Much Ado About the Merchant of Venice Essay (Draft)

Write a 5-paragraph essay in which you explore a theme, plot device, character, or other significant concept from Shakespeare’s two plays, The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing. What do these plays have in common? How are they different? What can we learn from these ideas? What do these characters or ideas have to tell us about ourselves? Upload your first revision to Schoology by the end of class. You will peer edit and upload your final copy next class.

Day 1, Draft 1:

Some notes and main idea: Humor created in the plays through irony

My thought process as I tried to use irony as a possible discussion topic.

• Dramatic irony
  • When the reader knows but the characters don’t
    • Reader knows Portia is the lawyer but Bassanio does not know
    • Claudio and Don Pedro watch Don John’s servant and Hero’s servant have love, and thought it was Hero and another man.
  • Situational irony
    • When the expected outcome does not happen
      • Antonio was about to die but he got saved by Portia
      • Hero was about to marry Claudio, but Claudio mocks Hero for being a disloyal and deceptive person.
    • Verbal irony
      • When a character says something but means something else
        • Act 2 scene 8 – Portia encourages the Prince of Morocco to open the casket, and says “There take it, Prince, and if my form lie there, then I am yours.”
        • Act 4 scene 1 – And what have I to give you back whose worth may counterpoise this rich and precious gift?

Shakespeare is known for his subtle humor in his plays. Even though it might be difficult to dissect every single point, they are all just for entertainment on the stage. Shakespeare is also well known for the amount of irony he puts in his plays. In Much Ado about Nothing and The Merchant of Venice, there were instances of dramatic, situational, and verbal irony in the plays, which created humor.

Dramatic irony is a commonly used irony in Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to let the audience know information that some characters might not know. In Much Ado about Nothing, Margaret and Borachio pretended to fall in love, right in front of Claudio and Don Pedro’s eyes. Both Claudio and Don Pedro thought that Margaret was Hero, and were extremely angry. However, we knew that the lady was not Hero. On the other hand, The Merchant of Venice portrayed Portia as the lawyer, but Bassanio does not know that Portia is the lawyer that was supporting Antonio.

Day 2, Draft 2:

Plot Development and Irony

Shakespearean plays never disappoint in amount and quality of irony. Even though it might be difficult to dissect every single point, they are all just for entertainment on the stage. In Much Ado about Nothing and The Merchant of Venice, there are instances of dramatic, situational, and verbal irony in the plays, which help the progression of the plots.

Dramatic irony is a commonly used irony in Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to let the audience know information that some characters might not know. In Much Ado about Nothing, Margaret and Borachio pretended to fall in love, right in front of Claudio and Don Pedro’s eyes. Both Claudio and Don Pedro thought that Margaret was Hero, and both were extremely angry. In this case, dramatic irony was used to create a spark, which led to the climax. Another instance of dramatic irony was in The Merchant of Venice, where Portia pretended to be a lawyer, but Bassanio did not know that Portia was the lawyer that was defending Antonio. Portia tried to convince that she was Bassanio’s fiancée, but Bassanio did not realize it. In this case, dramatic irony was used to resolve the main problem, and also created a little sense of humor towards the end of the play. Overall, Shakespeare’s different uses of dramatic irony played significant roles in play progression.

Situational irony was also key in Shakespearean plays, where the expected outcome does not happen. In Much Ado about Nothing, when Claudio and Hero were about to get married, there was a sudden change in Claudio’s attitude. They were designated to marry on that day, but Claudio suddenly mocks Hero for being a disloyal and deceptive fiancée. This happened during the climax, when marriage was supposed to be successful, but turned to be a failure, causing tension in the plot. However, in The Merchant of Venice, Antonio was about to face a charge from Shylock’s deal. Instead of facing the charge of one pound of flesh, Portia saves him by stating that no blood should be seen during the process, or Shylock is guilty of murder. This time, Antonio’s penalty, which would be “death”, was neglected after Portia’s save, resolving the tension. Situational irony in Shakespeare’s plays were critical in controlling tension of the plot.

Verbal irony was probably Shakespeare’s strong suit. This type of irony creates double meaning, when a character says something but means something else. In Act 2 scene 8 of The Merchant of Venice, Portia encourages the Prince of Morocco to open the casket, and says “There take it, Prince, and if my form lie there, then I am yours.” Even though Portia does not want to marry the Prince of Morocco, she says it in a way that makes her seem like she wants him as her spouse. This creates a sudden tick for the audience, as no one knows if she actually means it, or not. In Act 4 Scene 1 of Much Ado about Nothing, Claudio says, “And what have I to give you back whose worth may counterpoise this rich and precious gift?” His line makes him seem that he is willing to accept Hero as his wife, but in his heart, he is questioning himself. Again, this makes the audience stutter, because he wants her to be his spouse, and at the same time, he does not want her to be his spouse. Both of these verbal irony timings are revealed during interaction with other characters, causing an off-beat moment while the plot intensifies.

Shakespeare’s use of dramatic, situational, and verbal irony appeals to the plot of Shakespearean plays. Different types of irony have different effects in a plot. Although irony might be subtle, it spices up Shakespeare’s plays, making him one of the best playmakers of all time.

Anonymous comments from peer editors:

• Ideas: you have good ideas, and show details of both stories.
• Organisation: It is very clear and focused on dramatic irony. In the beginning, you said it used in instances of dramatic, situational, and verbal irony in the plays. And in each paragraph, you slowly describe the meanings of the play.
• Word Choice: you don’t have any vocab words that stand out that much, but over all, your word choice is pretty average.
• Sentence Fluency: you have really good well written sentence fluency and you didnt use the same beginning word phrase.
• Voice: you have a strong sense of personality and it sounds like you wrote it
• Mechanics: No errors in grammer, spelling and sentence structure

I felt some of the comments were too generous, but I tried my best to find my own mistakes and wrote my final draft. I did not make a draft after this, but straight to the final draft.