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Much Ado about Nothing Shakespeares Play
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Much Ado about Nothing Shakespeare’s Play
Background
Much Ado About Nothing is a play by William Shakespeare that dramatizes a number of contemporary topics such as Love, friendship, society, customs, parent-child relationships and villainy. Considered one of the great writer’s best comedies, the play combines aspects of robust hilarity with some serious discussions of honor, friendship, love, relationships, court politics, and shame. The play is considered a joyful comedy that ends with multiple marriages and has no death. Shakespeare introduces the reader to a group of individuals having a past with each other from the point where Beatrice asks the messenger if all soldiers have returned from the war. Although many themes can be drawn from the play, three key themes of Love, deception and gender are analyzed.
The Theme of Love
Love and romance which defines the nature of attraction between men and women in society is one of the main themes evident in the play. Soon after the soldiers arrive at Leonato’s home, Claudio falls in love with Hero while Benedick and Beatrice continue to engage in a series of witty insults, which have been part of their relationship (Shakespeare 1). Love in the play is presented in different ways; with Claudio’s love for Hero being sort of based on an immature view of romance, while that between Benedick and Beatrice being intricate in nature. From the onset, Claudio does not know Hero and falls in love with an idea of what she is like. Besides, after being suspicious of her for being unfaithful, Claudio instantly forgets her love for her and is full of hatred. Nonetheless, following the series of events that lead to their marriage, their love can be seen to have matured. Hero’s love is also quite simple, accepting her father’s wants and being ready to marry Claudio without actually knowing him (Shakespeare 1).
As the play progresses, Hero and Claudio pledge their love to one another and make a decision to get married to one another. In the week before their wedding, the two lovers decide to engage in a play-match to get Beatrice and Benedick fall in love with one another and stop arguing (Shakespeare 1). The trick finally succeeds, and Beatrice and Benedick soon fall strongly but secretly in love with each other. After Claudio rejects Hero at the altar, Benedick and Beatrice finally confess their love to one another. It is evident that Claudio and Hero’s love is inherently different from that of Beatrice and Benedick. The latter laugh at the very idea of love and are very determined not to marry, constantly insulting each other. This nonetheless progressively changes and they start showing genuine interest and concern for one another (Shakespeare 1).
Romance is presented in the play integrated with the awareness of social realities. Marrying for social betterment and inheritance coupled with aspects such as chastity makes romantic relationships complicated. Although the courtly marriage between Claudio and hero should be central to the plot, another contrasting different type of love between Benedick and Beatrice is also a key focus in the play. Figurative and highly contrived language is used to depict the conventional love between Claudio and hero and the unconventional one between Benedick and Beatrice. Claudio for example says that, ‘can the world buy such a jewel?’ comparing Hero to a rare jewel, while by contrast, Benedick mocks Beatrice despite being secretly in love with her‘…My dear Lady disdain! Are you yet living?’ (Shakespeare 1.1 45).
Love in the play is presented in a complex way since none of the characters explicitly seek love. Love in the play is second to something else such as the inadvertent result of hatred such as the case of Beatrice and Benedick or the incidental fact of marriage. There is also another different view of love as something that is spiritual and cements friendship. There is love between Beatrice and Hero and also a deep respect, love and friendship between Claudio, Don Pedro and Benedick. All the characters have a close understanding and respect for one another, besides although they at times make fun of or criticize one another, they genuinely respect and care for each other (Shakespeare 1).
Deception
Another key theme evident from the play is deception, trickery or deceit for the purposes of both good and evil. Evidently, a number of characters, good as well as evil, engage in deceit as they attempt to manipulate others and conceal their feelings. Both Benedick and Beatrice hide their true feelings for one another as evident by the bitter insults they engage in (Shakespeare 1). When Beatrice asks the messenger if all soldiers have returned from war, she brings to light the fact that she is attracted to Benedick although she also does not yet comprehend her feelings. Deceit is also evident when Don John has his companion make love to Margaret, Hero’s serving women, at Hero’s window and brings Claudio and Don Pedro to Watch. The trick works and Claudio believing that Hero has been unfaithful to him accuses her of lechery and abandons her at the altar. The trickery continues since, Hero’s stricken and shamed family members pretends that she has died from shock and grief and hides her to allow the truth to be revealed. One of the night watchmen who overheard Borachio bragging about the crime finally reveals the truth. Both Borachio and Conrad are ultimately arrested by the head of the local policy, and when everyone learns that Hero is innocent, she grieves for her (Shakespeare 1).
