Much Rousseau About Nothing

In the Shakespearean play turned movie, “Much Ado About Nothing”, there are many aspects of Rousseau and what he would have wanted in terms of the civilization that is created within the play turned movie. The cinematic movie adaptation of this beautiful play showcases of two couples and the surrounding family and guests can experience love, heartbreak, and all the pains and agony that come with finding someone to love. Beatrice, the main woman in this play argues constantly with Benedick, but they are true lovers, and while they mask for their feelings for each other by arguing, at the end of the day, there is true love that prevails between them.

The other couple in this play, represent a more innocent love story. Hero and Claudio are younger, and their love story starts off with plain attraction that is turned into something more. These two couples contrast each other in several ways, and this is how they can be first compared to what Rousseau talks about. Rousseau argues that love changes once you are completely submerged into a civilization, that amour de soi turns into amour de propre. Beatrice and Benedick can be compared to amour de soi, because they aren’t going along with the normal expectations of society and getting married right off the bat because society dictates it. Furthermore, they practice self love, because they are secure in themselves to know their self worth, and they do not put their self-esteem or their image in the hands of someone else.

I think that I can relate this because I also agree with what Rousseau is saying because I also think that the type of love that is most important is the one that Benedick and Beatrice share. I feel like it represents the difference between puppy love and adult love. Beatrice and Benedick represent adult, more real love, whereas Hero and Claudio represent the kind of love that I would hope I am too old for, which is the puppy kind of love.

They are extremely confident in themselves, so much so, that when they make fun of each other, they don’t even turn an eye or get offended. This showcases that they are representative of amour de soi because they don’t put their self image in the hands of someone else. However, Hero and Claudio are representative of amour de propre because they do put their self image in the hands of each other. They aren’t content with themselves, so when they aren’t sure of the other person’s feelings, they start to feel lowly about themselves, but if they were confident in their feelings, and secure in themselves, they wouldn’t feel this way. This showcases how emersed they are into society, which Rousseau argues is bad because this leads to eventual heartbreak for them both that could have been avoided.

Furthermore, they are following what society wants for them by going along with the traditional and conventional askings of society. This is seen when they agree to marry each other, but this is portrayed as a fragile union, as they are quickly separated from one another because of a baseless rumor. All together, the movie also showcases how society can sometimes leads to its citizens downfall because they are so quick to destroy each other’s happiness that they are willing to tear each other down by spreading rumors and tearing a union apart. However, it shows the chance of redemption that they have as well because they end up realizing how important self love is in the end of the movie. This movie showcases what Rousseau argues could be the bad and the good that is apart of a civilization.