William Shakespeares Use of Character Voices: Much Ado about Nothing and Othello - Essay Example

? William Shakespeare’s Use of Character Voices: Much Ado About Nothing and Othello Today, William Shakespeare is regarded as one of the foremost writers in the Western literary canon. The expansive array of criticism that has been constructed on Shakespeare’s works speaks to the great reach of his texts. Even as there is great disparity between these genres, there is additionally the recognition that a number of techniques Shakespeare implements are thematic throughout his works. In terms of genre, Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Othello demonstrate great disparity, with the former recognized as a light-hearted comedy and the later a foreboding tragedy. Still, in both texts, Shakespeare makes prominent use of the character’s voices to express these character’s feelings and attitudes. Through an examination of Much Ado About Nothing’s Act IV, Scene i and Othello’s Act V, Scene ii this essay examines Shakespeare’s implementation of character voices. Much Ado About Nothing’s Act IV, scene i is a crucial turning point in the plot. This scene begins with the commencement of the marriage to Claudio and Hero. Throughout this scene, Shakespeare implements the characters’ voices in a variety of ways to illustrate their feelings and attitudes. Early in the scene Shakespeare largely implements descriptive dialogue as a means of expressing the characters’ attitudes. Throughout the early part of this scene, however, there are slight undertones to Claudio’s voice. After being asked if he has come to the location to marry this lady, Claudio indicates that he hasn’t; the characters interpret he negative answer as having a different meaning. Claudio continues to engage in the conversation by cleverly concealing his true feelings. In this way, he asks Don Pedro, “And what have I to give you back whose worth/ May counterpoise this rich and precious gift?” (Shakespeare 2011, 25-26). While the characters believe Claudio is complimenting Hero, in actuality his reference to her as ‘rich’ and ‘precious’ is an implementation of dramatic irony; in this way the audience recognizes that Claudio believes Hero has been unchaste in her behavior. Leonato voices his astonishment at the situation through questioning Claudio. Leonato asks Claudio if he has proof that Hero, “Have vanquished the resistance of her youth/ And made defeat of her virginity” (Shakespeare 2011, 44-45). In this instance, Leonato has expressed his emotions through the implementation of a war metaphor. Specifically, he compares Hero’s virginity to a country that had been conquered. Ultimately, Claudio and Leonato’s voices implement metaphor and simile to express a strong amount of patriarchal disgust and astonishment at what they perceive to be Hero’s actions. As this scene progresses, Shakespeare further explores the interactions that occur between Claudio and Hero. After speaking with Hero’s father, Claudio turns his attention to Hero. Claudio expresses the chaste way that he has treated Hero and Hero asks him if she has not acted the same way towards him. Claudio voices his anger and astonishment through descriptive language and simile. Claudio states, “You seem to me as Dian in her orb,/ As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown/ But you are more intemperate in your blood/ Than Venus, or those pamp’red animals/ That rage in savage sensuality” (Shakespeare 2011, 54-58). Here, Claudio indicates that while his original impression of Hero was as an unripe flower, now he believes she is like a savage animal. Ultimately, this metaphor operates as a means for Claudio to express his pure astonishment at what he believes he discovered. Following the expressions of anger and astonishment, Hero voices her innocence. Shakespeare has powerfully increased the intensity of the scene, such that Hero’s proclamations of innocence match the intensity of the accusations thrown against her. She indicates that, “Prove you that any man with me conversed/ At hours unmeet…Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death!” (Shakespeare 2011, 180-182). Here, Hero is indicating that if anyone can prove she actually committed the acts she has been accused of then she can be tortured to death. Rather than implementing metaphor or simile, Hero has expressed passionate intensity indicating that her life is as important as her chaste behavior. In this way Hero’s voice expresses an attitude of strong resolve as well as intensity. Shakespeare’s implementation of passionate intensity as a rhetorical strategy is also evident in Othello. Notably, in both instances Shakespeare implements a female character. The most striking comparison to Hero’s proclamations is perhaps those voiced by Emilia in encountering her lying husband, Iago. She states, “You told a lie, an odious damned lie!