The final marriage between Claudio and Hero is surrounded by trickery and deceit. Leonato instructs Claudio to announce to everybody within the city that Hero was innocent as a punishment. Claudio is also expected to marry Leonato’s ‘niece’ whom they purport to look much more like the dead Hero. When Claudio finally goes to church to marry the mysterious masked woman, he is overwhelmed with joy upon realizing that the woman is actually Hero. The two scenarios, Don John falsely slandering Hero for his own mischief and Friar countering the deception by pretending that Hero is dead, shows how deception has been used as a force for good and for evil in the play (Shakespeare 1).
Deception also plays a central role in bringing lovers together in the play, for example, in the case of Beatrice and Benedick, deception is used as a powerful means of bringing the two lovers to accept one another. The deception is necessary as it is the only way of enabling the two characters to accept reality and admit that they are in love with one another. Interestingly, the play’s characters are so willing to be deceived for example; Claudio is unwilling to suspect Don John’s action and both Beatrice and Benedick are also willing to completely change their mind of their strong world view convictions while Claudio is also so willing to marry a complete stranger so as to appease Leonato. Critics have nonetheless argued that the play over relies on deception and the subsequent misunderstanding it produces. The numerous depictions of deception confuse the audience, driving them to assume that it possesses a privileged status in terms of eavesdropping.
Gender
The third theme evident within the play is the Theme of Gender with the characters within the play being subject to multiple expectations and limitation based on their respective genders. Women in the 16th Century when the play was written were expected to submit to the male. In the play, Hero is readily willing to submit to her husband and his wife and equally to her father as his daughter. Additionally, Hero’s duties and expectations naturally arise out of her gender and are therefore expected to be an obedient wife and daughter. He is willing to marry Claudio even before seeing, because it is her father’s wish (Shakespeare 1).
The theme of gender is also evident from the relationship between Benedick and Beatrice who both claim to be looking for impracticable idealized forms of the other sex. Yet in reality, the two who represent femininity and masculinity are actually afraid of admitting that they are actually in love. The play also reveals that each gender has different expectations about each other in love and in relationship. For example, women are told that it is their duty to put up with the men’s faithlessness and deception while men also describe women as deceiving, unfaithful and nagging. Generally, it is evident that both the genders have negative expectations about the other gender; nonetheless, both the genders are also afraid of non-gender issues such as deception and faithlessness. In the play, Beatrice who is the most interesting and strong character is the ideal representation of women in the play. A patriarchal society is evident from t he play and defines much of the gender roles and sexual relations. Patriarchal language characterized by aggression, authoritarianism, and irreverence is used within the text to establish male social dominance. This is particularly true for the male characters and Beatrice who both use patriarchal language in their bid to assert social dominance. For example, Benedick admits that he believes in male superiority noting that ‘Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for my simple true judgment? Or would you have me speak after m custom, as being professed tyrant to their sex?’ (Shakesphere, 1.1. 166).
Conclusion
Much Ado About Nothing is an interesting comedy climaxing with the major conflict that Hero is unfaithful to Claudio and the themes of Love, deception and gender are central to the play. Deception is cleverly integrated within the play making it appear as second to the nature of its character while gender expectations, limitations and prejudices are explicitly presented. Deception has been used as both a tool of villains to spread unhappiness and chaos while it has also been used as a device used by friends to improve one another’s life. The three themes are central to the play, for example love is the motivation for characters and an integral part of their conversation. Even characters who have dismissed or who oppose love such as Beatrice end up falling in love. At the beginning of the play, Beatrice ‘….cannot endure to hear tell of a husband’ nonetheless, at the end she falls in love (Shakespeare 1.2. 23).
