Betrayal is a theme introduced at the very beginning of the play how does the constant stream of betrayal affect the outcome of the plot and which character is most affected.

Betrayal or backstabbing is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. The theme betrayal is referred to at the beginning of the play and prolong throughout the play in various ways. Betrayal affects many individuals in the play “Much ado about nothing” such as Don Pedro and Don John.

In “Much Ado about Nothing”, by William Shakespeare, the betrayal of Don John, the Bastard, brother of Don Pedro, demonstrates the true meaning of jealously According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, jealously means resentful envy. Don John exhibits envy towards Don Pedro and his property and even towards the happiness Claudio has with Hero. Don John’s jealously leads to the deceitful acts around which the play circles around. Don John’s hideous acts deceive Claudio into believing that his fiancée, Hero, acted unfaithfully on the eve of their marriage. This act and following events showed how Don John takes pleasure in others pain, and pain in others pleasure. Shakespeare emphasizes the point that the causing of mischief comes naturally to those who have as much envy and jealously as Don John.

Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing is a play based around the theme of deliberate deception. Sometimes this deception is malevolent and sometimes benevolent but the entire play hinges upon these deceptions and how they affect the characters. Don John uses malevolent deception to try to ruin the marriage of Hero and Claudio. Don Pedro, Leonato, Claudio, Hero and Ursula use benevolent deception to try to bring Benedick and Beatrice together in marriage. Beatrice and Benedick even try to deceive each other by hiding their true feelings. Deception happens over and over again in Much Ado about Nothing. Beatrice and Benedick hurl insults back and forth while, though maybe not consciously, they hide feelings of love for one another. At the party all the men are wearing masks a form of deception of identity. Benedick uses this deception to try to talk to Beatrice “honestly,” without all of the insults and wit. Don Pedro woos Hero in the name of Claudio at the party. While this wooing is going on, Don John deceives Claudio by telling him that Don Pedro is really wooing Hero for himself and not for Claudio as he promised.

In conclusion betrayal plays an important role in the play “Much Ado about Nothing” it is basically responsible for every plot and the way in which each turn of events occurred. For example the character Hero who is supposedly “dead” is really alive therefore Claudio was betrayed because he embarrassed Hero and her “death” was a form of punishment for him. This caused Claudio to restore trust once more for Hero in order to allow her name to be cleared.

The importance of Humour in the play "Much Ado about Nothing"

Humour; is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. The majority of people are able to experience humour, i.e., to e amused, to laugh or smile at something funny and therefore they are considered to have a sense of humour. In the play Much Ado about Nothing humour is a very important theme due to the face that this play is a comedy. The play used minor characters to bring across major themes in the play, minor characters such as Dogberry a constable.

Dogberry is a constable, appointed by the governor of Messina to keep the peace and organize the night watchmen. In face he is the Elizabethan equivalent of a policeman, though he seems rather unsure of his duties. His mixed-up thinking is reflected in his language; he mixes up words, it is therefore surprising that it is Dogberry, in his slow, bumbling way, along with his colleagues manages to bring the perpetrators to justice. Dogberry arrived in Act 3 of the play, but his arrival was viewed as unnecessary since Dogberry would misuse words and phrases, for example he thinks of “tedious” as a compliment and confusing “damnation” with “redemption”; which in return showed the audience that he was helpless in solving the crime.

Because of Dogberry’s constant mistakes, is where the play got its spark because this shows that even in schemes there can be humour found in it. Humour was also used as foreshadow for various events to come in the book and also the main idea of the play, because everyone was being involved in a lot of ruckus but in the end there was really nothing. The presence of humour ease the tense mood in the play, this was done by Dogberry and his men, because due to their constant mistakes, creates a sense of relief to break the chain of tragic events.

Character Sketch ( Pride and Prejudice)

Elizabeth- has many qualities that are admired such as her cleverness, and her loveliness. She has a sharp tongue and a tendency to make speedy judgments which often lead her off course.  Elizabeth must not only cope with a hopeless mother, a distant father, two badly behaved younger siblings, and several snobbish, antagonizing females, she must also conquer  her own mistaken impressions of Darcy, which to begin with lead her to reject his proposals of marriage. Her charms are sufficient to keep him interested, fortunately, while she directs household and social confusion. As she gradually comes to recognize the goodness of Darcy’s character, she realizes the error of her initial prejudice against him. Elizabeth Bennet – is the protagonist of the novel, she is the second daughter of Mr. Bennet she is the most sensible and clever of her five sisters.

Mr Darcy – is the son of a wealthy, well established family and the master of the great estate of Pemberley, he is also the male counterpart of Elizabeth. He is intelligent and honest and he as a lot of pride which causes him to look down on his social inferiors. His high birth and wealth make him overly proud, hasty and harsh. So when he proposes to her (Elizabeth) he points out how unsuitable she is rather than her beauty, charm or by rather complimenting her. She obviously rejects him which causes Fizwilliam Darcy to feel a feeling of modesty. He remained devoted to Elizabeth in spite of her depleted associations, when he saved Lydia and the entire Bennet family from embarrassment and when he also went against his aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh, by continuing to engage with Elizabeth. He finally proves himself of being worthy of Elizabeth.

