2007, Form B. Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may betray a protagonist; main characters may likewise be guilty of treachery or may betray their own values. Select a novel or play that includes such acts of betrayal. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the nature of the betrayal and show how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Betrayal occurs for many reasons, but often there is no legitimate reason at all. That is exactly the case in Shakespeare’s famous play Much Ado About Nothing. The betrayal in this play occurs due to a man’s unreasonable hatred towards his brother that causes chaos and shapes the conflict in the play.
Don Jon, the antagonist in this play holds bitter feelings towards his brother, Don Pedro. As a result, he looks to hurt his brother in any way possible. This occurs when Don Pedro’s closest friend, Claudio falls in love. Don Jon immediately sees this as an opportunity to conflict pain on his brother. He cleverly gains the close trust of Don Pedro and Claudio just to have them fall for his tricky scheme that ultimately breaks young Claudio’s heart and makes Don Pedro, look like the villain. The whole play is built around this betrayal and the central idea of misconceptions. This betrayal acts as the conflict as well as the climax giving the play most of its meaning.
The central repeating motif is the harm of misconceptions and being too quick to believe things without proper evidence. This betrayal continues this motif, giving the play its central meaning. This betrayal is built around getting Claudio to believe something that is not true, which gives the play its central theme. The play is given meaning because of this betrayal. Without this betrayal, this play would just be a series of small misconceptions that do not have any deeper meaning but because this betrayal occurs, the conflict is brought to life and also the idea of true love is brought to light giving the play its true meaning that Shakespeare intended for it to have.
Therefore, the central meaning of Much Ado About Nothing, would not exist without this main betrayal occurring. Although many other slight misconceptions do occur throughout the play, without this main betrayal occurring, the theme of being to quick believe the wrong people without proper evidence would not be brought to light to the reader.
Great Job George! You have some good points that really support your thesis. I Think the first body paragraph is a little bit of a summary, but it does still get across your ideas. Just be careful of summarizing. Your motif paragraph is great. It has lots of evidence and is very interesting. I think that your conclusion paragraph could be a little stronger though, but great job with the essay!
ReplyDeletedude george is low key lit fam
Deletedude george is low key lit fam
DeleteNice job with this essay, I agree - beware of the temptation to summarize, it looks like evidence and sometimes it works as details but othertimes it just turns into a summary. Watch out for this in your second paragraph there. Nice job with the motifs paragraph, if you could add a couple more basic techniques into your essay to show how they create the effects that create your meaning that would make this even better. Your conclusion could use a little clean up, but overall, this is a great essay. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI really like your opening sentence, it really interested me for some reason. I think the essay would definitely be stronger if you used some more techniques to support your meaning. I know its tough not to summarize and sometimes a little summary is necessary but I think what little you summarized can be balanced by more evidence. Great job!
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