Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

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Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
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Slides 1 -2 Summary Slide 3 Family
Tree Slide 4 Character of Scout Finch Slide
5 Character of Atticus Slide 6 Character
of Jem and Slide 7 Other important
characters Slide 8 Other important
charactersSlide 9 Themes Slide 10
Themes Slide 11 Themes Slide 12
Themes Slide 13 Key Questions and
Quotations Slide 14
Summary Key Points
Index Page
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Slide 1 Summary Part 1

• Leonato, is a respectable nobleman, who lives in
  the Italian town of Messina with his daughter
  Hero and niece Beatrice and elderly brother
  Antonio.
• At the start of the play Leonato prepares to
  welcome his friends from war his friends
  include Don Pedro a prince and close friend of
  Leonato and two soldiers Claudio and Benedick.
• Claudio is a well respected nobleman, Benedick is
  a clever witty man who makes jokes often to
  ridicule his friends.
• Don John is Don Pedros illegitimate brother who
  is also part of the group. Don John unlike his
  brother is sullen and bitter looking to make
  trouble for others.  
• The soldiers arrive at Leonatos home and Claudio
  falls in love with Hero. Whilst Benedick and
  Beatrice flirt through their exchange of witty
  insults.
• Claudio and Hero quickly decide to get married.
  To pass their time before the wedding the group
  of friends decide to get Benedick and Beatrice to
  stop fighting and to fall in love with each
  other, the trick is successful and the two
  secretly fall for each other.
• Don John in his sullen mood decides to disrupt
  the fun. He has his friend Borachio make love
  to Margaret, Heros serving women in Heros room
  late at night. The make love in the window and
  Don John brings Claudio and Don Pedro to watch
  thus accusing Hero of having an affair.
• Claudio in his anguish accuses Hero of having an
  affair and abandons her on the altar on the day
  of their wedding.
• Heros humiliated family decide to pretend she
  has died of grief and shock, and they hide her
  away.

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Slide 2 Summary- Part 2

• Benedick and Beatrice finally get together
• The night watchmen overhear Borachio bragging
  about his crime and as a result Dogberry and
  Verges, the heads of the local police, arrest
  both Borachio and Conrad another accomplice.
• It becomes apparent that Hero is in fact
  innocent.
• Claudio who believes Hero is dead, grieves for
  his loss.
• Leonato tells Claudio that to pay for his
  treatment of Hero he must publicly apologise and
  tell everybody that she is in fact innocent.
• Leonato tells Claudio that he must also marry his
  niece a young girl who looks similar to Hero.
• Claudio goes to the church preparing to marry the
  mysterious niece.
• Hero reveals herself as the mysterious niece.
  Claudio is overwhelmed with joy.
• Bendick then asks Beatrice if she will marry him.
  
• The joyful lovers celebrate with a dance and a
  double wedding.
• This is one of Shakespeares comedies.

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Slide 3 Characters The Family Tree

• Leonato
• Nobleman and father of Hero

Antonio Brother of Leonato
Margaret Heros serving lady sleeps with
Borachio
Hero Leonatos daughter loves Claudio
Beatrice Leonatos niece, loves Benedick
Don John Illegitimate brother of Don Pedro
Don Pedro Friend of Claudio
Claudio Leonatos friend and loves Hero
Key Lovers Family Friends
Borachio Friend of Don John
Benedick Friend of Claudio loves Beatrice
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Slide 4 Characters

