Much Ado About Nothing: An Overview :: essays research papers

Much Ado About Nothing An Overview     It is a beautiful spring afternoon. The air is full of the radiance offreshly bloomed daisies and the perk up chill of the periodic spring breeze.Puffy large cumulus clouds suffice the azure sky with gray thunderheads looming offin the distance. Looking wad from the clouds, one can see a gathering offinely polished people. Birds flying overhead hear the murmurs of the crowdgathered for a hook up with of gentry.     Shakespeare could never have planned the first scene of Act IV in MuchAdo About Nothing so well. The placid sky overhead symbolizing the beauty andjoviality of the occasion mysterious rain clouds looming in the distanceforeshadowing the mischief to come. Despite his inability to control weatherpatterns, Shakespeare developed marvelous scenes which he dis tended in his testifytheater, The ballock. How did Shakespeare portray the emotional aspects of hischaracters and their strife to hi s audience? How did he direct the actors andwhat did the clear-cut air stage of The Globe look like?     Imagine yourself in London circa 1600, a short year after the completionof the Globe Theater and perhaps a few months after the completion of the playMuch Ado About Nothing, Act IV has just begun. Claudio and fighter are facing eachother in front of a simple, yet antediluvianly beautiful altar, garbed in Elizabethan vesture fit for the occasion. Hero is wearing a long white trim with trailerand high neck which is adorned according to the fashion trends of the time.Claudio has donned a royal looking doublet with silver trim and hose to equallyas majestic. Sitting on either side of the couple in ancient pews, shrouded insolemn silence, are Don Pedro the Prince of Aragon, Don John the Bastard,Leonato, Benedick, Beatrice and the attendants of Beatrice and Hero. set about thecouple, positioned in between them so the audience may hear him, is friarFrancis weari ng a simple white robe and golden cross, his entirely posessions. DonPedro wears a doublet ornately embroidered with golden designs. He is the only person on stage looking finer than Claudio, marking his royal line of reasoning to all. Theothers wear fine doublets and dresses, although not decorated elaborately, toshow their respect for the wedding ceremony pair.     Scene IV actually begins when Leonato stands and makes his brave butrespectful predication to the Friar to be brief with the ceremonies (IV i,l1).Knowing his duties, the Friar continues square-faced with the wedding by askingClaudio of his intentions to marry Hero (IV i,l5). Without hesitation Claudioresponds, "No." (IV i,l6) He means that he does not intend to marry Hero.