Work Cited
William Shakespeare. Much Ado About Nothing. Full Text. Available Online:
HYPERLINK “http://www.william-shakespeare.info/script-text-much-ado-about-nothing.htm” http://www.william-shakespeare.info/script-text-much-ado-about-nothing.htm
Group 3 Governance, leadership and motivation
Group 3: Governance, leadership and motivation
Assignment: B
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Change process being multifaceted intricate undertaking that is dependent on involvement of wide-ranging stakeholders and the availability of accurate information about the desired outcomes, needed resources and what should be done among other things, the key stakeholders steering the change process must have dynamic leadership skills in addition to good communication skills; so that they clearly and consistently communicate the details of the change process including the progress. Additionally, resistance to change is naturally expected to occur and this is likely to affect the ability of the organisation to meet its objectives if it goes on for extended period. Another skill is good organisation and management skills. These skills entail the manager being able to manage the resources available to him/her and these include time, space and words
Without doubt change resistance is a serious issue that an organisation has to deal with and this calls for proper leadership strategy to ensure the change process is achieved smoothly and successfully. Change process being a complex process to the organisation, a number of skills and strategies from the organisational leadership and other stakeholders are needed to steer the change process for the organisation to achieve the desired objectives. This report lays emphasis on the role of leadership through possession of proper communication skills, good organisational and management skills and astute resource management skills.
The role of leadership through a change process
In order for the organisational policy changes to be effective, there are some leadership challenges that have to be overcome. The right leadership qualities and style are needed in order to steer the desired changes to success (McGuire 2003). With respect to this a leadership style that can propel the policy to success entails one that is flexible enough to accommodate dynamic nature of the demographic landscape, be able to deal with the sensitivity associated with racial and ethnic matters and have the ability to influence everyone toward accepting that the change is needed and necessary. Such is the quality of transformational leadership. A transformational leader will be able approach change with flexibility that is needed hence handle resistance properly.
Explains how groups and teams support organisational performance
Groups and teams are important to the organisational performance because teams and groups are entrenched in an open yet enclosed system comprising multiple levels. This broader organisational system sets top-down control on team functioning. Concurrently, team responses are multifarious bottom-up occurrences that emerge in due course from individual cognition, affect, behaviour, and interactions among members within the team framework. Consequently, groups and teams have a considerable impact on the performance of the organisation from four different yet related aspects. First, based on the above identified perspective through which teams and groups interact with the larger organisational system, teams display and embody task and workflow interdependence and this implies that the performance of one individual in the group or team is as good and essential as the performance of the entire group. In addition, the performance of the entire organisation depends not just on the performance of the various groups and teams but on the performance of the specific individuals in those teams and groups.
The second factor relates to contextual creation and constraint. In this aspect, it can be seen how teams are embedded within an organisational setting yet the team itself endorses a context for all the members within the particular team. Moreover, there are a number of aspects that characterise the broader organisational setting and these include leadership, organisational structure, the prevailing organisational culture, technology and climate which collectively or individually constraint teams and influence their responses. This cannot be overlooked because while the team members operate in an enclosed interactive setting, they in part contribute to the creation of the interactive context in the system by virtue of the responses they elicit, their interactions and attributes. Dynamic team processes to some extent generate contextual structure that limits subsequent team processes. As a consequence, the team context is a shared product of both top-down and bottom-up interactions.
The third factor that also shows the importance of employee engagement in connection to groups and teams is the aspect of multilevel influences. While it is not with doubt that organisations teams, individuals and groups are attached as one in a multilevel system, teams do not behave but individuals do. Nevertheless, individuals behave in fashions that create team level phenomena. Individuals are nested within teams, and teams in turn are linked to and nested in a larger multilevel system.
Lastly, teams and groups support organisational performance through their developmental lifespan such that teams and groups are formed; they mature and evolve in due course. While team members in the group may have good cognitive ability that supports team performance directly and by extension the performance of the entire organisation, as the team matures and team members develop more specific cognitive ability that is directed to dynamics within the organisation, the entire organisational system realizes greater performance.
However, for groups and teams to effectively support organisational performance, there are a number of factors that must be put into consideration. First, it must be borne in mind that it is not possible for people to work together successfully without having effective communication in place. Yet, effective communication closely relates to trust. Therefore, the organisation must install communication and an atmosphere of trust to build work relationships that are hinged on trust so as to make teams work more effectively based on the developed trust.
Another aspect that must be considered is change management and innovation. After an atmosphere of communication and trust has been created and people are now working effectively in teams or groups, there is need to apply their collective skills so that they can deal with change more effectively. Through this approach employees are not only encouraged to espouse constant change that is driving force upon them, but they are also asked to create change, by producing innovative fresh ways of making the quality of products better, improving service delivery and quality of processes. This point implies that as the employees are provided with skills necessary to manage change, the package includes skills that are needed to manage the stress associated with change process and how to play part in the innovation process.