• Don Pedro
• Don Pedro is the most elusive character and also
  the most noble in the social hierarchy of the
  play.
• He is friends with Benedick and Claudio and
  although they are equal in wit and intelligence
  ,they must rely on him and seek his approval as
  he is of a higher rank.
• Don Pedro is well aware of the power he has.
  Whether or not he abuses his power is open to
  question. Don Pedro unlike his brother Don John
  uses his authority for a positive end.
• Don Pedro manipulates other characters for
  instance, he insists on wooing Hero for Claudio
  himself, while masked, rather than allowing
  Claudio to profess his love to Hero first.
• Obviously everything does turn out for the best
  and Don Pedro's motives are purely in the
  interest of his friend. However as the audience
  we are left wandering why Don Pedro feels a need
  to create such an elaborate plan merely to inform
  Hero of Claudios romance.
• It would appear that it is Don Pedros royal
  right to do what he wishes.
• Despite his strange motives he does work to bring
  about happiness. For example he convinces
  Beatrice and Bendick that they love each other,
  he is responsible for orchestrating the whole
  plot and plays the role of director.
• Don Pedro is the only one of the three friends
  not to marry. Benedick jokes in the final scene
  that the melancholy prince must get thee a wife
  in order to enjoy true happiness (V.iv.117).
• Don Pedro as a result is sad at the end of the
  joyous comedy, and the audience are left asking
  why? Perhaps he is pained by Beatrices refusal
  to marry him when she assumes he is joking at the
  ball, perhaps he does truly love her.
• The play as a whole does not give us an explicit
  reason for Don Pedro's behaviour and subsequently
  he becomes a thought provoking and mesmerising
  character.

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Slide 5 Characters

• Benedick
• Benedick had recently returned from fighting and
  vows that he will never marry.
• Benedick openly flirts with Beatrice in a battle
  of wits to outsmart and out insult each other.
• However is is obvious that Benedick does love
  Beatrice and this is all a rouse.
• When Benedick overhears Claudio and Don Pedro
  discussing Beatrices desire for Benedick he vows
  to be horribly in love with her, (II.iii.207).
• In effect benedick is simply trying to outwit
  Betarice in the game of love.
• Benedick is one of the most dramatic characters
  in the play. He continually performs for the
  benfits of others, he is an entertainer who
  indulges in wit and playfulness.
• He delivers a perfect example of this during the
  masked ball when he exaggertaes that Beatrice
  used him and he expresse to his friends that he
  would rather be sent to the farthest corner of
  the world rather than spend time with his
  nemesis.
• Will your grace command me any service to the
  worlds end? I will go on the slightest errand
  now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send
  me on. I will fetch you a toothpicker from the
  furthest inch of Asia . . . do you any embassage
  to the pigmies, rather than hold three words
  conference with this harpy (II.i.229235).
• As a result of his flamboyant nature it is not
  easy to tell if he is in love with Beatrice all
  along or if he fall for her during the play.
• His refusal to marry doesnt change over the
  play, however he does change his mind when he
  decides to fall for Beatrice. His refusal to
  marry could simply be a mask to hide his true
  feelings.
• The change in Benedick is evident when he
  challenges Claudio to a dual over Heros unchaste
  behaviour. This is when the audience realises
  that Benedick has switched his allegiances from
  Claudio his former best friend to Beatrice.

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Slide 6 Characters

• Beatrice
• Beatrice is Leonatos niece, although close to
  her cousin Hero they could not be more different.
  Betarice is feisty, cyuncial and witty, and
  continues to play a merry war of wits with
  Benedick.
• The play suggests that Beatrice was once in love
  with Benedick but he led her on and the
  relationship ended.
• When Beatrice and Benedick meet again the two
  compete to outdo each other with clever insults.
• Although she appears hardened and sharp, Beatrice
  is very vulnerable. Once she overhears Hero
  discussing that Benedick is in love with her, she
  opens herself to sensitivities and weakness of
  love.
• Beatrice is one of Shakespeares strong female
  characters.
• She refuses to marry because she has not
  discovered the perfect equal partner and she is
  unwilling to give up her liberty for a
  controlling husband.
• Beatrice explodes at Claudio when he humiliates
  Hero. She overtly rages at Claudio and rebels
  against the unequal treatment of women. This is
  supported when she says
• 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 (IV.i.312318).