/ Upon my soul, a lite! A wicked lie!/ She false with Casio? Did you say with Cassio?” (Shakespeare 2011, 181-183). In this instance, Emilia’s repetition of the word lie functions as a means to counteract Iago’s doublespeak; on an interpretive scale it echoes a similar level of passion as expressed by Hero in expressing her own truth. Later, Emilia calls out, “Villainy, villainy, villainy” (Shakespeare 2011, 192). Here, she is implementing verbal repetitions as a means of expressing her attitude of disgust and horror with Iago’s actions. The recognition in both instances is that with women Shakespeare implements character voices that express passionate intensity, or even hysterics. While the characters’ voices reveal astonishment, disgust, and intensity during the early part of the scene, in the later part of the scene Beatrice and Benedick exchange witty retorts in their expression of love and frustration. One considers that this functions as a strong counter-balance to the earlier exchanges between Hero and Claudio. Benedick begins by asking Beatrice how he can demonstrate that he is worthy of her affections. Beatrice responds, “A very even way, but no such friend” (Shakespeare 2011, 261). In this instance, Beatrice has played on Benedick’s use of the word friendship, indicating that no such friend exists. Here, Beatrice is voicing her attitude that if Benedick wants to win her affections he must help her in a certain way. Later in the scene Benedick and Beatrice implement food as a metaphor for love. Benedick states, “I will make him eat it that says I love you not;” Beatrice responds, “Will you not eat your word?;” and Benedick finally indicates, “With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest I love thee” (Shakespeare 2011, 271-275). Ultimately, Beatrice and Benedick voice their light-hearted feelings of love and playfulness. Interestingly enough, the closet parallel to this word play in Othello occurs through Iago’s duplicity. After Othello murders Desdemona the scene quickly shifts focus to the way that Othello was deceived. As Iago enters, he responds to Emilia in a complex and ambiguous way. He speaks to what he told Othello, saying, “I told him what I thought, and told no more/ Than what he found himself was apt and true” (Shakespeare 2011, 177-178). This is a complex statement as Othello has found a way to admit to his actions, while refraining from admitting to any nefarious intentions. Iago seems to have adopted a sort of constructionist vision of reality, where truth is perception. In this way, what Iago ‘thinks’ occurred is actual reality, just as what Othello ‘found apt and true’ is his reality. Subsequently, Emilia resorts to less ambiguous action. Ultimately, Iago’s wordplay, while ironically implemented in entirely the exact opposite of situation, carries with it a degree of the same rhetorical complexity as the love expressions Beatrice and Benedick share. Act V, scene ii in Othello is, perhaps, the most crucial scene in the play. In this scene, the various subplots and machinations that had been occurring throughout the play come to a fateful climax. From an overarching perspective, one recognizes that both scenes share a number of common elements. In this way, both are primarily motivated out of jealousy over a perceived infidelity. With Othello, however, there is the understanding that a higher amount of intensity is involved than in the scene from Much Ado About Nothing. Still, thematic in both scenes are similar literary techniques. For instance, Shakespeare makes great use of flower similes as a descriptive feature in both plays. In Othello, this occurs during the opening monologue. Othello states, “I know not where is that Promethean heat/ That can thy light relume. When I have plucked the rose,/ I cannot give it vital growth again” (Shakespeare 2011, 12-14). In this instance, Othello is standing over Desdemona’s sleeping body. He is voicing his deliberation over whether or not he should murder her. He compares her life force to heat that cannot be relit. He then compares this life essence to a rose that cannot be given vital growth again. Ultimately, in this instance Othello’s voice is used to express his apprehension to kill Desdemona. While Othello compares Desdemona’s life to a rose, one considers that there is a similar means of expression in Much Ado About Nothing where Shakespeare compares Hero to a rotten orange. While