Themes to Note

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Themes to Note
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• Heroic World

Meets the Pastoral The world that knows no
war H. Whitby
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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 cousins 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)

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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. Shes his
  only _________.
• Claudio Will you with free and unconstrained
  soul
• Give me this maid, your daughter?
• Leonato As freely, son, as God did give her me.
• Claudio And what have I to give you back whose
  worth
• May counterpoise this rich and precious
  ________?
• Don Pedro Nothing, unless you render her again.
• Claudio There, Leonato, take her back again.
• Give not this rotten orange to your friend!
  (IV.i.23-31)

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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.213224) A
nd Benedick, love on. I will requite
thee, Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand.
(III.i.111-112)
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Shakespeare WondersHow Do We Know Our World and
the People in it?

• Looking (especially from a hiding place).
• Listening in on conversations.
• Reading written communication.

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Eye Ear Spying and Eavesdropping

• Claudio watches as masked Don Pedro proposes to
  Hero
• Antonios servant overhears Don Pedro telling
  Claudio he will propose to Hero
• Benedick overhears his friends talk of Beatrices
  love
• Beatrice overhears her friends talk of Benedicks
  love
• Claudio Don Pedro spy on Margaret Borachio
  impersonating Hero a secret lover.
• A Watchman overhears Conrad Borachio bragging
• Other examples?

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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.171-74)
• 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 Heros? Are our eyes our own?
  (IV.i.70)

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Seeing Is Believing . . . Until Youve Been
Fooled!

• Shes 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)

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Some Eyes See Better than Others!

• By noting of the lady, I have markdA thousand
  blushing apparitionsTo start into her face, a
  thousand innocent shamesIn angel whiteness beat
  away those blushes,And in her eye there hath
  appeard a fireTo burn the errors that these
  princes holdAgainst her maiden truth. . .
• Trust not my age,My reverence, calling,
  nor divinity,If this sweet lady lie not
  guiltless hereUnder some biting error.
  (IV.I.157-169)

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Much Ado About NOTINGAnother 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.90-91)
• For heres a paper written in his hand,
• A halting sonnet of his own pure brain,
• Fashiond to Beatrice.
• And heres another,
• Writ in my cousins hand, stoln from her pocket,
• Containing her affection unto Benedick.
  (V,iv.86-88)

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Gender PoliticsMens Fear of Women gtgtAnxiety

• The jokes 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)

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It isnt always funny.

• There, Leonato, take her back again. Give not
  this rotten _____ to your friend! (IV.I.30-31)

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More Gender Politics Mens Anxiety over Free
Speech Among Women

• Female Silence was regulated by lawin the
  Middle Ages
• 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)

Shrews women who talk back to
husbands Gossips women who meet together to
share grievances
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Turning the Class System Upside Down

• 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 Watchmen --- Cant speak properly but they do
a better job of seeing than the upper-class.
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The Dark Side of Comedy

• War
• Illegitimacy
• Betrayal
• Injustice
• False accusation
• Kill Claudio

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So . . . list some themes.

• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.
• 6.