William Shakespeare wrote two plays, Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. These plays are comedies written with laughable and joyful attitudes. Although they are all comedies, they differ in that the first is an intriguing comedy, and the latter is a festive one. These plays have got similarities presented in them. Each play explores the primary themes of love, deceit, and folly. Female characters play essential roles in both comedies, while in Much Ado About Nothing play, Shakesphere emphasizes the complexity of these relationships. Unlike the romantic attachments in the Midsummer night’s dream play, the friendships and romantic interests in Much Ado About Nothing are founded on gossip and hearsay. This paper emphasizes the nature and function of female relationships in the two plays by Shakespeare. The similarities and differences between the two comedies are displayed below.
In both plays, there are battles between opposite genders for relationships. In the Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare showcases the struggle between a girl’s father selecting Demetrius to marry her although she is already in love with Lysander. Lysander loves her back, but her father is against it. Helena falls in love with Demetrius, but he does not love him back. She thinks Hermia won Demetrius’ heart, but Hermia insists that she hates Demetrius. Hermia also faces a battle between her and society, the law of Athens. It stated, “if she fails to follow his father’s instruction, they will kill her.” To be with Lysander, Hermia is willing to risk her future with her father and their relationship. Even though it would preclude her from ever being with Demetrius, Helena is ready to help them in their endeavour. These unions are founded not on gossip or idly chatting but on genuine love. It portrays a theme of true love.
Although women are considered not to be strong when chasing love and choose to remain submissive, Shakespeare presents women as more substantial in tracking what they want in their lives. All of the bonds from A Midsummer Night’s Dream end up in marriage. They have a history of slandering and backstabbing one another and are always trying to one-up one another. In contrast, in A Much Ado about Nothing, the main characters are Hero and Beatrice, and they are doomed to spend the rest of the play apart (Sillars et al. 56). The pair often needs help with misunderstandings and false assumptions. Despite everything that has occurred, they can still keep their friendship strong. Don Pedro’s huge battle is seen in the comedy. Claudio and Benedick accompany Pedro to pass through Messina, and during that time, Claudio falls in love with Hero. Benedick also engages himself in a battle of insults with Beatrice. Don John is the brother of Don Pedro, and they are also engaged in a big battle. John tries to destroy Pedro’s plan regardless of what he has spent.
There is also misunderstanding among friends, as presented in both plays. For instance, In A Midsummer Night’s Dream play, Hermia and Helena, who have been friends for a while, start misunderstanding each other. It was noted that their relationship began to fade away. They began to despise one another because of their hatred and confusion since they began dating. “The sisters’ vows, the hours that we have spent.” Through a series of events during the play, Helena gradually develops a sense of betrayal (Fegerlund, n.p.). Although this connection appears far more solid and bonded than the one between Titania and her buddy, it exemplifies the precarious nature of human relationships (Simcox and Bailey, 305.). An underlying concept that is related to this is the difficulties of loving. Throughout the play, Hermia and Helena’s relationship weakens because of the many misunderstandings resulting from the complex web of romantic ties sought.
In Much Ado About Nothing, such misunderstandings include when Don john appears angry and sad. He had a misunderstanding with Don Pedro. He had told him that his wife was disloyal. Conrad tells John that they have started to become friends again with Pedro. John was forced to be cheerful to be on good terms with his brother again. Borachio also tells Don John of the overheard conversation about Claudio and Hero’s marriage. Don John was noted to hate Claudio and use some untrue information to cause trouble for Claudio. However, Borachio and Conrad help him. There is also another misunderstanding in Much Ado About Nothing, where some friends (Antonio and Borachio) overhear the same discussion but interpret it differently. The discussion was heard between Pedro and Claudio. Antonio, who misinterpreted the conversation, ended up telling Leonato and Hero (Fagurland, n.p.).
In both comedies, there are betrayals portrayed. In Much Ado About Nothing comedy, William Shakespeare showcases Don John betraying Claudio. He says he had seen Hero cheating on her friend Claudio. This information seems untrue because John wants to ruin Claudio and Hero’s relationship. Pedro wants to court Hero so that he can marry Cloudio, but John seems to be against it. Although, at long last, they married. In Midsummer Night’s Dream, there is betrayal shown between Hermia and Helena. Their relationship started fading away because of Demetrius. Helena thought Hermia had fallen in love with Demetrius and won his heart. However, Hermia insists that she does not love Demetrius, but Helena doubts that. Helena had fallen in love with him, but he seemed to reciprocate.
In conclusion, it is evident that both plays emphasize love more, and some misunderstandings between close friends and women were presented to be strong. In Midsummer Night’s Dream, Beatrice is considered a strong woman since she does not want to get married because she has not found the ideal, equal partner and does not want to give up her freedom and submit to a dictatorial spouse. In both comedies, betrayals are evidently arising among close friends, blood sisters, and brothers. This conflict is due to love relationships and misunderstandings among friends. In both comedies, the battles came to an end peacefully. In Much Ado About Nothing, Hermia wins the battle between his father and society. Hermia ran away from Athens to continue in love with her chosen lover and escape the Law of Athens. In both plays, the rising misunderstanding is evident to be settled by the friends. The two comedies focus their battles on the sexes. Both comedies have the feature of having solid connections at the outset that are afterwards threatened by external factors (Sillars et al. 56). The relationships between the characters are threatened or destroyed by external causes in all of the plays. Finally, the lovers end up marrying each other in both comedies.
Work Cited
Fagerlund, Ylva. “William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream & Much Ado About Nothing: what has love got to do with it? Shakespeare’s characters: good, bad, over the top or just delightfully human.” 2009.
Sillars, Stuart, et al. “Play Reviews: En Midsommernatats Drøm (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Macbeth, Dido, Queen of Carthage, Henry V, Julius Caesar, the Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, the Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, Much Ado about Nothing, Westward Ho!, Bingo: Scenes of Money and Death, Hamlet, the Winter’s Tale and Henry V, Much Ado about Nothing, Les Trois Richard [The Three Richards], after Richard III.” (2022): 51-86.
Simcox, Bailey. “Hamlet by William Shakespeare, and: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. by William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, and: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.” Shakespeare Bulletin 37.2 2019: 305–308.
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