Universal Themes

Universal Themes
One of the reasons we study Shakespeare's plays is because of the universal themes that can be found in the content.Answer the following:
1. What do you think a universal theme is?
2. What universal themes can be found in Much Ado About Nothing?
3. Knowing about universal themes, write a paragraph addressing the following:
Is Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing relevant for a modern audience? Explain your answer with reference to the play's content and characters.

ANSWERS

A1,
I think a universal theme means things that applies world wide at any time period.

Class,
As a class, we have determined that a universal theme encompasses the following things:1. It is an idea or concept that can be easily related to by a wide variety of individuals.2. The idea or concept is not limited to one society, culture or time period.3. The ideas or concepts that can be viewed as universal themes are easily recognisable.

A2,
Love can be found as a universal theme in this play. The play deals with love of Claudio and Hero and Benedick and Beatrice. This universal theme can relate to a wide variety of individuals as love is a part of each persons life. Love in this play is easily recognized and the idea is not limited to one society, culture or time period as love has existed since the earth was first developed.

Class,
As a class, we also came up with the following list in answer to Question 2:1. Jealousy - Don John is jealous of Claudio and all the attention he was receiving. There was evidence of jealousy between Don John and his brother Don Pedro (Don John is jealous of the respect and admiration, etc that Don Pedro receives because of his position).2. Heartbreak - Hero feels heartbroken when Claudio rejects her and accuses her of being unfaithful. Claudio also feels heartbreak when he is led to believe that Hero has betrayed him and also when he finds out she is 'dead' and he realizes that she was pure. 3. Anger - The supposed betrayal of Claudio (by Hero) demonstrates that many characters display anger. Claudio is angry, Leonato is angry, Beatrice becomes angered. As well as this, Don John appears to be an angry character throughout the play. 4. Love - Throughout the play, the story line is focused on the love of two separate couples: Hero and Claudio and Benedict and Beatrice. Hence, love is one of the central themes in the play.



A 3,
The Shakespeare play ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ is very relevant for a modern audience as the universal themes that are found in it, still exist today. Such as Love, jealousy and heart break, just to name a few. Love in this world today is all around, there is young love, which you see in middle and senior school, and there is adult love, which is when couples get married and live very happily. When Claudio and Hero fall in love in the movie, they love each other at first sight and in this world today love at first sight still exists. Some people’s reasons for getting married and having relationships are that they saw the girl or the guy at first sight and new that they were the one for them. Jealousy happens everywhere you look, in school, university, in the public, etc. In the movie Don John is jealous of Claudio because he is not getting all of the attention. This is examples of real life situations. For example in school if some attention seekers do not get all of the attention they want, they get jealous, and angry. This play is very relevant to the modern times as the universal themes are found in both the movie and the out side world.