Intensional Or Accidental Similarities Of Romeo And

Juliet To Much Ado About Nothing Essay, Research Paper

Intensional or Accidentall? Similarities between Romeo And Juliet and Much Ado

About Nothing!

There are many similarities between Shakespeare’s Much Ado About

Nothing and Romeo and Juliet. Was this Intentional or Accidental? Even though

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy, and Romeo and Juliet, is one of his

saddest tragedies, the two plots share many common incidents. Did Shakespeare

mean to have these coincidences or did they happen by accident? In both of his

dramatic works, the Masque is a key element furthering the infatuation of the

lovers. Also the balcony scenes in both plays are crucial because without them

the plot could never have reached its denouement. It seems that God came into

both of the plays in the spirit of the friars, because they had good plans to keep

love together.

In both plays, the masque functions as a dramatic device which initiates

the love plot. It occurs in a social gathering, but not without the help of costumes.

If it were not for costumes the result of love might have been drastically different.

How was the masque used to get lovers together? In the case of Romeo and

Juliet, Romeo hears about the masque and decides to go, thinking that he might

be able to get away with this scheme. Upon entering he sees Juliet and right

away, he knows it is love. If he had not worn the costume, the hosts might have

ejected him from the party and he might not have met Juliet. Much Ado About

Nothing has a similar but also different approach towards love at the masque. In

Much Ado, Count Claudio is not able to gather the courage to court Hero. Instead

Don Pedro, who is one of Claudio’s very close friends, offers to go and woo Hero

for his friend. This point is illustrated by Don Pedro for his great plan to get

Claudio and Hero together

“Thou wilt be like a lover presently/ And tire the hearer with a book of words. …

That thou began’st to twist so fine a story? “1 Don Pedro’s costume allows him to

woo Hero, posing as Claudio.

Balcony love scenes are familiar from both plays. The love was disparate

in each of Shakespeare’s plays. How are these scenes different but also similar?

In Romeo and Juliet, the balcony scene leads towards good love because Romeo

and Juliet are actually falling in love with each other. In Much Ado About Nothing

the scene is an act towards bad love and also to separation. We see that it is a

set up that Borachio between Don John had a scheme to damage the entire love

between Cluadio and Hero the night before their wedding. This evil point is made

clear by Borachio “Go then; find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and the

Count Claudio alone;… and there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero’s

disloyalty that jealousy shall be called assurance and all the preparations

overthrown.”2 Without the balcony scene in Much Ado, the heart of the story

would of been missing. If the Balcony scene had not happened in Romeo and

Juliet there would not have been a story.

The Friars seem to be the smartest people. It seems as they act as god in

both plays. How are the friars similar in the ways they present their great plans?

In Romeo and Juliet, the friar is the person who sits down and thinks of an idea

how the two lovers can be reacquainted with each other. He reveals his idea,

they agree with it, and all goes well until the timing fails. Timing causes both

Romeo and Juliet to lose their lives. In Much Ado About Nothing, it is the friar who

reveals his plan to save the love, and all worked well, because at the end of

Much Ado they marry and live happily thereafter. The friar illustrates his

confidence in his plan to save the marriage. “Marry, this well carried shall on her

behalf … Out of all eyes, tongues, and injuries.”3 The Friar causes both plays

proceed the way that they did and they are the ones who make the plays finish

successfully.

The masque brings love together because it is unknown who is beneath

the disguises. The balcony scenes had much to do with building suspense and

adding to plot in both plays. They were similar but also different for the reason

that one brought the two together, and the other ripped them apart. The Friars

speak like God in both plays, with their outstanding plans. There are many

similarities between both plays. Did Shakespeare purposely make these

similarities or were they coincidence? I believe that Shakespeare did not intend to

make both the plays similar in romance but what happened was that he liked the

ideas he used in the first play and unknowingly used them in variation in the

second book. Did William Shakespeare personally require to have similarities in

love in both play or was he just forgetful about what he had written in his other

stories?