Honor in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

Honor refers to the respect earned by a person as a result of [articular situations or achievements. In this regard, honor is given to a person by other people under their volitions and reasons. For the case of William Shakespeare's play entitled Much Ado About Nothing, the theme of honor can be seen t be resonating quite evidently. However, honor has been used in the context of the play such that it is gender sensitive. The circumstances which make women get honored are different from the ones that make the men get honored and bear a semblance of unfairness where women are seemingly being downplayed and face a manner of injustices since they are honored under odd circumstances in comparison to men. Therefore, the theme of honor resonates throughout the play where it has been partially applied. It can, therefore, be established that the theme honor is of considerable significance to the play in various ways too. Additionally, the female honor in the layer is different from that of men since there are the female characters who have been honored under the circumstances different from those of men, hence differentiating both cases of honor in the two genders. Finally, as the play ends in which Hero marries Claudio, in which there is the determination of whether or not honor does more harm than good basing on the happenings and their results as they transpired in the play till it ends. They are as brought out in the subsequent paragraphs.

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First, honor is of considerable significance to the play as it contributes to the thematic and plot development of the play. In this case, it can be established that there are two genders, the male and the females, in the play who are being treated differently as dictated by the predetermined ways in which they should be honored. It can be seen that men are more honored and have more significant space to learn their due honors as opposed to the women, who unfortunately have limited spaces to establish and earn themselves honors. Men are allowed to take part in loud banters, noise making, as well as loud cheering in their interactions which in turn characterizes their perception on the side of the women in the run to earn the honor, a privilege not held by the women. Sn example of the group of male characters in the play taking part in loud banter includes Claudio, Leonato, Don Pedro, and Benedick.

Additionally, the theme of honor has been used in the play to contribute to the development of its plot development. In this case, it can be seen that the series of events which characterizes the happenings of the play mainly centers around the theme of honor. It is the theme which has contrite to the availability of the semblance of injustice between men and women who act as the characters in the play. Women have been given lesser opportunities to earn themselves honor concerning men, and most of the happenings in the play which surround the men and women have been weaved out of the theme of honor. One of them is that instance where Hero is going to get married to the prince named Claudio. In such an instance, there is the weaving a well-choreographed plan aimed at bringing down the honor of Hero. It turns out that at night before the actual wedding between the two, there is the establishment of the fact that Hero had been unfaithful. It is an instance which Claudio uses to embarrass Hero in the entire witness of all the people in attendance to the marriage ceremony. In such a respect, Claudio does so in the run to showcase his manhood as well as the bitterness of the act of infidelity committed by Hero. Hero, thus, happens to be on the receiving end the injustice of being dishonored. It makes her father Leonato angry and exchanges bitter words with Claudio since the decision to dishonor Hero was based merely on baseless claims of infidelity since her father had through her proper ways of handling some marriage issues with the prince who was the bridegroom. Hence, the theme of honor can be seen to have contributed to the plot development of the play.

Besides, there are how the female honor in the play is different from that of the male honor. They are juxtaposed in the play such that they seem opposite to one another, with the group having favor being the male population. One of such an incidence is how honor is earned amongst the members of both genders. For the case of the females, the honor was earned by the application of more submissive ways to those of the males. The women were supposed to observe absolute respect, fidelity, as well as submissiveness to the male population to be considered viable to earn themselves honor in the face of men. Such ways were gentle, and the women could not apply the ways that were considered masculine in their run to secure the honor. The females, however, were free to apply some particular male version methodologies in their run to secure honor as per their expectations. One of them included taking part in loud and noisy banters composed of groups of like-minded men. They could then get identified to specific