What You’ll Love about… Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
I don’t love policing grammar and usage, but the play’s title is interesting. You’ll notice that I have decided not to capitalize “about” in my blog titles. That is because I believe it is standard not to capitalize propositions in a title, and even though “about” can be an adjective, an adverb, or a preposition depending on how it is used, it is a preposition in my titles. Conventionally, the prepositional “about” in Much Ado About Nothing is capitalized, even though it appears to violate the standard. Some style guides suggest that longer prepositions should be capitalized in titles, so that may be the standard in play here.
This happens to be my favorite Shakespeare play. I love what it says about love, that all it takes to shake us out of our ridiculous self-absorption is to learn that we are loved by another person. Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way.
The structure of the play is odd. The main plot, the romance and complications in the relationship between Claudio and Hero, is dull and unpleasant, and the subplot, which is the romance and complications in the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick, is vibrant and funny. Part of that is because they seem more like real people. They are a little raw, a little immature, and a little self-centered, but love makes them want to be…