Desdemona, about to die, is compared to a rose, Shakespeare explores the opposite end of this spectrum through Hero. After Claudio expresses his belief that Hero has engaged in sordid behavior and the tone of the characters’ voices shifts considerably, he then compares Hero to a ‘rotten orange’ (Shakespeare 2011, 30). This comparison is highly charged, as it positions Hero as a luscious fruit that because of her immoral behavior has turned rotten. There is also the consideration that a rotten orange can also be a metaphor for a woman’s lost virginity through the linkage between the physiological changes in both organisms. In this way, Claudio has expressed his disgust and displeasure with the situation. While prior to Desdemona’s murder the characters can be described as speaking with a heightened state of romantic intensity, following Desdemona’s death the language changes. In this way the characters increasingly resort to similes with more substantial objects. Othello compares Desdemona to, “a liar gone to burning hell!” (Shakespeare 2011, 130). Emilia responds, “O, the more angel she,/ And you the blacker devil!” (Shakespeare 2011, 131-132). After this exchange of words, Othello states, “She was as false as water” to which Emilia responds, “Thou art as rash as fire to say” (Shakespeare 2011, 133-135). To one degree, it’s clear that the characters’ voices here express great anger and frustration at the events that have transpired. One also considers their choices of simile. In these regards, they first use religious imagery followed by references to the fundamental elements of water and fire. Later Emilia goes on to use further such imagery. After Othello tells Emilia that Iago informed him of certain information, Emilia comes to recognize what has transpired. She then informs Othello, “If he say so, may his pernicious soul/ Rot half a grain a day! He lies to th’ heart” (Shakespeare 2011, 160-161). Here, Emilia is expressing her feelings that Iago is a liar to the heart and that he deserves to die for his nefarious actions. It seems these linguistic choices have been motivated out of a need to express their feelings and attitudes in the clearest way possible. Ultimately, this exchange features the characters using such types of simile to express their feelings of contempt (Emilia) and anger (Othello). This use of character voices as resorting to more substantial language emerges again toward the play’s conclusion, when Othello finally becomes aware of Iago’s treachery. In response to Iago’s treachery, Othello states, “Are there no stones in heaven/ But what serves for the thunder” (Shakespeare 2011, 235). Here, Othello has resorted to calling to heaven for a thunderbolt to strike down Iago. As the scene advances, Othello’s composure further deconstructs. He delivers a monologue where he voices his panicked state. In this speech he talks about his experience in war. Despite his experience in challenging situations, he recognizes he cannot escape the fate that has now come his way. Still, he indicates to those that here him to tell his story in its entirety. Through Othello, Shakespeare then implements figurative language to further voices the character’s feeling of calamity and despondency. Othello indicates he should be remembered as, “one whose hand,/ Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away/ Richer than all his tribe” (Shakespeare 2011, 346-348). In this instance, Desdemona is being compared to a rare pearl. One recognizes the hurt that Othello has felt through the poignancy of his descriptive phrasing. Soon after uttering these lines, Othello stabs himself. In conclusion, this essay has examined William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Othello in terms of how character’s voices express their attitudes and feelings. Within this context of investigation the essay demonstrates that through both plays Shakespeare implements character voices in shows of passionate intensity, clever word play, and metaphor and simile. Cross referencing both texts has revealed that while they demonstrate contrasting genres, they share many of the same rhetorical strategies. Ultimately, the parallel examination of these texts reveals substantial insights into the subtleties of Shakespeare’s writing technique. References Shakespeare, W. (2011). Othello. Opensourceshakespeare.org. [Online] Available at http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=othello&Scope=entire&pleasewait=1&msg=pl [Accessed Oct 12, 2012]. Shakespeare, W. (2011). Much Ado About Nothing. Shakespeare.mit.edu. [Online] Available at http://shakespeare.mit.edu/much_ado/full.html [Accessed Oct 12, 2012]. Read More