespeare introduce this element into the story of Hero and Claudio? Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Complexity in Elizabethan England Shakespeare wrote 16 comedies and took the conventions to the absolute limit. Not content with a single pair of lovers. Here we see two contrasting pairs. One pair meet in Act 1.1 The other know each other of old and apparently hate each other. Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Hero and Claudio The pair resemble traditional comedy pairs BUT: There is no obstacle to their marriage from either her father or his patron/ Shakespeare introduces a dark side in Don John, who vows to ruin the wedding simply for sport. Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Journey to Darkness Darth Vader: You underestimate the power of the Dark Side If Don John is a prototype Vader he needs to act as puppet master for Claudio: Does Claudio cross over to the dark side? To do so he needs to become jealous, uncaring, selfish, self- righteous Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Claudio and Hero as central Claudio is Light - innocent and na ve- at first find quotations to support this statement. Look in the first two acts. After Boracchio s show he becomes a Dark Character. Find evidence for his jealousy, cruelty and self-righteousness. Act 4.1 and the opening of Act 5.1 is especially good ground for this. NOTE WELL: All character essays need to show development of the character and the points at which the character undergoes a shift Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
What changes? Claudio needs to learn a lesson and repent. Look closely at the scenes in Act 4 and 5 where this happens. His meeting with Leonato and Antonio, then that with Benedick. Then the revelation. How does he react to this? You will find evidence that he returns to the Light . Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Hero as heroine An innocent girl, she meets her love early in the play. He is duped and she is attacked. She has to hide (the fake death) whilst Darkness is in the ascendancy. She can return once the Light is restored, BUT Shakespeare respects custom in such comedy by playing out a scene in which identities are hidden. Once order is restored, a happy ending follows. The two are reunited and recognise their love for each other: CLAUDIO Another Hero! HERO Nothing certainer: One Hero died defiled, but I do live, And surely as I live, I am a maid. Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
TWO TIER COMEDY Alongside this mixture of convention and exploration of love, there is another strand of comedy: The high brought down by the low. Dogberry, Verges and the guard are tiresome comics. Elizabethan puns do not render into modern minds with ease. Shakespeare needed to write both for the educated wealthy and the uneducated poor in the pit The groundlings are well served by the dirty jokes Some education is needed to understand Dogberry s puns Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
SO: For a comedy to work, there should be a clash of status and a sense that the world is turned on its head. Don Pedro s sense of honour is piqued by Don John s plot Claudio humiliates Hero All is revealed, not by the clever Beatrice, but by the stupid guard and their incompetent leader: Dogberry Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Dogberry as a structural device: He uncovers the plot Jonathan Peel JLS 2017 He is unable to clearly inform Leonato He prevents the revelation until after the crisis He increases the sense of dramatic irony He prolongs the time taken to reach the denouement and thus heightens the comic effect.
MARXIST THEORY A bit more A level than GCSE, but Jonathan Peel JLS 2017 We need to look at Dogberry through a different lens if we are to find any other useful material Read your insert (next slide), courtesy of AQA LitB 4
A short digression to introduce the application of critical theory. Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Ideas for Dogberry and the Watch Jonathan Peel JLS 2017 1. Overt meaning: love story, romcom. Covert meaning: an exploration of a complacent bourgeoisie being embarrassed by a stupid working class man, resulting in a shift of power away from the elite. 2. Shakespeare was not of high birth and sought to imply a need for equality in his drama. This helps to allow a reading of Dogberry as the hinge for the class-struggle in the play 3. Comedy is essentially a genre of equality. Moreover, the essential message of the Dogberry scenes is on of an ill-educated working class group helping to destabilise a ruling elite. Dogberry is the leader of this group. As the monarch s power becomes less absolute in the 16th and 17th century depictions of the relative unsuitability of the wealthy to govern, simply because they are wealthy become more common. Democracy replaces Plutocracy, albeit in the context of a system ruled by an hereditary monarch.
Ideas, continued 1. Theatre attendance was utterly democratic was the sphere in which rich and poor rubbed shoulders. It is a chance to comment on strata of society. 2. A comment on metre: The rich deliver poetry in high form , the lower classes always speak in prose or in fragmented language. In this play, it is the lower classes who often make the most sense, even if their speech is muddled. Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
So, Dogberry as a proto Lenin? Not really Jonathan Peel JLS 2017 BUT Consider what he shows at a lower level: He is a leader of men with an obviously more able sidekick (Verges) one rides behind He refuses to take advice He needs the assistance of others the watch, Verges and the Sexton in order to be triumphant, yet when all is said and done he is still an ass .
Two level comedy The marriage comedy is a game invented by Don Pedro to pass the time he has no idea how catastrophic its consequences will turn out to be. Does he care? A man of his status seems to view the rest of society as his playthings He cannot see the deceit being practised by his brother He is left isolated and unloved at the end of the play even Leonato, the arch sycophant has turned on him in Act 5.1 Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
AND, below stairs Dogberry has given his wildly contradictory instructions to the watch They (not he) catch the malefactors He takes command and ignores all those possibly better able to carry the information or lead the inquisition He is obsessed with his honour He did call me ass but he has little intrinsic honour Is he a mirror of the world above stairs? A world in which the nobles are arrogant mischief makers without true honour ? Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Dogberry in brief The instrument of comic revelation! Such a simple plot: A couple vow to marry A Dark character plants a seed of jealousy A comic fool discovers the plot All is revealed. Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Shakespeares genius Using Dogberry to delay his own revelation Adding the comic Boracchio and Conrade to his Dark character Stressing the social climbing of the world of the play through Leonato (find evidence for this statement) Introducing a sub-plot that introduces two of the finest characters in any of his plays. Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
Much Ado: Standard comedy plot requires a couple to split and re- join. The heroine is innocent and is wronged A dark force has to cause this split. There should be a clash between upper and lower classes, in which the upper classes may learn something from the lower. Jonathan Peel JLS 2017
