- Coming of Age (i.e., a love story) -
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, is a comedy that is unique in the sense that it has tow main plots. One plot focuses on the love affair between Beatrice and Benedick. The other plot focuses on the ill fated love affair between Hero and Claudio. However, the latter love affair serves as only a back drop to the real, profound and witty affair that characterizes the love between Beatrice and Benedick, “The serious part about Much Ado, the ill-starred love story of Hero and Claudio, is hardly more than a background for the witty by play of Benedick and Beatrice and the bumbling low comedy of Dogberry and the watch,” (Shakespeare, 1964: x). This analysis will discuss how Beatrice’s and Benedick's difficulties in building a relationship are actually, “much ado about nothing,” because it is not that they do not love one another it is that they love each other so much.
Beatrice and Benedick become engaged, however, not because of this profound love. Rather, their betrothal is orchestrated unbeknownst to them by friends who tell them that both of them are miserable without one another. The reason that Beatrice and Benedick have such a problem communicating to each other about their love is because, they are both intelligent enough, caring enough, and realistic enough to be somewhat in awe of how they make each other feel. This is why Benedick must experience a certain level of spiritual evolution before he is able to be earnest. In fact, it is the earnestness of Beatrice and Benedick’s love that, Shakespeare, no stranger to love himself, chooses as his operative word about real love’s significance throughout the play. When Claudio talks about Benedick’s being in earnest, he is revealing even more than he himself knows:
Claudio: In most profound earnest; and, I’ll warrant you, for the love of Beatrice.
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