Much Ado About Nothing

[samkum]

Explain How The Mood Changes In Much Ado About Nothing When Beatrice Asks Benedick To Kill Claudio

[Genius!]

Hope this helps samkum.

As an audience we would expect Benedict and Beatrice to stereotypically supply the comedy in the play. However, when she tells him to kill Claudio the mood is drastically changed. This fits in with the whole style of the piece because throughout there are peaks and troffs of drama versus comedy which allows for the comedic scenes to stand out alot more.

The dramatic change of events goes against the genre of the play and against Beatrice's light-hearted attitude, therefore as a audience we are surprised by this scene and feel in need to watch on.

[TradRadMan]

Interesting! I've thought that Beatrice tells Ben to kill out of exasperation and exaggeration--how anyone would feel after Claudio's vicious outburst. (We've created a musical called BAM! Retelling of this very interesting play with of course, changes. Search for "NYC Composer" on Google News if you're interested.)

[Diego Moreno]

I would have really like the story to be more about benedick and beatrice. The couple is lovely when they evidently love each other but deny it and verbally fight each other, it is obvious they are meant to be together. But their attitudes changed all of the sudden when each of them hear their friends saying that the one loves the other. So the sexual tension ends. Their truce was crucial in order for Beatrice to ask Benedick to kill claudio, and why did benedick agree? Why was benedick from the side of hero? I don't think the moods changes drastically, it probably gave it a dramatic turn because of Benedicks new objective (which we dont know if he agreed just to pleace beatrice, or because he actually believed in Heros cause), but in my opinion the overall mood harmonically fades from "social stability" to "an incident with no return" (That is why Hero has to "Die and ressurect"). I like the play, but it leaves a lot of questions to ask (and so everyplay written) that is the beauty of playreading/writting, you only get to know external facts that the writter wants you to know.