A Comparison Between the Plots of King Lear and Much Ado...

It is no revolutionary statement to say that William Shakespeare wrote some of the greatest plays of all time. This is accepted by everyone from high schoolers to experts as fact. But everyone is always wondering, what makes them great? Well, at the heart of every great Shakespeare play is a well written plot. But how can one man churn out all these plays he’s written, and still have new content in each one? Aren’t they all the same story to some extent? As Lindsay Smith writes, â€Å"Many Shakespeare plays, like most typical Renaissance plays, are divided into scenes and acts. There are five acts and anywhere from three to five scenes per act.† So his plays can’t be all that different, right? This statement will be examined after taking a†¦show more content†¦From here he begins to court her, hoping to marry her. Now in comparison, these plays are similar in rising action in that both start out with a but a ripple of what is to come. But, they ar e vastly different in the directions they take; Claudio has some difficulty in reaching his goal, but attains it. But for everyone involved with King Lear, thing go downhill real fast. Also, there are both similarities and differences in King Lear’s and Much Ado about Nothing’s plots in the climax. In both cases, the bad guys ruin everything that was going well to begin with. In Much Ado, the climax happens the night before the wedding, as Kristen Zomparelli will briefly detail. â€Å"The conflict of the play fully illustrates the detrimental flaws in the ruling system. â€Å"A trick by the devious Don John to cross this marriage convinces Leonato, Don Pedro, and Claudio that Hero is unfaithful. Completely fooled by the deception, the men engage in slander against Heros reputation, which in reality is completely virtuous. Despite the fact that Hero fulfills the image of the ideal woman, she is still subject to slanderous ruin by the patriarchy.† This is a very shocking scene to watch. In King Lear, the climax happens after the events of the play have drawn the two plots together, and Cordelia and Lear are together again, held captive by Edmund. He mentions earlier in the play that he would kill them when he captured them, so this