WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(1564-1616)

Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing

THEMES

  • social criticism – proletarian themes
    • (Great Depression)
    • social commentary, social consciousness
    • social protest (1930s = era of protest novels)
    • waste, corruption, poverty (instead of promise)
    • Fallen World (corrupted Garden of Eden)
  • society = sick (greed, materialism)
    • Common Man
      • underdog
      • Okie sharecroppers
      • Salinas “paisanos” (Mexican-Indian-Caucasian ethnic mix)
      • fruit pickers
      • migrant workers
  • “neighborly interdependence”
    • “migrants as preservers of the old American verities”
    • courteous, trusting, friendly, generous
    • NI = needs to be regained before materialism destroys society
    • NI not = to Communism
  • human dignity
  • compassion
  • anti-materialism
    • post-WWII:
      • prosperity à materialism, acquisitiveness; suburbia; commercialization
    • “Old America” (its values) = gone
      • America’s best days = past
  • anti-Big Business
    • anti-corporations
  • depersonalization
    • dehumanization
    • impersonal corporate farms/institutions

THEMES

  • relationship between people & nature
    • nature not= Eden
    • (not a perfect world, can be harsh to people, can be deterministic)
  • disconnect from the LAND
    • misuse, abuse of land = misuse, abuse of people
    • waste of lives & land
      • (eco-feminism)
  • MIX
    • distrust & anger at society
    • faith & love of land & American people
    • extols virtues of American Dream
    • exposes evils of increasingly materialistic society
  • “biological view” of humanity
    • objectivity
      • as is (actuality)
      • not @ causes/motives & not @ how should be
    • adaption
      • adapt to survive....change or die
      • survival of the fittest (fittest to adapt)
    • “group-man” (group instinct)
      • man as individual = no identity
      • man as group (humanity) = the only reality
      • man = cell in organism (part of whole),
      • but organism isn’t like the cell
  • human vultures:
    • people taking advantage of the hardships of the vulnerable, weak
    • exploitation
    • self-serving
    • posing as friends
      • (like Chekhov)
  • GROUNDED OPTIMISM
    • life = tough (as is, not glorified)
    • BUT
    • life = worth living
    • “celebrational sense of life”
    • existence = conflict, constant battle (w/people, corporations, nature)
    • human fellowship, courage, “neighborly interdependence”
    • humans & nature (all life) = durable, resilient

STYLE

  • varied style
  • MIX
    • naturalism & symbolism
  • highly symbolic
  • 1st-hand experience
    • worked as migrant worker, lived among them
      • total immersion
      • genuine concern, authentic social commentary
  • compassion, admiration, & outrage
  • journalistic
    • documentary-style
    • description
    • objectivity
      • (like HEMINGWAY)

 STYLE

  • (+)
    • descriptive
      • vivid, evocative
      • cinematic
    • realistic
      • didn’t glorify migrants, nature
      • “warts & all”
      • grounded optimism
  • (-)
    • sentimentality
    • symbolism (obvious, too much)
    • characters = flat, staged/manipulated, “stage-like creations”
      • (like actors obviously acting)
      • (not brought to life)
      • artificiality

LINKS LINKS