| “I will assume thy part in some disguise” | DECEPTION: Said while Don Pedro plans to woo Hero in the name of Claudio. |
| “Once before he won it of false dice” | DECEPTION: Beatrice says she once loved Benedick but he deceived her to get her love. |
| “I cannot hide what I am” | Don John is ironically one of the most authentic characters who doesn’t hide behind a ‘fashion’. |
| “Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent; for beauty is a witch…” | DECEPTION + GENDER: When Claudio erroneously thinks Don Pedro has wooed Hero for himself he blames Hero’s beauty. |
| “I am a plain dealing villain” | DECEPTION + APPEARANCE VS. REALITY: Don John claims to be incapable of deceit and is surprisingly open about his villainous intent. |
| “Note this before my notes; there’s not a note of mine that’s worth noting” – Balthazar | NOTING/NOTHING: Setting up the comedy of misunderstood communication. Balthasar is being self-deprecating about his musical ability and punning. |
| “I do love nothing in the world so well as you: Is not that strange?” – Benedick | COMEDY VS. TRAGEDY/LOVE: Benedick finally confesses his love to Beatrice after the humiliation of Hero on her wedding day. He uses litotes for characteristic understatement. |
| “I am sick in displeasure to him” | SICKNESS: Don John has a perverse sense of healthy relationships. He says any impediment to Claudio and Hero’s marriage will be “medicinable” to him because… |
| “By my troth I am sick” | SICKNESS: Beatrice claims the cause of her sickness is |
| “Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a piece of valiant dust?” – Beatrice | GENDER: Beatrice speaks slightingly of marriage with the sarcastic metaphor for men as “valiant dust”. She sees it as a true pity for women to forgo their independence to be married. |
| “Sign no more ladies sigh no more, men were deceivers ever” – Balthazar | DECEPTION/WOMEN: The title of Mumford and Sons first album. Balthazar’s song. An imperative instruction to women. |
| “Have vanquished the resistance of her youth and made defeat of her virginity” – Leonato | VIOLENCE/LOVE: The war metaphor about premarital sex is encoded with aggression and violence. |
| ‘Yes faith, it is my cousin’s duty to make curtsy” – Beatrice | GENDER: Beatrice is sarcastic and passive aggressive as she looks on at her cousin Hero’s behaviour. |
| “I am so attired in wonder, I know not what to say” – Benedict | FASHION: When he finds out Hero is accused of cheating Benedict expresses his shock through a fashion metaphor. |
| “He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block” -Beatrice | FASHION: Beatrice speaks slightingly of the fickleness of Benedict – inconstant and unreliable. |
| “He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man” – Beatrice | GENDER: Beatrice creates an impossible paradox saying that she will marry no man. |
| “Death is the fairest cover for her shameThat may be wished for” | GENDER: When his daughter Hero has been accused of infidelity Leonato declares that she were better off dead. |
| “But manhood is melted into courtesies, valour into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too.” – Beatrice | GENDER/APPEARANCE vs. REALITY: Beatrice despairs at the hopelessness of men and how manliness has no substance. |
| “Lord, I could not endure a husband” – Beatrice | GENDER/MARRIAGE: Beatrice states with a firm declarative of her intention to never get married. |
| “O that I were a man for his sake!” – Beatrice | GENDER: This emotional apostrophe shows Beatrice’s frustration at the restrictions of her gender meaning she can’t enact revenge on Hero’s behalf. |
| “I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving” – Beatrice | GENDER: Beatrice feels defeated and declares that because of the constrictions of her gender she will have to be content crying herself to death. |
| “Friendship is constant in all other things save in the office and affairs of love.” – Claudio | LOVE: When Claudio thinks Don Pedro has wooed Hero for himself he is incensed and declares in anger that love ruins friendships. |
| “I love you with so much of my heart , that none is left to protest” – Beatrice | LOVE: Beatrice unwillingly admits that she adores Benedict. |
| “There’s no true drop of blood in him, to be truly touched with love.” – Don Pedro | LOVE: Don Pedro and Claudio tease Benedict when he appears claiming to have the toothache. They speculate that he might be in love but Don Pedro dismisses the possibility Benedict is capable of love! |
| “My talk to thee must be how Benedick is sick in love with Beatrice.” – Hero | LOVE AS SICKNESS/DECEPTION: Hero plots how she will deceive Hero. |
| “Will you not eat your words?” – Beatrice”With no sauce that can be devised to it.” – Benedick | LOVE: Beatrice is concerned that Benedict is dishonest and will go back on his words. Benedict insists he won’t. |
| “Suffer love! A good epithet: I do suffer love indeed for I love you against my will.” – Benedict | LOVE: Benedict describes love as a sickness and even in the final scene only reluctantly admits his love for her. He is stubborn! |
| ThemeSocial Grace | The characters’ dense, colorful manner of speaking represents the ideal that Renaissance courtiers strove for in their social interactions. The play’s language is heavily laden with metaphor and ornamented by rhetoric. Benedick, Claudio, and Don Pedro all produce the kind of witty banter that courtiers used to attract attention and approval in noble households. Courtiers were expected to speak in highly contrived language but to make their clever performances seem effortless. The most famous model for this kind of behavior is Baldassare Castiglione’s sixteenth-century manual The Courtier, translated into English by Thomas Hoby in 1561. According to this work, the ideal courtier masks his effort and appears to project elegance and natural grace by means of what Castiglione calls sprezzatura, the illusion of effortlessness. Benedick and his companions try to display their polished social graces both in their behavior and in their speech.The play pokes fun at the fanciful language of love that courtiers used. When Claudio falls in love, he tries to be the perfect courtier by using intricate language. As Benedick notes: “His words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many strange dishes” (II.iii.18-19). Although the young gallants in the play seem casual in their displays of wit, they constantly struggle to maintain their social positions. Benedick and Claudio must constantly strive to remain in Don Pedro’s favor. When Claudio silently agrees to let Don Pedro take his place to woo Hero, it is quite possible that he does so not because he is too shy to woo the woman himself, but because he must accede to Don Pedro’s authority in order to stay in Don Pedro’s good favor. When Claudio believes that Don Pedro has deceived him and wooed Hero not for Claudio but for himself, he cannot drop his polite civility, even though he is full of despair. Beatrice jokes that Claudio is “civil as an orange,” punning on the Seville orange, a bitter fruit (II.i.256). Claudio remains polite and nearly silent even though he is upset, telling Benedick of Don Pedro and Hero: “I wish him joy of her” (II.i.170). Clearly, Claudio chooses his obedience to Don Pedro over his love for Hero.Claudio displays social grace, but his strict adherence to social propriety eventually leads him into a trap. He abandons Hero at the wedding because Don John leads him to believe that she is unchaste (marriage to an unchaste woman would be socially unacceptable). But Don John’s plan to unseat Claudio does not succeed, of course, as Claudio remains Don Pedro’s favorite, and it is Hero who has to suffer until her good reputation is restored. |
| Theme Deception as a Means to an End | The plot of Much Ado About Nothing is based upon deliberate deceptions, some malevolent and others benign. The duping of Claudio and Don Pedro results in Hero’s disgrace, while the ruse of her death prepares the way for her redemption and reconciliation with Claudio. In a more lighthearted vein, Beatrice and Benedick are fooled into thinking that each loves the other, and they actually do fall in love as a result. Much Ado About Nothing shows that deceit is not inherently evil, but something that can be used as a means to good or bad ends.In the play, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between good and bad deception. When Claudio announces his desire to woo Hero, Don Pedro takes it upon himself to woo her for Claudio. Then, at the instigation of Don John, Claudio begins to mistrust Don Pedro, thinking he has been deceived. Just as the play’s audience comes to believe, temporarily, in the illusions of the theater, so the play’s characters become caught up in the illusions that they help to create for one another. Benedick and Beatrice flirt caustically at the masked ball, each possibly aware of the other’s presence yet pretending not to know the person hiding behind the mask. Likewise, when Claudio has shamed and rejected Hero, Leonato and his household “publish” that Hero has died in order to punish Claudio for his mistake. When Claudio returns, penitent, to accept the hand of Leonato’s “niece” (actually Hero), a group of masked women enters and Claudio must wed blindly. The masking of Hero and the other women reveals that the social institution of marriage has little to do with love. When Claudio flounders and asks, “Which is the lady I must seize upon?” he is ready and willing to commit the rest of his life to one of a group of unknowns (V.iv.53). His willingness stems not only from his guilt about slandering an innocent woman but also from the fact that he may care more about rising in Leonato’s favor than in marrying for love. In the end, deceit is neither purely positive nor purely negative: it is a means to an end, a way to create an illusion that helps one succeed socially. |