Leadership is another important aspect that must be incorporated into the equation to ensure that teams and groups contribute maximally to the performance of the organisation given that they are now communicating effectively and they have trust amongst them. As a consequence, each member of the team or group must be able to contribute as much as possible. This implies that they now transform into individuals that act on that vision to create change and this inculcating leadership skills and abilities to achieve the vision of the organisation.
Explains the function and process of motivation in organisations
Employee motivation plays a significant role in the organisation because it directly touches on employee job satisfaction hence productivity. Moreover, motivation serves an array of functions in the organisation. First, it guarantees proper utilisation of production factor since it is the mechanism through which members of the organisation are stimulated to make better use of the production factor and this leads to increase in general production and productivity. Motivation also boosts willingness of the members of the organisation to work hard and helps in creating interest into achieving better performance. In order to achieve the organisational goals and objectives effectively, many things are involved in the process and these include machines, finances, equipment, technology and human resources. All the other factors are used by the human resources of the organisation with the main of attaining the set goals and objectives. Without motivation, human resources will not effectively put these resources to proper use hence wastage or unachieved goals. Motivation works by ensuring that the people given responsibility of using the resources are amply motivated to use the resources effectively and aim at the common organisational goals. Another function of motivation relates to change. Change as can be seen, is inevitable in the organisation and change resistance is a significant problem to effecting change successfully. Through motivation, employees can be made to easily accept change. Employee absenteeism can lead to reduced production and this can become a serious problem where employees are dissatisfied or less satisfied with their jobs. Employee motivation plays a major function of reducing employee absenteeism. Still related to employee presence in their work stations, picketing and strikes are likely to harm organisational activities. Motivation comes in as an important tool that can be used to reduce the amount of disputes in the organisation hence reduce strikes and picketing. Lastly, motivation plays the role of guaranteeing better human relations in the organisation and this is important because it creates a good and friendly working environment within the organisational setting.
Intrinsic or Extrinsic Motivation
There are many factors that affect behaviour and behaviour change. Within social learning theory, each major behaviour such as cigarette smoking is seen as having a large number of counter-balancing factors, many factors helping to perpetuate the behaviour (“restraining factors”) and other factors having the potential to help change the behaviour (“enhancing factors”). For example, the price of cigarettes to smoker will serve to perpetuate smoking if it is too low or may encourage cessation if the price goes up substantially. If short-term and ultimately long-term behaviour change is to occur and/or continue, it will become increasingly necessary to “unbalance” the set of factors which constrain a healthier behaviour change or support the new healthier behaviour (Chapman, 2005).
The process of unbalancing requires that we increase the factors that would lead to a change to a more healthy behaviour while eliminating as best we can the factors that help maintaining something as unhealthy as tobacco use. Incentives may be seen as one tool for the purposeful modification of those “restraining” versus “enhancing” behavioural factors. As individuals gain success with modifying these restraining versus enhancing factors, they also increase their “self-efficacy” or confidence in making decisions and taking action to improve their personal health. As the individual gains a sense of confidence in making these behaviour changes, he/she gains further efficacy to make new changes. It then becomes a self-reinforcing process (Chapman, 2005).
Thus, the manager has a great responsibility and duty of clearly understanding the behaviour of the entire workforce yet this might not be a pragmatically achievable feat in practice. For these reasons, the manager is further challenged with the task of not only understanding what motivates the employees but also about the diverse theories that have been developed to help in deciphering employee motivation. Gottschalg and Zollo (2007) also point out that engaging the workforce also goes alongside motivation and empowerment and doing all these helps in aligning the interests of the employees with those of the organisation and helps in achievement of greater competitive advantage.
Process of Motivation
Essentially, the process of motivation involves five basic stages. These stages begin with activation of unsatisfied needs and motives. As the first stage, this phase encompasses activation of a need in an employee and this might comprise either internal stimulus or external stimulus that makes the employee or employees develop a perception of deficiency. For example an employee or group of employees may feel the need for more challenging work or gain more recognition among colleagues.
The second stage comprises tension and it is at this stage that the unsatisfied needs create tension in the employee. The tension may come in various forms including psychological, sociological or even physical and this makes the employee or group of employees endeavour to develop objects that will satisfy the identified needs.
After tension has built up in the individual, the next step is the action to satisfy the identified needs and motives. Since tension created in the previous stage leads to strong internal stimulus which necessitate action to be taken, individual employees or members within the organisation will engage in activities that are intended to satisfy the motives and needs. The action may entail a simple change of behaviour aimed at gaining recognition or even working harder to get promotion.
