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Literary Criticism

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William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing explores the concept of an artificially created idea. Shakespeare understood that ideas are powerful things; they shape how we perceive reality and that perceptions of reality can be rooted in both the senses and in the personal witness of others. The higher senses (sight and hearing) combine with individual testimonies to shape our discerned world. The two storylines the plot of Much Ado About Nothing revolves around look at how sight and hearing can be tricked and how communities can influence the beliefs of individual members of that community. Don John first tricks Claudio into believing that Hero was unfaithful to him with Borachio. Then Don Pedro swears he will trick Beatrice and Benedick into falling in love with each other. In each storyline, the tricked characters rely on the higher senses without questioning how those senses might be twisted by the context in which they experience them. Claudio, Beatrice, and Benedick assume that those within in their community have good, honest intentions, that there is no reason to question what they see or hear if it is confirmed by their confidants around them. This community trust works out nicely for Beatrice and Benedick, but it is the source of the major conflict of the play when used maliciously against Claudio and Hero. In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare plays with the manipulation of sensory and community epistemology, for better or for worse, to show how ideas influence people’s actions and create a sense of communal unity.

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as part of a class

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Brandi Siegfried

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The Shaping of Reality in Much Ado about Nothing

William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing explores the concept of an artificially created idea. Shakespeare understood that ideas are powerful things; they shape how we perceive reality and that perceptions of reality can be rooted in both the senses and in the personal witness of others. The higher senses (sight and hearing) combine with individual testimonies to shape our discerned world. The two storylines the plot of Much Ado About Nothing revolves around look at how sight and hearing can be tricked and how communities can influence the beliefs of individual members of that community. Don John first tricks Claudio into believing that Hero was unfaithful to him with Borachio. Then Don Pedro swears he will trick Beatrice and Benedick into falling in love with each other. In each storyline, the tricked characters rely on the higher senses without questioning how those senses might be twisted by the context in which they experience them. Claudio, Beatrice, and Benedick assume that those within in their community have good, honest intentions, that there is no reason to question what they see or hear if it is confirmed by their confidants around them. This community trust works out nicely for Beatrice and Benedick, but it is the source of the major conflict of the play when used maliciously against Claudio and Hero. In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare plays with the manipulation of sensory and community epistemology, for better or for worse, to show how ideas influence people’s actions and create a sense of communal unity.