| Theme The Importance of Honor | The aborted wedding ceremony, in which Claudio rejects Hero, accusing her of infidelity and violated chastity and publicly shaming her in front of her father, is the climax of the play. In Shakespeare’s time, a woman’s honor was based upon her virginity and chaste behavior. For a woman to lose her honor by having sexual relations before marriage meant that she would lose all social standing, a disaster from which she could never recover. Moreover, this loss of honor would poison the woman’s whole family. Thus, when Leonato rashly believes Claudio’s shaming of Hero at the wedding ceremony, he tries to obliterate her entirely: “Hence from her, let her die” (IV.i.153). Furthermore, he speaks of her loss of honor as an indelible stain from which he cannot distance himself, no matter how hard he tries: “O she is fallen / Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea / Hath drops too few to wash her clean again” (IV.i.138-140). For women in that era, the loss of honor was a form of annihilation.For men, on the other hand, honor depended on male friendship alliances and was more military in nature. Unlike a woman, a man could defend his honor, and that of his family, by fighting in a battle or a duel. Beatrice urges Benedick to avenge Hero’s honor by dueling to the death with Claudio. As a woman, Hero cannot seize back her honor, but Benedick can do it for her via physical combat. |
| MotifPublic Shaming | Even though Hero is ultimately vindicated, her public shaming at the wedding ceremony is too terrible to be ignored. In a sense, this kind of humiliation incurs more damage to her honor and her family name than would an act of unchaste behavior—an transgression she never commits. The language that both Claudio and Leonato use to shame Hero is extremely strong. To Claudio she is a “rotten orange” (IV.i.30), and to Leonato a rotting carcass that cannot be preserved: “the wide sea / Hath . . . / . . . salt too little which may season give / To her foul tainted flesh!” (IV.i.139-142).Shame is also what Don John hopes will cause Claudio to lose his place as Don Pedro’s favorite: once Claudio is discovered to be engaged to a loose woman, Don John believes that Don Pedro will reject Claudio as he rejected Don John long ago. Shame is a form of social punishment closely connected to loss of honor. A product of an illegitimate sexual coupling himself, Don John has grown up constantly reminded of his own social shame, and he will do anything to right the balance. Ironically, in the end Don John is shamed and threatened with torture to punish him for deceiving the company. Clearly, he will never gain a good place in courtly society. |
| MotifNoting/Nothing | In Shakespeare’s time, the “Nothing” of the title would have been pronounced “Noting.” Thus, the play’s title could read: “Much Ado About Noting.” Indeed, many of the players participate in the actions of observing, listening, and writing, or noting. In order for a plot hinged on instances of deceit to work, the characters must note one another constantly. When the women manipulate Beatrice into believing that Benedick adores her, they conceal themselves in the orchard so that Beatrice can better note their conversation. Since they know that Beatrice loves to eavesdrop, they are sure that their plot will succeed: “look where Beatrice like a lapwing runs / Close by the ground to hear our conference,” notes Hero (III.i.24-25). Each line the women speak is a carefully placed note for Beatrice to take up and ponder; the same is true of the scheme to convince Benedick of Beatrice’s passion.Don John’s plot to undo Claudio also hinges on noting: in order for Claudio to believe that Hero is unchaste and unfaithful, he must be brought to her window to witness, or note, Margaret (whom he takes to be Hero) bidding farewell to Borachio in the semidarkness. Dogberry, Verges, and the rest of the comical night watch discover and arrest Don John because, although ill-equipped to express themselves linguistically, they overhear talk of the Margaret–Borachio staging. Despite their verbal deficiencies, they manage to capture Don John and bring him to Leonato, after having had the sexton (a church official) “note” the occurrences of the evening in writing. In the end, noting, in the sense of writing, unites Beatrice and Benedick for good: Hero and Claudio reveal love sonnets written by Beatrice and Benedick, textual evidence that notes and proves their love for one another. |
| MotifEntertainment | From the witty yet plaintive song that Balthasar sings about the deceitfulness of men to the masked ball and the music and dancing at the end of the play, the characters of Much Ado About Nothing spend much of their time engaging in elaborate spectacles and entertainments. The play’s title encapsulates the sentiment of effervescent and light court entertainment: the two hours’ traffic onstage will be entertaining, comic, and absorbing. The characters who merrily spar and fall in love in the beginning will, of course, end up together in the conclusion. Beatrice compares courtship and marriage to delightful court dances: “wooing, wedding and repenting is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinquepace” (II.i.60-61). By including a masquerade as court entertainment in the middle, as well as two songs and a dance at the end, the play presents itself as sheer entertainment, conscious of its own theatricality. |
| Motif Counterfeiting | The idea of counterfeiting, in the sense of presenting a false face to the world, appears frequently throughout the play. A particularly rich and complex example of counterfeiting occurs as Leonato, Claudio, and Don Pedro pretend that Beatrice is head over heels in love with Benedick so that the eavesdropping Benedick will overhear it and believe it. Luring Benedick into this trap, Leonato ironically dismisses the idea that perhaps Beatrice counterfeits her desire for Benedick, as he and the others counterfeit this love themselves: “O God! Counterfeit? There was never counterfeit of passion came so near the life of passion as she discovers it” (II.iii.98-99).Another, more serious reference to counterfeiting occurs at the wedding ceremony, as Claudio rhetorically paints a picture of Hero as a perfect counterfeit of innocence, unchaste and impure beneath a seemingly unblemished surface:She’s but the sign and semblance of her honour.Behold how like a maid she blushes here! O, what authority and show of truthCan cunning sin cover itself withal! (IV.i.31-34)Hero’s supposed counterfeiting is of a grave nature, as it threatens her womanly reputation. It is not her emotions that are being misconstrued, as with Beatrice, but rather her character and integrity. |
| SymbolsThe Taming of Wild Animals | The play is peppered with metaphors involving the taming of wild animals. In the case of the courtship between Beatrice and Benedick, the symbol of a tamed savage animal represents the social taming that must occur for both wild souls to be ready to submit themselves to the shackles of love and marriage. Beatrice’s vow to submit to Benedick’s love by “[t]aming my wild heart to thy loving hand” makes use of terms from falconry, suggesting that Benedick is to become Beatrice’s master (III.i.113). In the opening act, Claudio and Don Pedro tease Benedick about his aversion to marriage, comparing him to a wild animal. Don Pedro quotes a common adage, “‘In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke,'” meaning that in time even the savage Benedick will surrender to the taming of love and marriage (I.i.213). Benedick mocks this sentiment, professing that he will never submit to the will of a woman. At the very end, when Benedick and Beatrice agree to marry, Claudio pokes fun at Benedick’s mortified countenance, suggesting that Benedick is reluctant to marry because he remembers the allusion to tamed bulls:Tush, fear not, man, we’ll tip thy horns with gold, And all Europa shall rejoice at theeAs once Europa did at lusty JoveWhen he would play the noble beast in love. (V.iv.44-47)Claudio changes Benedick from a laboring farm animal, a bull straining under a yoke, to a wild god, empowered by his bestial form to take sexual possession of his lady. While the bull of marriage is the sadly yoked, formerly savage creature, the bull that Claudio refers to comes from the classical myth in which Zeus took the form of a bull and carried off the mortal woman Europa. This second bull is supposed to represent the other side of the coin: the bull of bestial male sexuality. |