The forth stage encompasses goal accomplishment. At this stage, appropriate actions are taken to satisfy needs and motives hence accomplish specific goals. To achieve this, reward and punishment can be invaluable tools. When members of a team, group or organisation engage in actions according to the tensions, some members are rewarded while others are punished and goals are eventually accomplished.
The last stage is feedback. This is an important phase of the motivation process as it allows initiators of change to have information that will enable them to make necessary revision, improvement or modify the needs and motives and this is done depending on the success rate of the goal accomplishment.
Explain the function of leadership and management in organisations
The function of leadership can be looked at on the perspective of stakeholder pressures; the outlook brings out a number of strategies that can be used to deal with these pressures. Responsible leadership is one of the ways of effectively dealing with the ever-present and conflicting stakeholder pressure. For this responsible leadership to help business organisations in dealing with stakeholder pressures, a balanced approach is needed which ensures a proper combination of leadership capabilities and strategies that are sustainable in terms of ensuring corporate social responsibility approach that is future-oriented. The management should institute a people approach that is sustainable and future-oriented. This means that the manager will be able to give it a social approach as well as put into account the economic aspects that bring all these stakeholders into a business relationship. The leader will therefore be able to handle stakeholder pressures by balancing the existing and emerging relations and the economic aspects tied to them. Managers need to devise control mechanisms that include proper financial rewards, reasonable share bonus schemes and other mechanisms. Managers should also use relationship-based collaboration to balance the pressures of stakeholders as underpinned in the stewardship theory. All these can only be achieved by combining proper leadership skills with
In addition, through the various functions of management of among them organising and controlling, the management ensures that resources are put to use for effective achievement of organisational goals and objectives and this includes setting objectives that are achievable in the short-term but aligned to the long-term organisational objective.
Explains the role of employee engagement
The issues of employee engagement and retention have become more intense because most companies now cannot afford to pay more to attract or retain quality employees, nor can they afford to lose talented employees with experience (Markos & Sridevi 2010). Employee engagement is an all-encompassing positive attitude toward work and it has various sub-components.
Sets out the role and function of the Board to the organisation
For the change process to be achieved successfully, the role of the Board of Directors cannot be ignored. The board of directors is responsible for overseeing the operations of the organization on behalf of the shareholders. The board of directors is also responsible for approving the corporate body’s strategic plans and key objectives. Besides this, the board is also responsible for supervision of the implementation of the strategic plans and key objectives. As is evident, this mandate implies that the board of directors is answerable if and when the company’s strategic plans and objectives are not steering the company in the right direction. By and large, the board is thus culpable when a corporate body fails because it has an approval and a supervisory role in the formulation and implementation of the strategic plans as well as the objectives. Among the roles and functions of the board mandated by corporate governance regulations, the board must lay down a comprehensive plan for the corporate body or company, detailing the main work plan and the strategy regarding management of any risk, review and revision of such policy. Determination of capital structure is also part of what the board is mandated to take care of and this includes establishing the accompanying financial objectives and then approval of annual budgets. This aspect of the role of board of governors shows that even financial failure of the corporate body shall ultimately cast culpability on the board. Coupled with the fact that the board is also mandated to supervise the main capital expenses and the acquisition or disposal of assets, it implies that almost everything that happens in the corporate body is in the limelight of the board and it is culpable when almost anything goes bad. Nevertheless, it is also important to point out that the roles of the board are governed by regulations stipulated by legal frameworks of various countries hence the extent or nature of role may vary from country to country (Al-Matari et al 2012).
Explain the contribution of corporate governance codes of practice to the change process
Corporate governance codes of practice are fundamental to providing direction to the change process by helping in defining the ethical approach and set of rules that govern the corporate governance practice. For that reason, corporate governance code of practice helps in defining ethical approach by defining the organisational culture and paradigm. In addition, code of practice ensures balanced objectives by ensuring congruence of goals of all concerned parties. Moreover, corporate governance codes ensure that each party plays his or her role and this is achieved by defining the roles of all key players and this includes owners of the organisation, directors and all other staff. The codes of practice also embody the prevailing decision-making process and give weight to all stakeholders.
