Key points
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare about falling in love and misunderstandings.
Themes are the main ideas that appear repeatedly in a play. Some of the important themes in Much Ado About Nothing are:
Love - a powerful emotion and feeling of affection.
Conflict - disagreements or tensions between people with different feelings or ideas.
Appearance and reality - the way that people can pretend to be something that they’re not, and how people sometimes fail to see situations as they really are.
Did you know?
Shakespeare often uses similar themes across his plays.
The theme of love is important in Romeo and Juliet.
The theme of appearance and reality is also used in The Merchant of Venice.
Love
Watch this video about love in Much Ado About Nothing:
Narrator: Love. In Much Ado About Nothing, love seems a bit like a game. It’s a game that’s both fun, funny and entertaining to watch… and deadly serious. I wonder if this is why he’s called Shakey? Oh dear.
For example, Beatrice and Benedick’s friends play a trick on them to get them together. Love wins through in the end, as Beatrice and Benedick really do love one another.
But what about the cruel game played by Don John? Don John makes Claudio think that his bride-to-be, Hero, is unfaithful. What happens to love then? Claudio publicly shames Hero. He doesn’t believe her at all. Ouch. And Hero’s dad Leonato. He doesn’t believe his own daughter. His love is hardly unconditional.
Shakespeare’s telling us that love can win where we expect it to fail, and fail where we expect it to win. But don’t worry. It’s a happy ending despite the twists and turns. Love wins in the end.
In the play, different types of love and relationship are shown.
Romantic love
Claudio and Hero fall in love at first sight and almost immediately decide to get married. Their love is tested by Don John’s plotting, but it succeeds in the end.
Beatrice and Benedick, on the other hand, have known each other for a long time and slowly realise that they love each other after being tricked by their friends. After Hero is shamed at her wedding by Claudio, Beatrice asks Benedick to kill Claudio. Benedick agrees to put himself in harm’s way and even to kill his friend to prove his love for Beatrice.
Family love
Family love is also represented in the play through the relationship between Beatrice and Hero, who are cousins. They have a close relationship and love and each other.
Beatrice believes that Hero is innocent of cheating on Claudio and she is prepared to risk the man she loves, Benedick, in order to protect her cousin’s honour.
A darker side to love is also shown in both Hero’s romantic and family relationships. Both Claudio and Hero’s father Leonato are quick to believe that she has been unfaithful.
Which two characters have to be tricked into falling in love?
Beatrice and Benedick. Their love is more complex than Hero and Claudio’s love. It is hinted in the play that they have a romantic history when Beatrice says, about her heart: “he lent it me a while, and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one”. They fall in love after they have known each other for a long time.
Conflict
Watch this video about conflict in Much Ado About Nothing:
Narrator: Conflict. There’s conflict in every drama. That’s what makes it dramatic. Don’t believe me? Think of anything. What about a nature documentary about penguins? Well the conflict is between the penguin and the harsh environment. Ok. Point made.
In this play Shakespeare shows us how unresolved conflict can affect us all. Now, first there is the unresolved conflict between…Listen can we not lose the penguin? Ok. So there’s unresolved conflict between Don Pedro and Don John. Don John is the cause of all the nasty conflict in the play.
Whereas the conflict between Benedick and Beatrice is highly entertaining. In both cases, there is a conflict within the characters about how they feel and how they should act. And they resolve this conflict in the play in much the same way as the penguin resolves its conflict with the icy cold.
What?!? Penguins don’t have knitwear. Or flamethrowers. I don’t think this is right. Can we not get rid of this misleading penguin? What’s that? Shakespeare loves the penguin? He wants to rename the play, Much Ado About Penguins? Are you sure?
Beatrice and Benedick are in conflict from the start of the play and argue often. Their conflict hides their true feelings for each other but by the end of the play they are in love.
Don John does not like that he is second best to his half-brother, Don Pedro, which causes conflict between them. It makes Don John bitter and drives him to spoil the happiness of other characters.
Don John chooses to ruin Claudio’s life because Claudio is Don Pedro’s close friend and Don John is jealous of him.
Benedick is initially good friends with both Don Pedro and Claudio, but their friendship turns to conflict when Don Pedro and Claudio shame Hero for allegedly being unfaithful.
Despite being a comedic character who isn’t very good at his job, Dogberry resolves the conflict in the play by revealing Don John’s lies and having him arrested.
Why is Don John in conflict with Don Pedro?
Don John feels like he is second best and is treated unfairly compared to Don Pedro, who is ired. This makes Don John want to cause conflict amongst others and upset their relationships.
Appearance and reality
Watch this video about appearance in Much Ado About Nothing:
Narrator: Appearance and reality. Sometimes we think we know people. But do we really? And sometimes we think we know what’s happening around us. But we misread the situation entirely. See? That was just a power cut during the filming of a banana commercial. And he’s a highly paid monkey.
In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakes- hang on! That monkey doesn’t have a girlfriend, does he? Blimey!
In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare shows us that hiding our true image can be fun! Who doesn’t like a masked ball?! But there’s also nasty trickery. Don John’s evil scheme? And trickery for goodness’ sake, like when Hero pretends to be dead!
And trickery for fun! Like the trick played on Beatrice and Benedick. Well, it starts off as fun. But ends up with them getting married! That’s because underneath the appearance of being horrible to each other, the reality is they love one another.
You can stop pretending to hate each other now. Wow. The lengths that some people go to keeping up appearances.
The masked ball gives Benedick and Beatrice an opportunity to speak to one another in disguise. They dance together and pretend not to know who the other one is. Beatrice calls Benedick the “prince’s jester” and “a very dull fool”, which hurts his feelings.
Margaret pretends to be Hero at her bedroom window, which tricks Claudio and Don Pedro into believing Hero has been unfaithful. This leads to Hero being shamed at the altar on her wedding day. The A religious man who is part of an order within the Catholic Church. A friar would work in communities, marrying people and helping the poor. suggests that Hero should pretend to be dead, until they can prove her innocence.
When Dogberry uncovers Don John’s lies, Claudio realises Hero is innocent. He feels guilty about her ‘death’ and believes he has lost her forever.
Another example of appearance and reality in the play comes during Claudio and Hero’s second wedding, when Leonato persuades Claudio to marry a veiled, unnamed cousin of Hero to make up for his bad treatment of Hero.
During this second wedding, Hero is revealed to be the veiled woman. This gives Claudio a second chance to be with her and appreciate her, and teaches him that he should have trusted her word against Don John’s.
Did you know?
There is a masked ball in another of Shakespeare’s plays, Romeo and Juliet. It allows the two young lovers to behave and speak more openly, which they cannot normally do because their families are enemies.
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