| SymbolWar | Throughout the play, images of war frequently symbolize verbal arguments and confrontations. At the beginning of the play, Leonato relates to the other characters that there is a “merry war” between Beatrice and Benedick: “They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them” (I.i.50-51). Beatrice carries on this martial imagery, describing how, when she won the last duel with Benedick, “four of his five wits went halting off” (I.i.53). When Benedick arrives, their witty exchange resembles the blows and parries of a well-executed fencing match. Leonato accuses Claudio of killing Hero with words: “Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart” (V.i.68). Later in the same scene, Benedick presents Claudio with a violent verbal challenge: to duel to the death over Hero’s honor. When Borachio confesses to staging the loss of Hero’s innocence, Don Pedro describes this spoken evidence as a sword that tears through Claudio’s heart: “Runs not this speech like iron through your blood?” (V.i.227), and Claudio responds that he has already figuratively committed suicide upon hearing these words: “I have drunk poison whiles he uttered it” (V.i.228). |
| SymbolHero’s Death | Claudio’s powerful words accusing Hero of unchaste and disloyal acts cause her to fall down in apparent lifelessness. Leonato accentuates the direness of Hero’s state, pushing her further into seeming death by renouncing her, “Hence from her, let her die” (IV.i.153). When Friar Francis, Hero, and Beatrice convince Leonato of his daughter’s innocence, they maintain that she really has died, in order to punish Claudio and give Hero a respectable amount of time to regain her honor, which, although not lost, has been publicly savaged. Claudio performs all the actions of mourning Hero, paying a choir to sing a dirge at her tomb. In a symbolic sense, Hero has died, since, although she is pure, Claudio’s damning accusation has permanently besmirched her name. She must symbolically die and be reborn pure again in order for Claudio to marry her a second time. Hero’s false death is less a charade aimed to induce remorse in Claudio than it is a social ritual designed to cleanse her name and person of infamy. |
| How does Shakespeare create Dramatic Effect? | – by switching a lot from one event to another. The switches tend to involve two things: a switch from one group of characters to another, and a change of mood, like switching from tragedy to humour |
| Whats an example of Shakespeare switching events to create dramatic effect? | – the wedding scene is a terrible ordeal for Hero. It should have been the most important day in her life, and was almost as important to her father, but things go tragically wrong. – Leonato wants to disown Hero- Beatrice wants to eat Claudio’s “heart in the market place”- and Benedick leaves to challenge his best friend to a duel- Things could not get any worse. However, Shakespeare suddenly switches the mood completely. |
| How does Shakespeare allow the audience to make connections and understand some of the themes? | Sometimes events in the play are repeated in a similar way later on. |
| Example’s of events in the play being repeated | How Benedick and Beatrice are tricked – They are both tricked in exactly the same way: they ‘overhear’ friends talking about them and hide to find out more. – They react in similar ways, too. So the audience can see both sides at once. – Even the words they use when they hear their friends are similar. Benedick says: “This can be no trick,” while and Beatrice asks: “Can this be true?” |
| How are characters being conned by others a repeated event? | – Don John tries to fool Claudio when Don Pedro proposes- Beatrice fools Benedick at the ball- Borachio fools Margaret into pretending to be Hero- Don John convinces Don Pedro and Claudio of Hero’s unfaithfulness- Hero’s friends pretend she is dead, to fool Claudio- Leonato fools Claudio into marrying Hero |
| English Literature – Much Ado About Nothing | English Literature – Much Ado About Nothing |
| Give an example of how Benedick is witty? | – “they never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit”.- A ‘Skirmish suggests a tussle or fight which shows B & B are matched in their wit. |
| Give an example of how Benedick is Proud? | – He is offended by Beatrice’s sharp comments after dancing at the ball (Masked).- “But that my Lady Beatrice should know me”.- Beatrice called him the ‘Prince’s Fool’ and this hurt his pride, which shows how full of himself he is. |
| Give an example of how Benedick is Changeable? | – Quick to admit his feelings have changed after hearing the trick with Beatrice.- “When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.”- Despite previous claims, he softens when suspecting Beatrice’s love. |
| Give an example of how Benedick is Playful? | – Even when Beatrice agrees to marry, he still teases.- “Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity.”- Their love is honest. They do not change after admitting true feelings. |
| Give an example of how Beatrice is Frustrated By Society? What language technique is used? | – She shows disapproval to how women are treated.- “O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market-place.”- She claims revenge on Claudio if she was male. The repetition of ‘If I were a man’ in the scene shows her frustration. |
| Give an example of how Beatrice is Argumentative? | – Benedick greets her with a nickname which means scornful.- “What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?”- The sarcasm and nickname shows the relationship is built on quick-witted arguments. |
| Give an example of how Beatrice is Bold? | – She puts Benedick down in front of others.- “I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick; nobody marks you.”- She speaks her mind, after Benedick returns from war. She contrast with Hero who is quiet. |
| Give an example of how Beatrice is Outspoken? | – Leonato warns she will never marry if she continues to be so sharp.- “By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.”- Shows how outspokenness is undesirable in women of the time. |
| Give an example of how Claudio is Conventional? | – Admires Hero for her modesty and beauty.- “Is she not a modest young lady?”.- B & B fall in love due to personality, while Claudio falls in love due to conventional aspects of Elizabethan Woman. |
| Give an example of how Claudio is Easily Influenced? | – When Don John Suggests Don Pedro is wooing Hero for himself, Claudio moves to jealousy.- “Farewell, therefore, Hero!”.- Although he agrees for Don Pedro to woo Hero, he still reacts immaturely and jealously. |
| Give an example of how Claudio is Hurtful? | – He denounces Hero at the alter.- “Give not this rotten orange to your friend.”- His rejection of Hero is made worse due to doing it publicly. |
| Give an example of how Claudio is Repentant? | – When he admits his mistake, he is great for Leonato’s understanding.- “Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me!”. – Claims Leonato brings him to tears, and is willing to marry Antonio’s daughter. |
| Give an example of how Hero is Beautiful? | – Claudio falls in love with her on first sight.- “In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on.” – Claudio praises her beauty, as well as being admired by Don Pedro. |
| Give an example of how Hero is Obedient? | – Beatrice tells Antonio that her cousin always does what her father asks.- “Yes, faith; it is my cousin’s duty to make curtsy and say ‘Father, as it please you.” – Beatrice uses the words ‘duty, curtsy and please’, to emphasise how dutiful her cousin is. |
| Give an example of how Hero is Quiet? | – In comparison to Beatrice, Hero does not say much.- “I talk’d with no man at that hour, my lord.”- When Claudio accuses her, Hero responds with quiet truth. |
| Give an example of how Hero is Forgiving? | – Even though Claudio humiliates her, Hero is prepared to give him another chance.- “And when I lived, I was your other wife: And when you loved, you were my other husband.”- She reveals herself at the second wedding, and is lacking in blame to Claudio. |
| Give an example of how Don John is Moody? | – He describes how he is ruled by his moods.- “I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad when I have cause and smile at no man’s jests”.- He claims to be unable to hide his true self. |
| Give an example of how Don John is Villainous? | – He acknowledges he is a mischievous character.- “It must not be denied but I am a plain-dealing villain.”- He admits that his behaviour is bad. |
| Give an example of how Don John is Resentful? | – Openly admits his dislike of Claudio- “I am sick in displeasure to him.”- He is jealous of Claudio and feels this as a physical sickness. |
| Give an example of how Don Pedro is Confident? | – He Woo’s Hero for Claudio- “Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won.” – He shows his confidence and trustworthiness in winning Hero’s Hand. |
| Give an example of how Don Pedro is Loyal? | – He pledges his allegiance to Claudio after hearing of Hero’s unfaithfulness.- “And, as I wooed for thee to obtain her, I will join with thee to disgrace her.”- He is loyal but also misguided as for he does not ask of Hero’s side. |
| Give an example of how Leonato is Generous? | – He invites the soldiers to stay with him for a month or two.- “I tell him we shall stay here at the least a month; and he heartily prays – He prays for them to stay longer which shows his generosity. |
| Give an example of how Leonato is Patriarchal? | – He wanted his daughter and niece to find husbands.- “By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.” – He worries Beatrice is too ‘shrewd’, showing his patriarchal attitude. |
