Themes to Note Heroic World Meets the

Themes to Note

Heroic World Meets the Pastoral “The world that knows no war” –H. Whitby

Arranged Marriage vs. Marrying for Love Leonato: Daughter, remember what I told you. If the _______ do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer. (II. i. 44 -60) ************* Antonio: Well, niece, I trust you will be ruled by your _______. Beatrice: Yes, faith, it is my cousin’s duty to make curtsy and say, ‘Father, as it please you. ’ But yet for all this cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another curtsy and say, ‘Father, as it please ______. ’ (II. i. 46 -49)

The Buying and Selling of Wives Benedick: Would you buy her, that you enquire after her? Claudio: Can the world buy such a _____? Benedick: Yea, and a case to put it into. (I. i. 164 -66) Claudio: Hath Leonato any son, my lord? Don Pedro: No child but Hero. She’s his only _____. Claudio: Leonato: Claudio: Don Pedro: Claudio: Will you with free and unconstrained soul Give me this maid, your daughter? As freely, son, as God did give her me. And what have I to give you back whose worth May counterpoise this rich and precious ____? Nothing, unless you render her again. There, Leonato, take her back again. Give not this rotten orange to your friend! (IV. i. 23 -31)

“Falling in Love” : How important is the perception that the other person loves you? It seems her affections have their full bent. Love me? Why, it must be requited. . I will be horribly in love with her. (II. iii. 213; 224) And Benedick, love on. I will requite thee, Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand. (III. i. 111 -112)

Shakespeare Wonders: How Do We Know Our World and the People in it? • Looking (especially from a hiding place). • Listening in on conversations. • Reading written communication.

Eye & Ear : Spying and Eavesdropping • Claudio watches as masked Don Pedro proposes to Hero • Antonio’s servant overhears Don Pedro telling Claudio he will propose to Hero • Benedick overhears his friends talk of Beatrice’s love • Beatrice overhears her friends talk of Benedick’s love • Claudio & Don Pedro spy on Margaret & Borachio impersonating Hero & a secret lover. • A Watchman overhears Conrad & Borachio bragging • Other examples?

Seeing Is Believing I looked upon her with a _______ eye. . . (I. i. 272) I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a _______ by daylight. (II. i. 73 -74) In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on. I can see yet without _____, and I see no such matter. (I. i. 17174) I do spy some marks of ____ in her (II. iii. 234 -35) Go but with me tonight, you shall see her chamber _______ entered. . . (III. ii. 98 -99) Is this face Hero’s? Are our eyes our own? (IV. i. 70)

Seeing Is Believing. . . Until You’ve Been Fooled! She’s but the sign and semblance of her Honour. Behold how like a maid she ______ here. Would you not swear-All you that see her--that she were a _____, By these exterior shows? But she is none. She knows the heat of a luxurious bed. Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty. (IV. I. 32 -41)

Some Eyes See Better than Others! By noting of the lady, I have mark’d A thousand blushing apparitions To start into her face, a thousand innocent shames In angel whiteness beat away those blushes, And in her eye there hath appear’d a fire To burn the errors that these princes hold Against her maiden truth. . . Trust not my age, My reverence, calling, nor divinity, If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here Under some biting error. (IV. I. 157 -169)

Much Ado About NOTING: Another Way of Knowing Reality – I learn in this ____ that Don Pedro of Aragon comes this night to Messina. (I. i. 1) – Get the learned writer to set down our excommunication. . . (III. v. 60) Write down Prince John a villain. (IV. ii. 37 -38) – Hang her an _____ upon her tomb And sing it to her bones. . . (V. i. 227 -28). – Don John is the author of all, who is fled and gone. (V, ii. 9091) – For here’s a paper written in his hand, A halting sonnet of his own pure brain, Fashion’d to Beatrice. – And here’s another, Writ in my cousin’s hand, stol’n from her pocket, Containing her affection unto Benedick. (V, iv. 86 -88)

Gender Politics: Men’s Fear of Women >>Anxiety • The joke’s on the cuckold! Don Pedro: I think this is your daughter. Leonato: Her _____ hath many times told me so. Benedick: Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her? • If ever the sensible Benedick bear it [the yoke of marriage], pluck off the ____ horns and set them in my forehead, and let me be vilely painted and in such great letters as they write ‘Here you may see Benedick, the married man. ’ (I. I. 240 -44)

It isn’t always funny. There, Leonato, take her back again. Give not this rotten _____ to your friend! (IV. I. 30 -31)

More Gender Politics: Men’s Anxiety over Free Speech Among Women Female Silence was regulated by law in the Middle Ages Shrews: women who talk back to husbands Gossips: women who meet together to share grievances • “My Lady Tongue” She speaks poniards, and every word _____. (II. i. 229) • “By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be so shrewd of thy _____. ” (II. i. 16 -17)

Turning the Class System Upside Down The Watchmen --Can’t speak properly but they do a better job of “seeing” than the upper-class. • We have recovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was known in the commonwealth. (III. iii. 155 -56) • What your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow _____ have brought to life, who in the night overheard me confessing. . . (V. i. 225 -27)

The Dark Side of Comedy • War • Illegitimacy • Betrayal • Injustice • False accusation • “Kill Claudio”

So. . . list some themes. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.