This was my midterm for my Eng 212 class (if you haven't guessed by now, it was a Shakespeare class). I can't remember exactly what the assignment was, but I believe it was to show a common theme among the Shakepeare's plays that we have read so far into the semester. The plays we had read already were: "Hamlet", "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Much Ado About Nothing". I'll let you guess what the common theme I chose was.

The Meaning of Vows

William Shakespeare, known as the bard of the ages. Time and time again his plays, both his tragedies and comedies amaze audiences and intrigue analysis. Great plays need great characters and great action. But all of the latter need characters with motivation. Motivation we find in the vow, the solemn promise. Shakespeare creates and explains the motivation for the characters of Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, and Much Ado About Nothing through the use of vows.

In Hamlet, the first vow made is by Gertrude, Hamlet's mother. She makes two vows: one to her first husband and a second vow to her second husband. She vows to love, honor, obey and cherish her first husband "til death do we part." Gertrude keeps her first vow until she begins her affair with her husband's brother, thus breaching her first vow to her original husband:

Hamlet is disturbed ("let me not think on't" Hamlet, I, II, 146) with his mother because her mourning of her husband's death was so short lived and superficial; shown by the briefness of time between the death of her husband and her marriage to Claudio. She gives the same vows that she gave her first husband to her new husband, Claudio.

During a fogging night, Hamlet learns of his father's murder by his fathers ghost and vows to find his father's murderer and then to avenge his father's death. Hamlet procrastinates executing his vow until a traveling troupe of players arrives at the castle and Hamlet sees his opportunity to discover if Claudio is the murderer or not. Once Claudio reveals himself, Hamlet begins to plot Claudio's death. Hamlet finally has his opportunity to kill when he is dueling with Laertes and finds out that Claudio has killed Gertrude and poisoned the end of his adversary's sword.

During the duel between Hamlet and Laertes, Gertrude drinks the goblet of wine that Claudio prepared for Hamlet. She drank against the will of her husband. She now betrays her vow to her husband by being disobedient. When she realizes that the wine was poisoned, she tells Hamlet the condition of the goblet and then she dies. This gives Hamlet the perfect opportunity to avenge both his fathers' death as well as his mother's, by slaying Claudio with the wine intended for him (delicious irony!). Thus Hamlet keeps his vow to his father, as opposed to Gertrude keeping hers.

In the Taming of the Shrew, the one vow that links all of the actions within the play is that of Baptist's vow that Kate must marry before Bianca will be wed. This dismays Bianca's suitors so they begin to plot to find Kate a husband. The only problem is that Kate is a shrew, and that the only way to marry her off is through Petruchio's vow to wed her and to tame her into becoming the perfect wife. Petruchio's vow can be seen in Act I, Scene II, Lines 157-162 in the dialogue between himself and Bianca's suitors:

This shows that Petruchio is sure of himself and thus all of Bianca's suitors will have free will to woo and wed Bianca.
While Petruchio is proving his vow, one of Bianca's suitors is busy posing as a schoolmaster to woo the fair Bianca when in private. Lucentio poses as Cambio, and falls even more in love with Bianca as Bianca falls in love with Cambio and then with Lucentio when he reveals himself to her. Lucentio and Bianca then vow to love and cherish each other in holy matrimony. In order to keep within her father's vow Lucentio and Bianca marry in secret soon after the wedding of Kate and Petruchio.

For the entire duration of Lucentio's masquerade as Cambio the schoolmaster, Tranio substitutes himself as Lucentio to maintain appearances. Tranio vows to keep Lucentio's secret while Lucentio is wooing the fair Bianca. Tranio's masquerade is necessary so that Lucentio can woo Bianca.

The Taming of the Shrew illustrates just as Hamlet that Shakespeare relies on the meaning of vows to provide motivation for his characters.

Much Ado About Nothing is a complex combination of Hamlet and the Taming of the Shrew when we compare the usage of vows within the plot. Again, Shakespeare uses the meaning of the vow and all its responsibilities to provide motivation for his characters.

The focus of the plot revolves around the avowed marriage between Claudio and Hero. "All prompting me how fair young Hero is, / Saying I liked her ere I went to wars" (MAN, I, I, 297-298). It all begins with Don Pedro's vow to assist Claudio with the wooing of Hero by impersonating Claudio.

Don John then vows to disrupt the intended marriage of Claudio and Hero by planting seeds of doubt within Claudio as to the motivations of Don Pedro. This not succeeding, Don John uses his henchman, Borachio, to deceive Claudio and Don Pedro into believing Hero's infidelity. Enter the foil of Don John, Dogsberry and Verges. Dogsberry and Verges see through Don John's plot and vow to bring the truth to light. Regardless of the vow of Dogsberry and Verges, Leonato, Hero's father, vows to kill Hero because of her supposed infidelity. As a further result of Don John's plot, Claudio vows too never marry Hero. Again Shakespeare uses vows as motivation this time to create conflict between characters.

Fortunately for Hero, Dogsberry and Verges fulfill their vow and expose Don John. By revealing his deception, Verges and Dogsberry nullify the vow of Leonato and Claudio. Thus Claudio is able to marry Hero and Leonato maintains his honor and his daughter.

In Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare twists his traditional roles of vow breaking antagonists with vow keeping protagonists while at the same time maintaining the honor of the heroes and the corruption of the villains. Throughout Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, and Much Ado about nothing Shakespeare uses the meaning and action of the vow as the motivation for the primary actions that form his plots. In Hamlet it is the vow that Hamlet makes to avenge the murder of his father. In The Taming of the Shrew it is the vow that Petruchio makes to wed Kate. In Much Ado about nothing it is the vow that Claudio makes to marry Hero. We can find the vow as the keystone. Shakespeare takes full advantage of the commitment that people make by asserting a vow to explain otherwise ridiculous actions.

Throughout Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, and Much Ado about nothing Shakespeare uses the meaning and action of the vow as the motivation for the primary actions that form his plots. In Hamlet it is the vow that Hamlet makes to avenge the murder of his father. In The Taming of the Shrew it is the vow that Petruchio makes to wed Kate. In Much Ado about nothing it is the vow that Claudio makes to marry Hero. We can find the vow as the keystone. Shakespeare takes full advantage of the commitment that people make by asserting a vow to explain otherwise ridiculous actions.

Written by J. Morgan 1999

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© 2005-2008 J. Morgan