| Give an example of how Leonato is Honourable? | – He wishes to die when Hero is accused at the Alter- “Hath no man’s dagger here a point for me?”- His dishonour makes hum prefer suicide than to live with the disgrace of his daughter. |
| How is the theme of nothing/noting shown in the Title of the play? | – Title represents the trivial events.- The play opens with light-hearted banter between B & B which shows trivial nature. |
| How is the theme of nothing/noting shown in Claudio’s noting of Hero? | – Claudio love’s Hero instantly and asks Benedick whether he noted her.- “Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato?”- Noting is made clear from the start when Claudio seeks approval. |
| How is the theme of nothing/noting shown in B & B’s eavesdropping? | – When B & B are tricked, both ‘note’ the words of their friends.- “Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks; Note, notes, forsooth, and nothing.” – Don Pedro plays on the word ‘note’, as for he knows Benedick is hiding and will ‘note’ everything that he and the others say. |
| How is the theme of love shown in Claudio falling for Hero? | – “In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on.” – He is in love at sight, arguing he it romantic and possibly superficial. |
| How is the theme of love show in Benedick’s realisation of love for Beatrice? | – After eavesdropping he decides he loves Beatrice- “I do spy some marks of love in her.”- Although we see him soften, his change of heart could be seen as arrogant. |
| How is the theme of love show in Leonato’s love for his daughter and niece? | – Wants them to find suitable husbands.- “Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.”- Although in today’s society this is patronising, he shows his love in them marrying well. |
| How is the theme of appearance & reality shown in B & B’s appearance as enemies? | – When they first met the bickered and taunt one another.- “I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted”.- Although dislike appears, both are easily persuaded of the other’s love. |
| How is the theme of appearance & reality shown in Hero’s apparent infidelity? | – Claudio is tricked into her unfaithfulness, when Borachio sets window scene.- “Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero and kill Leonato.” – Claudio is convinced, but the audience know the reality. |
| How is the theme of appearance & reality shown in Hero’ apparent death? | – Hero faints at the alter, Leonato is advise to fake her death.- “Let her awhile be secretly kept in, And publish it that she is dead indeed;”- Claudio discovers truth, goes to marry her cousin who is Hero. |
| “The savage bull may bear it, but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull’s horns and set them in my forehead”. | Benedick delivers this speech to Claudio and Don Pedro. Don Pedro has just quoted an old adage about even the wildest of people eventually calming down enough to submit to love and marriage, suggesting that in time even a savage bull will bear the yoke of a woman’s will. Benedick adamantly refuses to believe this commonplace and decides to mock it. The “sensible” Benedick means the rational Benedick, a person too intelligent to yield to the irrational ways of love.Benedick imagines himself with horns clapped on his head and writing practically branded into his forehead. Traditional in the Renaissance to imagine that cuckolds—men whose wives committed adultery—had horns on their heads. Benedick’s evocation of this image suggests that any woman he marries is sure to cheat on him. Claudio and Don Pedro continue to tease Benedick about the bull imagery throughout the play. |
| “What should I do with him—dress him in my apparel and make him my waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man”. | constitutes Beatrice’s witty explanation for why she must remain an unmarried woman and eventually an old maid: there is no man who would be a perfect match for her. Those who possess no facial hair are not manly enough to satisfy her desires, whereas those who do possess beards are not youthful enough for her. In Renaissance literature and culture, particularly in Shakespeare, youths on the cusp of manhood are often the most coveted objects of sexual desire.Although Beatrice jokes that she would dress up a beardless youth as a woman, this has a double meaning here: in Shakespeare’s time, the actor playing Beatrice would have been doing exactly that, since all female roles were played by prepubescent boys. Beatrice’s desire for a man who is caught between youth and maturity was in fact the sexual ideal at the time. The plot of the play eventually toys with her paradoxical sentiments for a man both with and without a beard: during the course of the play, Benedick will shave his beard once he falls in love with her. |
| “for I will be horribly in love with her.” | Benedick has just overheard Claudio, Leonato, and Don Pedro discussing Beatrice’s fabricated love for him. Alone on the stage, he ponders this news and concludes that the best thing for him to do is to return this love: “for I will be horribly in love with her”. This line produces a comical effect, as it seems preposterous that someone would fall “horribly” in love with another person after simply weighing that person’s virtues. The choice of the word “horribly” accentuates the comic aspects of Benedick’s decision. The choice of “horribly” could also echo a bit of the merry war Beatrice and Benedick have been fighting with their wits. There has always existed an element of competition between them. It is not enough for Benedick to reciprocate Beatrice’s passions; he must outdo them, perhaps in order to unseat her and win the competition. The actor playing Benedick has a number of choices in performing this soliloquy: he can reveal that he has always been in love with Beatrice but is in denial about his true feelings and therefore must go through the motions of weighing the pros and cons of loving her in a rational manner. Or simply treat this moment as one more parry in the thrusts and blows of their “merry war” and conclude that the only way to win is to surpass her, even in love. |
| “O Hero! What a Hero hadst thou been” | Claudio has just openly rebuked Hero at their wedding ceremony, throwing her back to Leonato, her father. He believes that she has not only been unfaithful to him but has lost her virginity, and therefore her purity and innocence, to someone else before her marriage. Claudio’s belief is the result of Don John’s evil plot to deceive him and make him lose Don Pedro’s goodwill. These lines demonstrate Shakespeare’s ability to fill a speech with double meanings and wordplay through repetition. “Hero” appears twice in the first line, changing meaning the second time. The first time, Claudio addresses his former beloved directly. The second time, Claudio compares “Hero” to an ideal conqueror of his heart, as classical heroes conquered and won great battles. |
| “fare thee well, most foul, most fair, farewell” | Claudio has just openly rebuked Hero at their wedding ceremonyHero has lost her heroic qualities. “Fare thee well most foul, most fair, farewell” plays with repetition and opposites: the sound of the word “fair” is repeated three times in the space of one line, underscoring Claudio’s despair at discovering that Hero’s outward beauty or fairness conceals a “foul” spirit, as he thinks.There might also be some play on the double meanings of “fair”—as beautiful, and as balanced and true. In Claudio’s eyes, Hero is not only no longer “fair,” meaning beautiful (she is “foul”), but she is also no longer “fair,” meaning truthful, but is its opposite, false or dissembling.This demonstrate a rhetorical technique Shakespeare is famous for using in his plays: antithesis, or the combining of paradoxical opposites in one line for emphasis.Moments in which characters spout antitheses usually occur at the height of passion. For Claudio to use these particular opposites to describe his frustration with Hero’s seemingly fair exterior and false and foul interior reveals that he is livid with rage and driven to despair. |
| “writ down an ass””No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness.” | Dogberry is the constable and leader of the town night watch in Messina, the town where the action of the play takes place. Despite his comedic substitutions of incorrect words for similar-sounding correct words, Dogberry does succeed in apprehending Conrad and Borachio and unraveling Don John’s plot to deceive Claudio and ruin Hero. At this moment, he has caught Borachio and brought him before the sexton to record the events of the evening. Dogberry, infuriated by Conrad’s insult, he delivers this indignant comic speech filled with verbal misuse, saying “suspect” instead of “respect” and “piety” instead of “impiety.” Dogberry’s determined insistence that he be “writ down an ass” is comical, as Dogberry contributes to his own slander by insisting that the sexton put in writing that Dogberry is “an ass.” Dogberry is most offended by Conrad’s accusation because the constable interprets Conrad’s rudeness as a class criticism.Dogberry’s poor command of the English language results in hilarity, there is nothing poor or evil about him. |
