Much Ado About Nothing

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Much Ado About Nothing

• A Comedy By William Shakespeare
• First printed as a play in 1623

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Background Information

• Set in the town of Messina in Sicily, Italy.
• Tragicomedy or Comedy happy ending with the
  potential for ending in tragedy
• The five acts follow two pairs of lovers. The
  romance between Claudio and Hero forms the main
  plot, but the action is in fact mostly concerned
  with their counterparts, Benedick and Beatrice,
  whose love-hate relationship develops over the
  course of the play.

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Nothing or Noting- a quadruple entendre

• Making a big deal over nothing.
• Nothing was pronounced as noting or observing
• ClaudioDidst thou note the daughter of Signor
  Leonato?
• Benedick I noted her not, but I looked on her.
• Noting also an allusion to musical notes (stop
  arguing and make music).

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4th meaning of noting

• No thing or a vulgar term during
  Shakespeares time for a woman.
• Innuendo and bawdy language is part of the humor
  in this play.

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Comedy Word play

• Malapropism misusing words ridiculously
  confusion of words that are similar in sound.
• Ex oderous for odious
• Dogberry You are thought here to be the most
  senseless and fit man for the constable of the
  watch(sensible).

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Puns

• Messenger And a good soldier too,
  lady.Beatrice And a good soldier to a lady. But
  what is he to a lord?Messenger A lord to a
  lord, a man to a man stuffed with all honorable
  virtues.Beatrice It is so, indeed he is no
  less than a stuffed man. But for the
  stuffing-well, we are all mortal. (I, i, 51-57)
  p. 35

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Dogberrys Malapropisms

• First, who think you the most desertless man to
  be constable? (deserving)
• You are thought here to be the most senseless and
  fit man for the constable watch (sensible)
• Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much
  more a man who (less) hath any honestly in him.

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Prose rather than verse

• Most of the characters speak in prose
• Verse spoken by the young lovers Claudio and
  Hero
• Verse spoken by those in authority Leonato
  (governor) and Friar Francis (priest).

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Themes

• Road to marriage is often lined with pitfalls and
  impediments
• People often wear masks to hide their true
  feelings
• All is not what it seems
• Deception as a means to an end
• Love IS blind
• A womans chastity is a treasure no man should
  possess except in marriage
• The importance of honor

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