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- Title
Much Ado and Pride and Prejudice: Twin Characters and Parallel Plots.
- Authors
Pilkington, Ace G.
- Abstract
Much Ado About Nothing and Pride and Prejudice are telling a similar story which centers on Beatrice and Benedick in the first case and Darcy and Elizabeth in the second. The article also argues that Jane Austen had Much Ado in mind while writing Pride and Prejudice, but this second proposition is not readily provable (as such borrowings often are) by direct quotation and comparison. Jane Austen's familiarity with Shakespeare and the similarity of her plot suggest the truth of this second proposition, but more important for this paper are the comparisons between the narratives themselves since they tell important things about the nature of both stories. In Much Ado, we have two intelligent, articulate people, smarter than anyone else around them, who fight with each other wittily and nearly endlessly. It is a form of courtship, and it is brilliant entertainment. The problem is that we won't be satisfied unless our two favorites come together at the play's conclusion for a happy ending. And yet the dynamic of their relationship takes them further away from what they and we want. How can we possibly have our insult comedy and yet eat our wedding cake too? Darcy and Elizabeth are in a similar fix. The remainder of the paper tracks the mechanisms by which Shakespeare and Austen have maneuvered through nearly impossible difficulties in plot and character construction to a happy result.
- Subjects
MUCH Ado About Nothing (Play : Shakespeare); SHAKESPEARE, William, 1564-1616; PRIDE &; Prejudice (Book : Austen); AUSTEN, Jane, 1775-1817; SHAKESPEARE, William, 1564-1616 -- Influence; INFLUENCE (Literary, artistic, etc.); ENGLISH literature; LITERARY criticism
- Publication
Quidditas, 2011, Vol 32, p214
- ISSN
1544-9971
- Publication type
Literary Criticism