| Deception | The plot of Much Ado About Nothing is based upon deliberate deceptions. The duping of Claudio and Don Pedro results in Hero’s disgrace, while the ruse of her death prepares the way for her redemption and reconciliation with Claudio. In a more light-hearted vein,Beatrice and Benedick are fooled into thinking that each loves the other, and they actually do fall in love as a result. Much Ado About Nothing shows that deceit is not inherently evil, but something that can be used as a means to good or bad ends.In the play, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between good and bad deception. When Claudio announces his desire to woo Hero, Don Pedro takes it upon himself to woo her for Claudio. Then, at the instigation of Don John, Claudio begins to mistrust Don Pedro, thinking he has been deceived. Benedick and Beatrice flirt caustically at the masked ball, each possibly aware of the other’s presence yet pretending not to know the person hiding behind the mask. Likewise, when Claudio has shamed and rejected Hero, Leonato and his household “publish” that Hero has died in order to punish Claudio for his mistake. When Claudio returns, penitent, to accept the hand of Leonato’s “niece” (actually Hero), a group of masked women enters and Claudio must wed blindly. The masking of Hero and the other women reveals that the social institution of marriage has little to do with love. When Claudio flounders and asks, “Which is the lady I must seize upon?” he is ready and willing to commit the rest of his life to one of a group of unknowns. His willingness stems not only from his guilt about slandering an innocent woman but also from the fact that he may care more about rising in Leonato’s favour than in marrying for love. In the end, deceit is neither purely positive nor purely negative: it is a means to an end, a way to create an illusion that helps one succeed socially. |
| Honour | The aborted wedding ceremony, in which Claudio rejects Hero, accusing her of infidelity and publicly shaming her in front of her father, is the climax of the play. In Shakespeare’s time, a woman’s honour was based upon her virginity and chaste behaviour. For a woman to lose her honour by having sexual relations before marriage meant that she would lose all social standing, a disaster from which she could never recover. Moreover, this loss of honour would poison the woman’s whole family. Thus, when Leonato rashly believes Claudio’s shaming of Hero at the wedding ceremony, he tries to obliterate her entirely: “Hence from her, let her die” (IV.i.153). Furthermore, he speaks of her loss of honour as an indelible stain from which he cannot distance himself, no matter how hard he tries: “O she is fallen / Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea / Hath drops too few to wash her clean again” (IV.i.138-140). For women in that era, the loss of honour was a form of annihilation.For men, on the other hand, honour depended on male friendship alliances and was more military in nature. Unlike a woman, a man could defend his honour, and that of his family, by fighting in a battle or a duel. Beatrice urges Benedick to avenge Hero’s honour by duelling to the death with Claudio. As a woman, Hero cannot seize back her honour, but Benedick can do it for her via physical combat. |
| Noting | In Shakespeare’s time, the “Nothing” of the title would have been pronounced “Noting.” Thus, the play’s title could read: “Much Ado About Noting.” In order for a plot hinged on instances of deceit to work, the characters must note one another constantly. When the women manipulate Beatrice into believing that Benedick adores her, they conceal themselves in the orchard so that Beatrice can better note their conversation. Since they know that Beatrice loves to eavesdrop, they are sure that their plot will succeed: “look where Beatrice like a lapwing runs / Close by the ground to hear our conference,” notes Hero. Each line the women speak is a carefully placed note for Beatrice to take up and ponder; the same is true of the scheme to convince Benedick of Beatrice’s passion.Don John’s plot to undo Claudio also hinges on noting: in order for Claudio to believe that Hero is unchaste and unfaithful, he must be brought to her window to witness, or note, Margaret bidding farewell to Borachio in the semidarkness.Dogberry, Verges, and the rest of the comical night watch discover and arrest Don John because, although ill equipped to express themselves linguistically, they overhear talk of the Margaret–Borachio staging. Despite their verbal deficiencies, they manage to capture Don John and bring him to Leonato, after having had the sexton (a church official) “note” the occurrences of the evening in writing. In the end, noting, in the sense of writing, unites Beatrice and Benedick for good: Hero and Claudio reveal love sonnets written by Beatrice and Benedick, textual evidence that notes and proves their love for one another. |
| War | Throughout the play, images of war frequently symbolize verbal arguments and confrontations. At the beginning of the play, Leonato relates to the other characters that there is a “merry war” between Beatrice and Benedick: “They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them”. Beatrice carries on this partial imagery, describing how, when she won the last duel with Benedick, “four of his five wits went halting off” . When Benedick arrives, their witty exchange resembles the blows and parries of a well-executed fencing match.Leonato accuses Claudio of killing Hero with words: “Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart”. Later in the same scene, Benedick presents Claudio with a violent verbal challenge: to duel to the death over Hero’s honour. When Borachio confesses to staging the loss of Hero’s innocence, Don Pedro describes this spoken evidence as a sword that tears through Claudio’s heart: “Runs not this speech like iron through your blood?”, and Claudio responds that he has already figuratively committed suicide upon hearing these words: “I have drunk poison whiles he uttered it”. |
| Hero’s Death | Claudio’s powerful words accusing Hero of unchaste and disloyal acts cause her to fall down in apparent lifelessness. Leonato accentuates the direness of Hero’s state, pushing her further into seeming death by renouncing her, “Hence from her, let her die”. When Friar Francis, Hero, and Beatrice convince Leonato of his daughter’s innocence, they maintain that she really has died, in order to punish Claudio and give Hero a respectable amount of time to regain her honour, which, although not lost, has been publicly savaged. Claudio performs all the actions of mourning Hero, paying a choir to sing a dirge at her tomb. In a symbolic sense, Hero has died, since, although she is pure, Claudio’s damning accusation has permanently besmirched her name. She must symbolically die and be reborn pure again in order for Claudio to marry her a second time. Hero’s false death is less a charade aimed to induce remorse in Claudio than it is a social ritual designed to cleanse her name. |
| Beatrice (how women were presented) | Beatrice is the niece of Leonato, a wealthy governor of Messina. Though she is close friends with her cousin Hero, Leonato’s daughter, the two could not be less alike. Whereas Hero is polite, quiet, respectful, and gentle, Beatrice is feisty, cynical, witty, and sharp. Beatrice keeps up a “merry war” of wits with Benedick, a lord and soldier from Padua. The play suggests that she was once in love with Benedick but that, he led her on and their relationship ended. Now when they meet, the two constantly compete to outdo one another with clever insults.Although she appears hardened and sharp, Beatrice is really vulnerable. Once she overhears Hero describing that Benedick is in love with her, she opens herself to the sensitivities and weaknesses of love. Beatrice is a prime example of one of Shakespeare’s strong female characters. She refuses to marry because she has not discovered the perfect, equal partner and because she is unwilling to eschew her liberty and submit to the will of a controlling husband. When Hero has been humiliated and accused of violating her chastity, Beatrice explodes with fury at Claudio for mistreating her cousin. In her frustration and rage about Hero’s mistreatment, Beatrice rebels against the unequal status of women in Renaissance society. “O that I were a man for his sake! Or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake!” she passionately exclaims. “I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving” |