Lastly, codes of practice help in defining accountability and transparency within the organisation and this encompasses all the stakeholders. This means that the corporate codes of practice will help in defining the accountability and responsibility of all stakeholders during the change process. Change process needs effective strategies, alignment with organisational goals, proper reporting and effective strategic management. This is the point where corporate governance comes in handy to ensure that the change process incorporates appropriate goals arrived at via the establishment of a suitable stakeholder decision-making paradigm that is aligned to business goals. Moreover, it is also at that point that strategic management is incorporated into the change process and this should integrate stakeholder value. Reporting systems are also structured based on the prevailing corporate governance code of practice and ethics to ensure transparency and accountability.
References
Ahmed, A., Hussain, I., Ahmed, S., & Akbar, M. F. (2010) Performance Appraisals Impact on Attitudinal Outcomes and Organisational Performance; International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 5, No. 10: 62- 68
Al-Matari, A. Y., Al-Swidi, A. K. Fadzil, F. H. & Al-Matari E. M (2012) Board of Directors, Audit Committee Characteristics and Performance of Saudi Arabia Listed Companies International Review of Management and Marketing, 2, (4): 241-251
Caterina C. Bulgarella (2005), “Employee Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction: Is there a relationship?” pp 2-6.
Chapman, L. (2005). Incentives an introduction and a story. Absolute Advantage, 4(7), 2
Cuthie, C. (2011). Employee Motivation. Encyclopedia of business, 2nd ed.. Retrieved February 9, 2011, from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Eco-Ent/Employee-Motivation.html
Gagne, M., and Deci, E.L., (2005) Self-determination theory and work motivation, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, vol. 26, (4): 331-362
Ghebre, V. (2009, July 3). Importance of extrinsic motivation at the work place. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://www.articlesbase.com/goal-setting-articles/importance-of-extrinsic-motivation-at-the-work-place-1012217.html” http://www.articlesbase.com/goal-setting-articles/importance-of-extrinsic-motivation-at-the-work-place-1012217.html
Gottschalg, O., & Zollo M. (2007) Interest Alignment and Competitive Advantage; Academy of Management Review 32 (2): 418–437
Green, C & Heywood, J. (2008). Performance Pay and Ethnic Wage Differences in Britain. University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 06-2012. University of Cyprus Department of Economics
Hart, S. and S. Sharma: 2004, ‘Engaging Fringe Stakeholders for Competitive Imagination’, Academy of Management Executive 18, 8–18.
Jeffrey D. Ford, Laurie W. Ford, Randall T. McNamara, (2002) “Resistance and the background conversations of change”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 15(2):105 – 121
Kacel, B., Miller, M. & Norris, D. (2005) Measurement of nurse practitioner job satisfaction in a Midwestern state; Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 17 (1): 27-32.
Lin, H-F., (2007) Effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on employee knowledge sharing intentions, Journal of Information Science, vol. 33, no. (2): 135-149.
Markos, S., and Sridevi, S. (2010). Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance. International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 5, No. 12
McGuire J B. (2003) Leadership Strategies for Culture Change: Developing Change Leadership as an Organizational Core Capability. A White Paper by the Center for Creative Leadership – Friends of the Center Leadership Conference Orlando, Florida, October 8-10, 2003
Nyce, S. (2010, July). Boosting employee wellness participation without breaking the bank. Retrieved from http://www.towerswatson.com/research/2395
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Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day
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Groundhog Day
The movie Groundhog Day cannot be said to be the funniest piece ever released by Bill Murray and Harold Ramis working together and neither is it the most financially successful movie of the time. However, the small and gentle effort pumped into the movie by the two film masters led to the most endearing movie ever thought of by the two. Groundhog Day is an amusing and sweet surprise package. Although the term endearing is an understatement of Murray’s style of humor, Groundhog Day is a thriller thanks to Murray’s comic hostility. Combining the bitter and the sweet is an essential recipe for making a palatable film. The themes and stylistic devices employed in Groundhog Day are key ingredients of its success as a comedy.
Two major existential themes cut across Groundhog Day: One of the themes is loss of identity while the other is “When is life worth living?” (Baldwin, 2015). For purposes of this paper, the theme of loss of identity will be illustrated in finer details. Reality dawns on Phil (the anchorman) that each day he wakes up is a Groundhog day. He does things that he would not do on normal occasions, including stealing Punxsutawney Phil. In these instances, Phil lost his self-identity. Being a different person each day scraps off specific personality from him. On one day, he could be a bored, lonely anchorman while the next day he goes crazy and drives his truck from a cliff. Phil’s loss of self-identity could be explained by the fact that he no longer had responsibilities, a situation that gave him freedom to do anything or be anything he aspired. Research establishes that the strongest principle of growth is in human choice. Later on, however, Phil developed some wisdom by realizing that even though chances were limited to opening up his tomorrow, he could lessen the pain of such a feeling through helping other people. He not only looked after himself, but also helped the poor, started a relationship with the woman he loved, and came to the rescue of those in need. These good deeds enabled Phil to locate his self-identity (Philosophy Film, 2012).