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Slide 7 Characters

• Hero 
• A beautiful attractive lady. She falls for
  Claudio almost instantly and is crudely betrayed
  by the men in play.
• When Claudio accuses her of betrayal she suffers
  terribly.
• Leonato
• A respected and well to do noble.
• The action of the play takes place in his home in
  Messina Italy
• As governor of Messina he is second in power only
  to Don Pedro.
• Claudio
• A very young soldier who has won great acclaim
  fighting under Don Pedro.
• He falls quickly in love with Hero and appears to
  be a fool in love when Don John deceives him.
• His immature attitude allows him to reject Hero
  as quickly as he accepts her, and he is hasty
  when he believes the rumours and takes his
  revenge on their wedding day.

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Slide 8 Characters

• Don John 
• Don John is the illegitimate brother of Don
  Pedro he is sometimes known as the bastard and
  is often referred to by this name in the play.
• Don John is melancholy and sullen by nature and
  uses the little power he has to ruin the
  happiness in the play, he is the villain of the
  play, he has an evil attitude and intends to
  cause chaos throughout the play. He envies his
  brothers power and authority.
• Margaret 
• Margaret is Heros serving woman, who helps
  Borachio and Don John deceive Claudio. Margaret
  is of a low class, compared to Hero and her other
  serving woman Ursula.
• Margaret is honest however she does have some
  dealings in the villanious world of the play when
  she helps Don John and her lover Borachio.
• Maragaret also likes to break decorum with bawdy
  jokes and teasing people.
• Borachio 
• Borachio is the lover of Margaret, Heros serving
  woman. He works with Don John to trick Claudio
  and Don Pedro.
• His name means drunkard in Italian, which
  serves as a subtle direction in the play.

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Slide 9 Themes

• Social Grace
• The characters in the play use dense, colourful
  speech, which represents the ideal that
  Renaissance courtiers strove for.
• The plays language uses metaphor and rhetoric
  throughout. Benedick, Claudio and Don Pedro all
  produce the kind of witty banter that courtiers
  used to attract attention.
• Courtiers were expected to speak highly contrived
  language but to make it appear effortless.
  Bendick and his companions try to display this
  effortless performance in both their behaviour
  and language.
• The play mocks the fanciful love language that
  courtiers used. For example when Claudio falls in
  love he tries to be perfect as Benedick notes
  His words are a very fantastical banquet, just
  so many strange dishes (II.iii.1819).
• Although the young gallants seem casual in their
  displays they constantly struggle to maintain
  their social position and Benedick and Claudio
  strive to remain in Don Pedro's favour.
• When Claudio agrees to let Don Pedro woo Hero, it
  is not because Claudio can not but that he must
  stay in Don Pedros favour.
• When Claudio believes Don Pedro has deceived him
  and wooed Hero for himself, he cannot drop his
  polite civility even though he is enraged.
  Beatrice jokes that Claudio is civil as an
  orange, punning on the Seville orange, a bitter
  fruit (II.i.256).
• Claudio remains quiet and polite despite his
  upset when he speaks of Don Pedro and Hero I
  wish him joy of her (II.i.170) Claudio
  ultimately chooses his obedience to Don Pedro
  over his love for Hero.
• Claudios social propriety eventually leads him
  into a trap when he believes Don John and
  abandons Hero on their wedding day.
• Obviously Don Johns plans do not work as Claudio
  remains in Don Pedros favour, and Hero has to
  suffer.

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Slide 10 Themes

• Deception
• This play is based upon deliberate deception.
  Some of this deception is explicit whilst others
  are implicit.
• The betrayal of Claudio results in Heros
  disgrace whilst her supposed death prepares the
  way for her reconciliation.
• In a much more light-hearted way Beatrice and
  Benedick are deceived into thinking that each
  loves the other. Ultimately as a result they
  fall in love.
• Subsequently the play shows that deception is not
  always a negative experience and creates love.
• It is often difficult to decide what is good
  deception and what is bad deception. When Don
  Pedro woos Hero, Claudio begins to distrust him
• believing he has deceived him. As the
  audiences believe in the illusions of the theatre
  it becomes apparent that the plays characters
  are believing the illusions they create for each
  other.
• Bendick and Beatrice flirt at the masked ball
  however each is aware of the others presence yet
  they pretend not to know each other, ultimately
  deceiving themselves and each other.
• After Claudio has shamed and rejected Hero,
  Leonatos household publish her death. That she
  died to punish Claudio.
• When Claudio comes to marry Leonatos niece
  deception takes place in the institution of
  marriage, suggesting that the ceremony has little
  to do with love.
• Ultimately deception has positive and negative
  effects it is a means to the resolution of the
  play. It is used to create an illusion which
  allows people to succeed not in love but in
  social stance.