| Benedick | Benedick is the wilful lord, recently returned from fighting in the wars, who vows that he will never marry. He engages with Beatrice in a competition to outwit, outsmart, and out-insult the other, but to his observant friends, he seems to feel some deeper emotion below the surface. Upon hearing Claudio and Don Pedro discussing Beatrice’s desire for him, Benedick vows to be “horribly in love with her,” in effect continuing the competition by outdoing her in love and courtship. Benedick is one of the most histrionic characters in the play, as he constantly performs for the benefit of others. He is the entertainer, indulging in witty hyperbole to express his feelings. He delivers a perfect example of his inflated rhetoric when Beatrice enters during the masked ball. Turning to his companions, Benedick grossly exaggerates how Beatrice has misused him, bidding his friends to send him to the farthest corners of the earth rather than let him spend one more minute with his nemesis: “Will your grace command me any service to the world’s end ?”.Of course, since Benedick is so invested in performing for the others, it is not easy for us to tell whether he has been in love with Beatrice all along or falls in love with her suddenly during the play. Benedick’s adamant refusal to marry does appear to change over the course of the play, once he decides to fall in love with Beatrice. He attempts to conceal this transformation from his friends but really might enjoy shocking them by shaving off his beard and professing undying love to Beatrice. This change in attitude seems most evident when Benedick challenges Claudio, previously his closest friend in the world, to duel to the death over Claudio’s accusation as to Hero’s unchaste behaviour. There can be no doubt at this point that Benedick has switched his allegiances entirely over to Beatrice. |
| Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon | Of all the main characters in Much Ado About Nothing, Don Pedro seems the most elusive. He is the noblest character in the social hierarchy of the play, and his friends Benedick and Claudio, though equals in wit, must always defer to him because their positions depend upon his favour.Don Pedro has power, and he is well aware of it; whether or not he abuses this power is open to question. Unlike his bastard brother, the villain Don John, Don Pedro most often uses his power and authority toward positive ends. But like his half-brother, Don Pedro manipulates other characters as much as he likes. For instance, he insists on wooing Hero for Claudio himself, while masked, rather than allowing Claudio to profess his love to Hero first. Of course, everything turns out for the best—Don Pedro’s motives are purely in the interest of his friend. But we are left wondering why Don Pedro feels the need for such an elaborate dissimulation merely to inform Hero of Claudio’s romantic interest. It seems simply that it is Don Pedro’s royal prerogative to do exactly as he wishes, and no one can question it. Despite his cloudy motives, Don Pedro does work to bring about happiness. It is his idea, for instance, to convince Beatrice and Benedick that each is in love with the other and by doing so bring the two competitors together. He orchestrates the whole plot and plays the role of director in this comedy of wit and manners.Don Pedro is the only one of the three gallants not to end up with a wife at the end. Benedick laughingly jokes in the final scene that the melancholy prince must “get thee a wife” in order to enjoy true happiness. The question necessarily arises as to why Don Pedro is sad at the end of a joyous comedy. Perhaps his exchange with Beatrice at the masked ball—in which he proposes marriage to her and she jokingly refuses him, taking his proposal as mere sport—pains him; perhaps he is truly in love with Beatrice.The text does not give us a conclusive explanation for his melancholy, nor for his fascination with dissembling. This uncertainly about his character helps to make him one of the most thought-provoking characters in the play. |
| Much ado intro to answering a question | the comedy Elizabethan play “Much ado about nothing” is set in Messina, Italy and it was written by William Shakespeare who presents…(comedy plays typically have a happy ending and have a wedding at the end) |
| “rare parrot-teacher,” – benedick”A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours” – beatrice”I would my horse had the speed of your tongue” – beatrice | Beatrice and Benedick ; neither ever lets the other say anything without countering it with a pun or criticism. One notable characteristic of their attacks upon each other is their ability to extend a metaphor throughout lines of dialogue. When Benedick calls Beatrice a “rare parrot-teacher,” Beatrice responds, “A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours”. Benedick continues the reference to animals in his response, saying, “I would my horse had the speed of your tongue”. It is as if each anticipates the other’s response. Though their insults are biting, their ability to maintain such clever, interconnected sparring seems to illustrate the existence of a strong bond between them. |
| “I am trusted with a muzzle, and enfranchised with a clog. Therefore I have decreed not to sing in my cage”. | In Much Ado About Nothing, Don John is in the difficult position of having to behave well and court favour with his more powerful brother, Don Pedro, while at the same time being excluded from the privileges Don Pedro enjoys because of his illegitimacy. Don John is bitter about the restrictions imposed upon him: “I am trusted with a muzzle, and enfranchised with a clog. Therefore I have decreed not to sing in my cage”. He complains, in essence, that he is not trusted at all and not given any freedom; he rails against the constraints of his role, refusing to “sing” in his “cage,” or make the best of things. Instead, he seems to want to take out his frustrations by manipulating and hurting other people for his own amusement. Don John’s claim that he hates Claudio because he is jealous of Claudio’s friendship with his brother seems questionable; it seems more likely that Don John simply hates anyone happy and well liked and thus wants to exact a more general revenge upon the world. |
| Verse and Prose | Shakespeare uses both prose and verse. Most of Much Ado is written in prose, and thus the segments in verse stand out on the printed page.The first occurrence of verse is in the Act I, Scene 1, conversation between Claudio and Don Pedro, the first step of Claudio’s wooing of Hero. The second use of verse is in Act II, Scene 1, when Claudio bemoans what he thinks is the loss of Hero to Don Pedro. Verse appears next in Act II, Scene 3, as Claudio, Don Pedro, and Balthasar prepare for the deception of Benedick, who is hiding in the arbor. Even in the denunciation scene at the church, Claudio is inclined to speak in verse, and the rest of the cast follows suit until Beatrice and Benedick are left alone. In all their exchanges, excepting the final one before they marry, Beatrice and Benedick speak in prose. |
| “to misuse the Prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato” | Don John’s malice resurfaces in Act II, scene ii, as we see him plotting to split Hero and Claudio. Once again, we must wonder about his motives, as his desire to hurt others so badly is inconsistent with his claim to be a low-grade villain.Borachio’s statement that his plan, if it succeeds, is sure “to misuse the Prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato” makes it clear that Don John’s schemes have some darker purpose in mind. |
| Act 4, Scenes 1-2 | With the wedding scene—the climax of the play—the tone takes an abrupt turn, plunging from comedy into tragedy. Claudio’s rejection of Hero is designed to inflict as much pain as possible, and Hero and Leonato’s reactions to it seem to make things even worse. Few accusations could cause a woman more harm in the Renaissance than that of being unchaste, and Claudio uses deliberately theatrical language to hurt Hero publicly, in front of friends and family. The rejection scene also throws other relationships in the play into question: Claudio and Don Pedro both suggest that it reflects badly on Leonato’s social manners to have tried to foist off a woman like Hero on Claudio, and Don Pedro implies that his own reputation has suffered by way of the apparent discovery that he and Claudio have made regarding Hero’s virginity. Claudio assaults Leonato by denigrating Hero: “Give not this rotten orange to your friend. / She’s but the sign and semblance of her honour”. |
| ThemeSocial Grace | The characters’ dense, colorful manner of speaking represents the ideal that Renaissance courtiers strove for in their social interactions. The play’s language is heavily laden with metaphor and ornamented by rhetoric. Benedick, Claudio, and Don Pedro all produce the kind of witty banter that courtiers used to attract attention and approval in noble households. Courtiers were expected to speak in highly contrived language but to make their clever performances seem effortless. The most famous model for this kind of behavior is Baldassare Castiglione’s sixteenth-century manual The Courtier, translated into English by Thomas Hoby in 1561. According to this work, the ideal courtier masks his effort and appears to project elegance and natural grace by means of what Castiglione calls sprezzatura, the illusion of effortlessness. Benedick and his companions try to display their polished social graces both in their behavior and in their speech.The play pokes fun at the fanciful language of love that courtiers used. When Claudio falls in love, he tries to be the perfect courtier by using intricate language. As Benedick notes: “His words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many strange dishes” (II.iii.18-19). Although the young gallants in the play seem casual in their displays of wit, they constantly struggle to maintain their social positions. Benedick and Claudio must constantly strive to remain in Don Pedro’s favor. When Claudio silently agrees to let Don Pedro take his place to woo Hero, it is quite possible that he does so not because he is too shy to woo the woman himself, but because he must accede to Don Pedro’s authority in order to stay in Don Pedro’s good favor. When Claudio believes that Don Pedro has deceived him and wooed Hero not for Claudio but for himself, he cannot drop his polite civility, even though he is full of despair. Beatrice jokes that Claudio is “civil as an orange,” punning on the Seville orange, a bitter fruit (II.i.256). Claudio remains polite and nearly silent even though he is upset, telling Benedick of Don Pedro and Hero: “I wish him joy of her” (II.i.170). Clearly, Claudio chooses his obedience to Don Pedro over his love for Hero.Claudio displays social grace, but his strict adherence to social propriety eventually leads him into a trap. He abandons Hero at the wedding because Don John leads him to believe that she is unchaste (marriage to an unchaste woman would be socially unacceptable). But Don John’s plan to unseat Claudio does not succeed, of course, as Claudio remains Don Pedro’s favorite, and it is Hero who has to suffer until her good reputation is restored. |