Jane Bennet – is the eldest and the most beautiful of the Bennet’s sisters. She is more standoffish and gentler than Elizabeth. Jane and Bingley engaged in a courtship that occupies a central place in the novel. The met at the ball in Meryton and were immediately attracted to each other. Jane’s gentle sprit serves as a cover for her sister’s scorching, and debatable nature.

Charles Bingley – is Mr. Darcy’s considerably wealthy best friend, he is very eager and hospitable. Bingley purchased Netherfield, an estate near the Bennets. He is the complete opposite to his friend Mr. Darcy. He and Jane engage in a courtship that has a special place in the novel. They are spoken as the potential couple throughout the book, long before Elizabeth and Darcy thought of marriage. Mr. Bingley and Jane can be described with similar words such as friendly, good – natured and always wanting the best for their love ones.

Mr. Bennet- is the head of the family, he is a gentleman of reasonable income with five daughters who are unmarried. He is sarcastic and has a mocking sense of humour that he uses to purposely annoy his wife. Even though he loves his daughter, particularly Elizabeth, he fails as a parent and withdraws himself from the marriage concerns of the women of the time rather than offer his assistance. For example, his foolish indulgence of Lydia’s immature behaviour nearly leads to general disgracer when she runs away and gets married to Mr Wickham. Even when she disappeared he proved himself by not being helpful. Which causes Mr Gardiner and Darcy to track Lydia down and fix the situation; He rather withdraws himself from the world rather than try to and cope with it.

Mrs Bennet – is an extraordinary tiresome character. Nosiy and foolish, she is a woman who is obsessive with the desire to see her daughters married and seems to care for nothing else in the world. Her single minded pursuit of these goals tends to backfire, as her lack of social grace isolate the same people (Darcy and Bingley) she is trying to attract. She also plays the role of a middle class counterpart to an upper class snob (lady Catherine and Miss Bingley) which in turn shows that foolishness can be found at every level of society.

Mr Collins – A boast, generally idiotic clergy man who stands to inherit Mr Bennet’s property. His own social status is nothing to show off and goes to every length to let everyone know that Lady Catherine serves as his patroness.

Mr Wickham- Is a handsome, fortune- hunting Militia officer.His good looks attracts Elizabeth at first, but Darcy’s revelation about Wickham’s Disreputable past linked her closer to Darcy.

Lydia Bennet - The youngest Bennet sister, she is gossipy, immature, and self-involved. Unlike Elizabeth, Lydia flings herself headlong into romance and ends up running off with Wickham.

                                                  

Difficult Marriages (Pride and Prejudice)

Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen that primarily deals with marriage. In the novel it is clearly stated that a “single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”. The lives of all the characters are bonded together by the establishment of marriage; Austen uses the Bennet family of LongBourn to illustrate those good and bad reasons behind marriage.

In chapter one of Pride and Prejudice, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s relationship is demonstrated to the reader within the first few paragraphs. The relationship appears to be very complex and one sided. Mr. Benet and his wife differ in many ways. Mr. Bennet is a complex man, who has two main hobbies in life; reading and mocking his wife. Conversely, Mrs. Bennet is an irritating woman whose main goal in life is to get her five daughters married before they are too old to be desirable. All in all the Bennet’s relation is not based on love at all, he even admits to being regretful, for his marriage of twenty-three years to his wife. The Bennet’s marriage was not perfect, because he (Mr. Bennet) only married his wife because she was beautiful in her young days and because she was able to supply him with children. Apparently her beauty faded with her youthful age and so did their delight for each other. Jane Austen is showing that marrying for physical appearance is wrong and that beauty fades with time and when that occur so does the love. One should not be amazed why Elizabeth can sum up such a speculation, since the disadvantages of a difficult marriage has been around her, her whole life.

Nowadays, people do not think about when they get married and decide as a couple to have children, they often forget or not realize how their personal relationship with each other can affect their children. Certain behaviours that parents display opening infront of children are easily picked up especially if the relationship between the parents is an unhealthy one, which basically teaches the child about unhealthy relationships; while a healthy relationship between the parents with most likely teach their child how to have a healthy livable relationship .the affect of the marital relationship the parents have also goes deeper than that; the relationship will often affect a child in their mental development. Healthy relationships assist a child in having a decent social life as well as being able to perform well at school. As with an unhealthy relationship where there is a lack of trust, constant fighting, a lack of confidence in both parents and a negative view of life by them tends to be reflected clearly on how the child/children is parented.

In our present day, “staying together for the kids” is becoming an important question before parents think of a divorce. But if you have tried all you could and it doesn’t look like things will work out with your spouse “should you really stay together for the children’s sake”? In my opinion children are not being asked to be born, and it’s a parent’s choice to make a copy of them, therefore I believe that all differences should be placed aside and the children should come first. But when two unhappily married people stay together and fight a lot, they screw up their kids just as much as when they are divorce and one parent drops completely out of the picture. As a result they would end up with a very troubled teen who is more likely to smoke, perform poorly in school, drop out of school, be sexually promiscuous and get knocked up rather than teens who live in happy homes where parents aren’t chasing one another around .Divorced parents can be capable of being great parents just as married parents because they should apply the same values they taught the child and not let personal emotions and depression and anger come into play and be just as strict, nurturing and consistent.

In conclusion staying together for the kids is the wrong reason to stay together. Try to work it if you can see goods thing can result from it. But if things are hopeless, and you are only trying because of the children then you might be hurting them even more severely than you are helping them.