Second Formal Paper

Comedy and Tragedy

In his time, William Shakespeare created many plays, both comedies and tragedies. Among them were Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing. Although they differ in the play types, they also have various similarities. Carefully analyzed, it seems as though Shakespeare created these similarities on purpose rather than by mistake.

Romeo and Juliet is a play and story many people have grown up knowing about. It's about a man, Romeo, who comes from the Montague family and a woman, Juliet, who comes from the Capulet family. They fall in love regardless of their family's feud and secretly try to meet and be together. In the end, because of miscommunication, Romeo believes Juliet to be dead, therefore killing himself, and once Juliet wakes up and finds Romeo dead, she also commits suicide. Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies. In comparison, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's comedies. It revolves around the lives and relationships of two couples: Hero and Claudio, and Beatrice and Benedick. They experience many hardships, also due to miscommunication, which leads to humiliation, but eventually ends in love and happiness.

Love at first sight occurs in both of these plays. As soon as Romeo sets his eyes on Juliet he devotes himself to her. Both of their feelings were so immensely strong that they forgot about their previous lovers and to even tell each other their names. It is not much different in Much Ado About Nothing. However, it is less spectacular than Romeo and Juliet's. Claudio says that he has liked Hero, but when he sees her in her father's balcony, welcoming home their soldiers, he decides that he is in love with Hero but is too afraid to woo her. The difference between Romeo and Claudio, is that Romeo

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saw Juliet and went to her right away. Claudio was more conservative about it and had Don Pedro woo Hero for him.

The masque in both plays is a key element in the way the lovers meet and fall for each other. It initiates the love plot in both plays. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo hears about the party and decides to attend the masquerade thinking that he might be able to get away with defying his family. When he arrives he sees Juliet, bursts into a sonnet about how beautiful and radiant she is and falls in love with her at first sight. The masquerade party in Much Ado About Nothing is rather similar to Romeo and Juliet's. Claudio had seen Hero once before and fallen in love with her, but the masquerade party served as part of their engagement. Claudio, being shy and nervous, confided in Don Pedro to ask for Hero's hand for him. Don John, trying to ruin Don Pedro's plans, told Claudio that Don Pedro was asking for Hero's hand for himself. This created tension between Don Pedro and Claudio, but was resolved almost immediately as soon as they got together to clear the misunderstanding up. In comparison to Romeo and Juliet's masquerade, Much Ado About Nothing contains the usual negative feelings and mishaps that then leading to the positive love. Without the masquerade, the love plot in these plays could've been completely different, therefore they were a crucial part to both of Shakespeare's plays.

The balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet is well-known because it's so crucial to the story. It depicts Juliet's depth of personality and she is perceived as happily and helplessly in love with Romeo (Mansour 206). The balcony scene is so important because Juliet declares her love for Romeo unaware that he's hiding in the bushes beneath her room. As he overhears Juliet's love declaration, he steps out, surprising Juliet and announcing his love for her. They decide to get married during the scene played in Juliet's balcony. In contrast with Romeo and Juliet's balcony scene, Much Ado About Nothing also contains a significant scene placed in a balcony. Don John, the mischievous brother of Don Pedro, lures Claudio to Hero's balcony. As they approach, Don John leads them to believe that Borachio, his accomplice, is making love to Hero, which is Claudio's fiance (Moisan 165). It is curious that

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Shakespeare places two similar balcony scenes in both of his plays. Although they take place in equivalent places, they are different because Romeo and Juliet's balcony scene leads to a positive form of love between then two lovers. However, Much Ado About Nothing contains a balcony scene that leads to a negative form of love and separation between Hero and Claudio.

Religion is also an important role in Shakespeare's plays and is displayed in the form of a Catholic figure, a friar. In Romeo and Juliet, the Friar Lawrence, a “holy man,” helps the young couple (Miola 25). Towards the end of Romeo and Juliet, the problems in their relationship and their family increase and they are forced to do something drastic in order to be together. Therefore, the friar aids them in performing the perfect plan. He helps Juliet seem dead until Romeo can get to her. Unfortunately, it doesn't end well when Romeo believes Juliet to be truly dead, thus killing himself. Once Juliet wakes up and finds her lover with a knife protruding from his chest, she also stabs herself and dies. Although the plan didn't work, the friar still attempted to rescue the young lovers. In Much Ado About Nothing, Friar Francis comes up with the plan to help Hero escape the humiliation that Don Pedro and Claudio put her through on her wedding day. After the catastrophe of the balcony scene took place, Claudio decided to humiliate her and accuse her of lechery in front of everyone. Thankfully, the friar believed Hero, and he defended her and, like Romeo and Juliet, he had her pretend to be dead. It is interesting that Shakespeare displays such positive versions of the Catholic priests were displayed on stage. As Paul Voss states, “If a real Friar Francis were to have walked off the stage at the Globe Theater and practiced his faith in public, he would have been immediately arrested and eventually executed” (Miola 25).

In both plays, there is also a character acting as a liaison between the lovers. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the young couple can't simply meet each other because of their families' disputes. Therefore, Juliet uses her nurse as a messenger. The nurse makes it possible for Romeo and Juliet to marry since she is the one that sends and receives messages from each other. Meanwhile, in Much Ado

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About Nothing, the intrigue is rather comical. Benedick and Beatrice's friends think that it would be funny if they were to fall in love, even though they loathe each other. As part of their plan, Don Pedro, Claudio and the friar walk to the garden where Benedick is laying down, relaxing and begin to talk about Beatrice's love for him, all of which is a lie. Benedick, whom is hiding from his friends, overhears this and is tricked into loving Beatrice. At the same time, Hero and her maid are discussing Benedick's love for Beatrice, as they see her pass by. Beatrice, thinking she wasn't seen, listens carefully and is also tricked into falling in love with Benedick. This can also be seen as a manipulation of love that, although done different, is rather similar. Beatrice and Benedick were tricked into loving each other after hated each other for so long. Romeo and Juliet also learned to love each other after being taught to hate each other due to their families' troubles. These characters that serve as a liaison for the lovers are crucial to the story because without them couples might have never gotten together or would've gone through a harder time to be together.

Shakespeare created these two amazing plays that were meant to be very different since Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy and Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy. Nonetheless, Shakespeare entwined in both of his plays similar scenes and themes. Could it be that he ran out of ideas while writing his plays? Did Shakespeare have trouble coming up with new scenes? Or where these scenes so imperative in his plays that he couldn't leave them out? Or a better question could be: did Shakespeare create these similarities on purpose or by mistake?

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Douglas Trevor. "Love, Humoralism, and "Soft" Psychoanalysis. " Shakespeare Studies 33.(2005): 87-95. Humanities Module, ProQuest. Web. 18 Oct. 2009.

Mansour, W.. "The Taming of Romeo in Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET. " The Explicator 66.4 (2008): 206-208. Humanities Module, ProQuest. Web. 29 Oct. 2009.

Miola, R.. "Shakespeare's Religion. " First Things 183 (2008): 25-30. Humanities Module, ProQuest. Web. 1 Nov. 2009.

Thomas Moisan. "Deforming sources: Literary antecedents and their traces in Much Ado About Nothing. " Shakespeare Studies 31.(2003): 165. Humanities Module, ProQuest. Web. 29 Oct. 2009.