| Theme Deception as a Means to an End | The plot of Much Ado About Nothing is based upon deliberate deceptions, some malevolent and others benign. The duping of Claudio and Don Pedro results in Hero’s disgrace, while the ruse of her death prepares the way for her redemption and reconciliation with Claudio. In a more lighthearted vein, Beatrice and Benedick are fooled into thinking that each loves the other, and they actually do fall in love as a result. Much Ado About Nothing shows that deceit is not inherently evil, but something that can be used as a means to good or bad ends.In the play, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between good and bad deception. When Claudio announces his desire to woo Hero, Don Pedro takes it upon himself to woo her for Claudio. Then, at the instigation of Don John, Claudio begins to mistrust Don Pedro, thinking he has been deceived. Just as the play’s audience comes to believe, temporarily, in the illusions of the theater, so the play’s characters become caught up in the illusions that they help to create for one another. Benedick and Beatrice flirt caustically at the masked ball, each possibly aware of the other’s presence yet pretending not to know the person hiding behind the mask. Likewise, when Claudio has shamed and rejected Hero, Leonato and his household “publish” that Hero has died in order to punish Claudio for his mistake. When Claudio returns, penitent, to accept the hand of Leonato’s “niece” (actually Hero), a group of masked women enters and Claudio must wed blindly. The masking of Hero and the other women reveals that the social institution of marriage has little to do with love. When Claudio flounders and asks, “Which is the lady I must seize upon?” he is ready and willing to commit the rest of his life to one of a group of unknowns (V.iv.53). His willingness stems not only from his guilt about slandering an innocent woman but also from the fact that he may care more about rising in Leonato’s favor than in marrying for love. In the end, deceit is neither purely positive nor purely negative: it is a means to an end, a way to create an illusion that helps one succeed socially. |
| Theme The Importance of Honor | The aborted wedding ceremony, in which Claudio rejects Hero, accusing her of infidelity and violated chastity and publicly shaming her in front of her father, is the climax of the play. In Shakespeare’s time, a woman’s honor was based upon her virginity and chaste behavior. For a woman to lose her honor by having sexual relations before marriage meant that she would lose all social standing, a disaster from which she could never recover. Moreover, this loss of honor would poison the woman’s whole family. Thus, when Leonato rashly believes Claudio’s shaming of Hero at the wedding ceremony, he tries to obliterate her entirely: “Hence from her, let her die” (IV.i.153). Furthermore, he speaks of her loss of honor as an indelible stain from which he cannot distance himself, no matter how hard he tries: “O she is fallen / Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea / Hath drops too few to wash her clean again” (IV.i.138-140). For women in that era, the loss of honor was a form of annihilation.For men, on the other hand, honor depended on male friendship alliances and was more military in nature. Unlike a woman, a man could defend his honor, and that of his family, by fighting in a battle or a duel. Beatrice urges Benedick to avenge Hero’s honor by dueling to the death with Claudio. As a woman, Hero cannot seize back her honor, but Benedick can do it for her via physical combat. |
| MotifPublic Shaming | Even though Hero is ultimately vindicated, her public shaming at the wedding ceremony is too terrible to be ignored. In a sense, this kind of humiliation incurs more damage to her honor and her family name than would an act of unchaste behavior—an transgression she never commits. The language that both Claudio and Leonato use to shame Hero is extremely strong. To Claudio she is a “rotten orange” (IV.i.30), and to Leonato a rotting carcass that cannot be preserved: “the wide sea / Hath . . . / . . . salt too little which may season give / To her foul tainted flesh!” (IV.i.139-142).Shame is also what Don John hopes will cause Claudio to lose his place as Don Pedro’s favorite: once Claudio is discovered to be engaged to a loose woman, Don John believes that Don Pedro will reject Claudio as he rejected Don John long ago. Shame is a form of social punishment closely connected to loss of honor. A product of an illegitimate sexual coupling himself, Don John has grown up constantly reminded of his own social shame, and he will do anything to right the balance. Ironically, in the end Don John is shamed and threatened with torture to punish him for deceiving the company. Clearly, he will never gain a good place in courtly society. |
| MotifNoting/Nothing | In Shakespeare’s time, the “Nothing” of the title would have been pronounced “Noting.” Thus, the play’s title could read: “Much Ado About Noting.” Indeed, many of the players participate in the actions of observing, listening, and writing, or noting. In order for a plot hinged on instances of deceit to work, the characters must note one another constantly. When the women manipulate Beatrice into believing that Benedick adores her, they conceal themselves in the orchard so that Beatrice can better note their conversation. Since they know that Beatrice loves to eavesdrop, they are sure that their plot will succeed: “look where Beatrice like a lapwing runs / Close by the ground to hear our conference,” notes Hero (III.i.24-25). Each line the women speak is a carefully placed note for Beatrice to take up and ponder; the same is true of the scheme to convince Benedick of Beatrice’s passion.Don John’s plot to undo Claudio also hinges on noting: in order for Claudio to believe that Hero is unchaste and unfaithful, he must be brought to her window to witness, or note, Margaret (whom he takes to be Hero) bidding farewell to Borachio in the semidarkness. Dogberry, Verges, and the rest of the comical night watch discover and arrest Don John because, although ill-equipped to express themselves linguistically, they overhear talk of the Margaret–Borachio staging. Despite their verbal deficiencies, they manage to capture Don John and bring him to Leonato, after having had the sexton (a church official) “note” the occurrences of the evening in writing. In the end, noting, in the sense of writing, unites Beatrice and Benedick for good: Hero and Claudio reveal love sonnets written by Beatrice and Benedick, textual evidence that notes and proves their love for one another. |
| MotifEntertainment | From the witty yet plaintive song that Balthasar sings about the deceitfulness of men to the masked ball and the music and dancing at the end of the play, the characters of Much Ado About Nothing spend much of their time engaging in elaborate spectacles and entertainments. The play’s title encapsulates the sentiment of effervescent and light court entertainment: the two hours’ traffic onstage will be entertaining, comic, and absorbing. The characters who merrily spar and fall in love in the beginning will, of course, end up together in the conclusion. Beatrice compares courtship and marriage to delightful court dances: “wooing, wedding and repenting is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinquepace” (II.i.60-61). By including a masquerade as court entertainment in the middle, as well as two songs and a dance at the end, the play presents itself as sheer entertainment, conscious of its own theatricality. |
| Motif Counterfeiting | The idea of counterfeiting, in the sense of presenting a false face to the world, appears frequently throughout the play. A particularly rich and complex example of counterfeiting occurs as Leonato, Claudio, and Don Pedro pretend that Beatrice is head over heels in love with Benedick so that the eavesdropping Benedick will overhear it and believe it. Luring Benedick into this trap, Leonato ironically dismisses the idea that perhaps Beatrice counterfeits her desire for Benedick, as he and the others counterfeit this love themselves: “O God! Counterfeit? There was never counterfeit of passion came so near the life of passion as she discovers it” (II.iii.98-99).Another, more serious reference to counterfeiting occurs at the wedding ceremony, as Claudio rhetorically paints a picture of Hero as a perfect counterfeit of innocence, unchaste and impure beneath a seemingly unblemished surface:She’s but the sign and semblance of her honour.Behold how like a maid she blushes here! O, what authority and show of truthCan cunning sin cover itself withal! (IV.i.31-34)Hero’s supposed counterfeiting is of a grave nature, as it threatens her womanly reputation. It is not her emotions that are being misconstrued, as with Beatrice, but rather her character and integrity. |