Groundhog Day was highly conceptualized. Although it is primarily a comedy, the movie can as well be considered a fantasy or science fiction (Turan, 2010). Through the movie, time plays a cruel trick on Phil, with the same day being repeated continuously as a metaphor for Phil’s angry rut at the commencement of the film. Murray has always performed transcendently. The screenplay is perfect, continually peeling inventive comedic riffs from the premise. Surprisingly, these riffs often work on another metaphorical level of a man troubled in life.
The film’s mise-en-scene is intentional, combining both design and composition to create a unified perfect viewing experience. For purposes of this paper, the final scene, where Phil wakes up to a new day following continually woken up to the same day, will be analyzed. In this scene, Phil is skeptical at first when he wakes up but is later overwhelmed with joy. The elements in the scene resonate to the rest of the film. The framing and kinesis of figures here are in perfect collaboration to give the mise-en-scene its uniqueness.
The framing is a straightforward one as to the most critical figure. Following the panorama stint of the clock striking 6:00 am, Murray is the frame’s focus for the remaining sections of the scene. Despite MacDowell’s appearance in the frame at certain instances, Murray is at the heart of the shot. MacDowell occupies the left third portion of the screen whenever he is present as Murray takes the center of the screen for almost the whole scene. This is a simple way of alerting the audience that Murray is the key figure in the scene. With MacDowell occupying the screen’s left third and the static nature of the shot angle, an empty space remains on the screen’s right side, making the balance of the shot questionable. However, this is an implication to viewers that something is amiss. This is very true because Murray has seemingly overcome the time loop that held him captive previously.
The movement of the characters is vital to the scene’s mise-en-scene. When Rita moves her arm through the shot (YouTube), there is the justification to the initial shock that the scene met Phil’s claim that “today is tomorrow.” In addition, the motionless body of Phil, as he stares at the window, buttresses the differences in the scene. The motion and lack thereof together establish a thoughtful kinesis. When the kinesis and framing of the scene are merged, one obtains the scene’s composition. This composition tells much about the mise-en-scene of the film.
Additionally, this scene has certain design elements: costuming and directing. Rita’s bright white shirt (YouTube) abruptly disorients the audience as her arm appears in the “expected” scene. The costume choice distinguishes this scene from the rest. In addition, the directions to Phil’s acting distinguish the scene from the rest. The shock and confusion in Phil indicate to the audience the kind of reaction any other person would have in such a case, though done mostly through facial expression. These elements combined help further the theme of self-identity in the scene and throughout the film. The choice of this scene is vital because it is the peak of Phil’s realization of his self-identity.
In conclusion, Groundhog Day is a film of a kind. The comedy is made up of powerful themes that would be difficult to act out in normal circumstances. However, the Director and his crew produced an excellent piece. The design elements, techniques, and mise-en-scene together develop the central theme of self-identity. The movie is one worth watching especially for students interested in film analysis and movie directing.
References
Baldwin, W. (2015). Groundhog Day: Film Analysis. Retrieved 24 January 2015 from
HYPERLINK “http://www.academia.edu/1172240/Groundhog_Day_Film_Analysis” http://www.academia.edu/1172240/Groundhog_Day_Film_Analysis
Philosophy Film (2012). Reply to “Philosophical Evolution in Groundhog Day”. Retrieved 24
January 2015 from HYPERLINK “http://philosopyfilm.blogspot.com/2012/04/reply-to-philosophical-evolution-in.html” http://philosopyfilm.blogspot.com/2012/04/reply-to-philosophical-evolution-in.html
Turan, K. (2010). Movie Review: Groundhog Day. Retrieved 24 January 2015 from
HYPERLINK “http://articles.latimes.com/1993-02-12/entertainment/ca-1227_1_groundhog-day” http://articles.latimes.com/1993-02-12/entertainment/ca-1227_1_groundhog-day
YouTube (n.d). Phil: New and Improved. Retrieved 24 January 2015 from
HYPERLINK “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvGNWLszAQA” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvGNWLszAQA