Much Ado About Nothing Gender Analysis

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Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde are two plays that, to an extent, challenge the gender norms of their times. The gender norms are challenged by both playwrights through the use of heightened language, manners and etiquette and inversions of expectations. Despite Much Ado About Nothing being a Renaissance play and The Importance of Being Earnest being a Victorian play, both use a similar genre to expose and question the gender norms of their time. Both plays are comedies; the type of comedy deployed being a comedy of manners, where the plot "deals with the relations and intrigues of men and women living in a sophisticated upper-class society" and relies on "the violations of social standards and decorums" (Abrams, A glossary of literary terms, p.39). The amount in which gender norms are challenged is then, perhaps, limited to a certain group of people (the upper-classes) as both Shakespeare and Wilde use characters that were performed (Wilde's audience more than Shakespeare's) to an audience that belonged to the same class as the characters. The gender norms being challenged are then, perhaps, only relevant to the norms that the upper-classes believed in, as it was them being mocked. …show more content…
The wit is often conveyed through the use of heightened or poetic language, which both Shakespeare and Wilde deploy. This is perhaps in an attempt to make the audience pay closer attention to the language used to what they would for everyday speech and pay closer attention to what notions are being challenged. In Much Ado About Nothing, this is best exemplified in the witticisms exchanged between Beatrice and Benedick and in their exchanges with other characters when talking about the

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