| SymbolsThe Taming of Wild Animals | The play is peppered with metaphors involving the taming of wild animals. In the case of the courtship between Beatrice and Benedick, the symbol of a tamed savage animal represents the social taming that must occur for both wild souls to be ready to submit themselves to the shackles of love and marriage. Beatrice’s vow to submit to Benedick’s love by “[t]aming my wild heart to thy loving hand” makes use of terms from falconry, suggesting that Benedick is to become Beatrice’s master (III.i.113). In the opening act, Claudio and Don Pedro tease Benedick about his aversion to marriage, comparing him to a wild animal. Don Pedro quotes a common adage, “‘In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke,'” meaning that in time even the savage Benedick will surrender to the taming of love and marriage (I.i.213). Benedick mocks this sentiment, professing that he will never submit to the will of a woman. At the very end, when Benedick and Beatrice agree to marry, Claudio pokes fun at Benedick’s mortified countenance, suggesting that Benedick is reluctant to marry because he remembers the allusion to tamed bulls:Tush, fear not, man, we’ll tip thy horns with gold, And all Europa shall rejoice at theeAs once Europa did at lusty JoveWhen he would play the noble beast in love. (V.iv.44-47)Claudio changes Benedick from a laboring farm animal, a bull straining under a yoke, to a wild god, empowered by his bestial form to take sexual possession of his lady. While the bull of marriage is the sadly yoked, formerly savage creature, the bull that Claudio refers to comes from the classical myth in which Zeus took the form of a bull and carried off the mortal woman Europa. This second bull is supposed to represent the other side of the coin: the bull of bestial male sexuality. |
| SymbolWar | Throughout the play, images of war frequently symbolize verbal arguments and confrontations. At the beginning of the play, Leonato relates to the other characters that there is a “merry war” between Beatrice and Benedick: “They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them” (I.i.50-51). Beatrice carries on this martial imagery, describing how, when she won the last duel with Benedick, “four of his five wits went halting off” (I.i.53). When Benedick arrives, their witty exchange resembles the blows and parries of a well-executed fencing match. Leonato accuses Claudio of killing Hero with words: “Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart” (V.i.68). Later in the same scene, Benedick presents Claudio with a violent verbal challenge: to duel to the death over Hero’s honor. When Borachio confesses to staging the loss of Hero’s innocence, Don Pedro describes this spoken evidence as a sword that tears through Claudio’s heart: “Runs not this speech like iron through your blood?” (V.i.227), and Claudio responds that he has already figuratively committed suicide upon hearing these words: “I have drunk poison whiles he uttered it” (V.i.228). |
| SymbolHero’s Death | Claudio’s powerful words accusing Hero of unchaste and disloyal acts cause her to fall down in apparent lifelessness. Leonato accentuates the direness of Hero’s state, pushing her further into seeming death by renouncing her, “Hence from her, let her die” (IV.i.153). When Friar Francis, Hero, and Beatrice convince Leonato of his daughter’s innocence, they maintain that she really has died, in order to punish Claudio and give Hero a respectable amount of time to regain her honor, which, although not lost, has been publicly savaged. Claudio performs all the actions of mourning Hero, paying a choir to sing a dirge at her tomb. In a symbolic sense, Hero has died, since, although she is pure, Claudio’s damning accusation has permanently besmirched her name. She must symbolically die and be reborn pure again in order for Claudio to marry her a second time. Hero’s false death is less a charade aimed to induce remorse in Claudio than it is a social ritual designed to cleanse her name and person of infamy. |
| “is Signior Mountanto returned from the wars or no?” | • Beatrice, Act One Scene One• Mockery; trying to act nonchalant• Politely phrased interrogative |
| “a kind of merry war…a skirmish of wit” | • Leonato, Act One Scene One• Noun phrases, oxymoronic• Metaphor of relationships and conversations conveyed through military language• THEME: LOVE AND CONFLICT |
| “Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?” / “Courtesy itself must convert to Disdain, if you came in her presence” | • Benedick, Act One Scene One• Exclamatory• Personification; embodying her• She is so cold-hearted courtesy would be rude to her• Asking why she hasn’t been killed• THEME: LOVE AND CONFLICT |
| “Can the world buy such a jewel?” | • Claudio, Act One Scene One• Rhetorical question• Objectification of women• Personification of the world as male• THEME: GENDER ROLES/APPEARANCE AND REALITY |
| … | … |
| “he is the Prince’s jester” / “I would he had boarded me” | • Beatrice, Act 2 Scene 1• Attempt at being witty – it is possible Benedick has hurt her previously and she is trying to get her own back• Benedick takes it personally; he cares for opinion, although he is probably unaware of his feelings for her• He could be over-thinking • Sexual innuendo – he is in the navy• She’d have liked the attraction |
| “One woman, one woman shall not come in my graces” | • Benedick, Act 2 Scene 3• Parallel phrasing with Beatrice’s gulling• No woman is good enough• Dramatic irony• Written in prose• THEME: LOVE / DECEPTION |
| “Our talk must only be of Benedick” / “Sick in love” / “like a lapwing” / “greedily devour the treacherous bait” | • Hero, Act 3, Scene 1• Artificial conversation• Simile • Hunting imagery; luring Beatrice into a trap with tricking her • Written as poetry – iambic pentameter; melodic and contrasts with Benedick’s• THEME: LOVE / DECEPTION |
| “rotten orange” / “how like a maid she blushes here!” | • Claudio, Act 4 Scene 1• Noun phrase • Objectification of women• Hero is contaminated• First time Claudio has spoken at length• Blank verse• Mainly addressed to Leonato with the audience’s focus on Hero• He is unable to see that she is embarrassed by Claudio’s proclamation• THEME: APPEARANCE AND REALITY |
| “common stale” | • Don Pedro, Act 4 Scene 1• Selfish, Christian context• Prostitution; prejudice/assumption |
| “thy outward graces” / “most foul, most fair” / “thou pure impiety and impious purity” | • Claudio, Act 4 Scene 1• Noun phrases • If only true on the inside• Superlative• Juxtaposition, highlighted by the opposing alliteration • Extremity of emotions• Claudio feels betrayed • Abstract nouns (“impiety”)• THEME: HONOUR/APPEARANCE AND REALITY |
| “But mine, and mine I loved, mine I praised” | • Leonato, Act 4 Scene 1• Repetition of possessive pronoun • Feels inseparable – she’s his daughter• No thought to her response – immediate belief |
| “Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death!” | • Hero, Act 4 Scene 1• Tripling dynamic verbs and pronoun • Trying to defend herself with her willingness to die |
| “how much might the man deserve of me that would right her!” / “Kill Claudio!” / “O that I were a man for his sake!” | • Beatrice, Act 4 Scene 1• She wants to prove Hero’s honour so strongly; she would do it herself, but it would not be socially acceptable in the late 16th century• Exclamatory • She feels the Friar’s plan isn’t enough to prove Hero’s innocence, as well as justice• Admiration for her passion towards her cousin• THEME: HONOUR/GENDER ROLES |
| “Is our whole dissembly appeared?” | • Dogberry, Act 4 Scene 2• Collective noun• Malapropism• Interrogative |
| “In a false quarrel there is no true valour” / “how you dare, with what you dare and when you dare” / “you have killed a sweet and innocent lady” | • Benedick, Act 5 Scene 1• Juxtaposition of noun phrases asserting Hero’s honour• Military language to reinforce the conflicting opinions as well• Tripling of dynamic verb• Intent to challenge• Doubling of pre-modifiers • The extent to which language reflects views of females • THEMES: HONOUR/GENDER ROLES |
| “Sweet Hero” / “now thy image doth appear in the rare semblance that I loved it first” | • Claudio, Act 5 Scene 1• Vocative, selfish • Innocence and beauty• Noun phrase• Stative verb (“appear”)• Instant remorse• Idealising; Claudio only sees her in a dichotomy way and only knows this way• THEMES: APPEARANCE AND REALITY |
| “suffer love” | • Beatrice, Act 5 Scene 2• Juxtaposition• Experienced; contrasts with Hero and Claudio |
| “Do not you love me?” | • Benedick, Act 5 Scene 4• Adverb ahead pronoun • Interrogative • Formal – panic • Uncertainty, sincere |
| “Why no, no more than reason.” | • Beatrice, Act 5 Scene 4• Interprets as a joke • Realises trickery• Embarrassment • Public first- previously cynical of love |
Much Ado About Nothing
July 5, 2019