Language
Shakespeare is renowned for the language he used and often invented new words. Explore the way he uses rhythm and rhyme, imagery and metaphor and puns and wordplay in Much Ado About Nothing.
Rhythm and rhyme
Shakespeare used rhythm and rhyme in his plays for many different purposes. A strong rhythm gives the language energy. (Rhythm also makes the words easier for actors to memorise.) Rhythm and rhyme is used to distinguish between certain types of characters. Changes in rhythm and rhyme highlight certain aspects of tone and mood.
In Much Ado About Nothing, most of the play is written in prose – the characters’ dialogues follow the natural patterns of speech. Repetition is often used to give the language energy and rhythm and to create emphasis around particular words to make jokes, or to create some other strong and noticeable effect.
Analysis of rhythm and rhyme in the play
Question
How does the repetition or echo between Pedro, Claudio and Don John at the end of Act 3 Scene 3 represent an important turn of events in the play?
This section stands out as most of the play is written in prose. The three men react to Don John’s lies about Hero’s character:
DON PEDRO
O day untowardly turned!
CLAUDIO
O mischief strangely thwarting!!
DON JOHN
O plague right well prevented!
Act 3 Scene 2
On the one hand, it is quite funny, particularly with the terrible irony of Don John’s final line – there’s a sense that Don John finds their reaction deliciously funny. On the other hand, there’s something chilling about how easily they have been persuaded to believe that Hero is in the wrong before they have even seen Don John’s bogus evidence. The scene leaves you with a sense of dread. Claudio and Don Pedro have been foolishly sucked in.
Question
What methods does Shakespeare use to give Claudio’s farewell speech to Hero a grandiose style?
This speech stands out because instead of being in prose, it is written in blank verse. It is also filled with alliteration (the repeated f sounds) and an oxymoron to top it off (an oxymoron is made up of a pair of opposites).
Claudio announces to Hero in front of the congregation at their wedding:
CLAUDIO
But fare thee well, most foul, most fair, farewell
Thou pure impiety, and impious purity
Act 4 Scene 2
Here, Claudio contrasts purity with sinfulness in describing Hero. The speech sounds pretentious and if the previous moments’ events hadn’t been so shocking, it would make us laugh. Claudio is a young, foolish and arrogant boy. The overdone literary devices make him sound like a bad poet. He is self-indulgent at this moment. The patterns of his language could also show that he is a young man in distress.
Question
Why is the Friar’s speech about Hero’s fake death written in blank verse (blank verse is a term used for unrhymed lines within a rhythm called Iambic Pentameter)?
In Shakespeare’s plays, noble characters, or characters with something noble to say, speak within this structure. The Friar has noble intentions and this is reflected in the formal verse form. The Friar explains to Leonato the purpose behind his plan to fake Hero’s death:
FRIAR
Change slander to remorse, that is some good,
But not for that dream I on this strange course,
But on this travail look for greater birth
Act 4 Scene 1
From all this upset, he hopes to make something good. Not only will Hero’s name be cleared, but Claudio will learn an important lesson about the worth of life, that will make him a better person. He will cherish Hero. He will be ready this time for the serious commitment that he must make when he decides that he wants to marry Hero.
Question
Why does Benedick try and fail to write a romantic verse for Beatrice?
Benedick is too honest for rhyme, and the examples he can come up with are silly ('lady' and 'baby'). He is rarely lost for words, except in this situation. He comes to the conclusion:
BENEDICK
No, I was not born under a rhyming planet…
Act 5 Scene 2
His feelings are true and his words to Beatrice are honest. Shakespeare may be suggesting that romantic verse is artificial, which perhaps explains the lack of it in Much Ado About Nothing, a play that celebrates language, plain speaking and honesty.
Listening task
In Act 4 Scene 1, Leonato is in deep distress having believed the lies about Hero’s supposed impurity. The speech is full of emotion – anger, sadness, confusion, love, rage. It is a speech that realistically represents grief, but it is written in a formal verse form, blank verse.
LEONATO
Wherefore? Why doth not every earthly thing
Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny
The story that is printed in her blood?
Do not live, Hero, do not open thine eyes:
For did I think thou wouldst not quickly die,
Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames,
Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches
Strike at thy life. Grieved I, I had but one?
Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame?
O, one too much by thee! Why had I one?
Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes?
Why had I not with charitable hand,
Took up a beggar's issue at my gates,
Who smirchéd thus, and mired with infamy,
I might have said, no part of it is mine,
This shame derives itself from unknown loins:
But mine, and mine I loved, and mine I praised,
And mine that I was proud on, mine so much,
That I myself, was to myself not mine,
Valuing of her: why she, oh she is fallen
Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea
Hath drops too few to wash her clean again,
And salt too little, which may season give
To her foul-tainted flesh.
Question
Can you hear when Leonato’s emotions become too much for him to bear and the rhythm of the blank verse begins to break down?
The rhythm really breaks down with 'why she, oh she is fallen…' He is shocked, but still believes that his beautiful and precious daughter has turned out to be so impure. Of course, we know this isn’t true at all.
Question
How many times does he say 'mine'? What do you think this says about his relationship with Hero?
Leonato says 'mine' six times. If you wanted to be kind, you could say that it was because he loved her so much. On the other hand, it could show that he saw her as a possession.
Imagery and metaphors
Metaphors are detailed comparisons that make writing and speech come alive in our imaginations. On Shakespeare’s stage there were no special effects, the stage was pretty bare except for actors, and the props were few and far between. So the writing had to paint exciting scenes in the audience’s minds. This is imagery.