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Slide 11 Themes

• Honour
• The wedding ceremony in which Claudio rejects
  Hero and accuses of her of infidelity ultimately
  shaming her in front of her father is the plays
  climax.
• In Shakespeare's time a woman's worth was based
  on her virginity and chaste, for a woman to loose
  her honour by having sex before marriage
  ultimately meant that she would loose her social
  standing, something from which she would never
  recover.
• The womans shaming would impact the whole
  family. As a result Leonato attempts to
  obliterate Hero completely to shield his family
  from dishonour. Hence from her, let her die
  (IV.i.153)
• Leonato speaks of a loss of honour and he feels
  that he cannot escape from this loss of honour
  and uses the metaphor of a stain which he can not
  get rid of O she is fallen / Into a pit of ink,
  that the wide sea / Hath drops too few to wash
  her clean again (IV.i.138140).
• Heros loss of honour was a form of complete
  annihilation
• For mean honour depended on friends and
  acquaintance in a much more military nature.
• Men were more able to depend their honour and the
  honour of his family by fighting.
• Beatrice wishes for Benedick to avenge Heros
  honour by duelling with Claudio.
• Hero cannot gain her own honour but Benedick can
  do it for her.

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Slide 12 Key Quotations

• Key Quotations
• Benedick speaks to Claudio and Don Pedro, about
  how even the wildest men eventually calm dowm to
  love and marriage.
• The savage bull may, but if ever the sensible
  Benedick bear it, pluck off the bulls horns and
  set them in my forehead, and let me be vilely
  painted, and in such great letters as they write
  Here is good horse to hire let them signify
  under my sign Here you may see Benedick, the
  married man. (I.i.215219)
• Beatrice gives her witty explanation as to why
  she will not marry
• What should I do with himdress 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 and he that is more
  than a youth is not for me, and he that is less
  than a man, I am not for him (II.i.2832)
• Benedick has overheard Claudio, Leonato, and Don
  Pedro discussing Beatrices
• love for him. In a soliloquy he ponders this.
• They say the lady is fair. Tis a truth, I can
  bear them witness. And virtuoustis so, I cannot
  reprove it. And wise, but for loving me. By my
  troth, it is no addition to her witnor no great
  argument of her folly, for I will be horribly in
  love with her. (II.iii.204208)

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Slide 13 Key Quotations

• Key Quotations
• Claudio has openly disgraced Hero at their
  wedding ceremony, returning her to Leonato
• O Hero! What a Hero hadst thou beenIf half thy
  outward graces had been placedAbout thy thoughts
  and counsels of thy heart!But fare thee well,
  most foul, most fair, farewellThou pure impiety
  and impious purity.For thee Ill lock up all the
  gates of love,And on my eyelids shall conjecture
  hang To turn all beauty into thoughts of
  harm,And never shall it more be gracious
  (IV.i.98106)
• Dogberry apprehends Conrad and Borachio and
  unravels Don Johns plot to deceive Claudio and
  ruin Hero
• Dost thou not suspect my place? Dost thou not
  suspect my years? O that he were here to write me
  down an ass! But masters, remember that I am an
  ass. Though it be not written down, yet forget
  not that I am an ass. No, thou villain, thou art
  full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by
  good witness. I am a wise fellow, and which is
  more, an officer, and which is more, a
  householder, and which is more, as pretty a piece
  of flesh as any is in Messina, and one that knows
  the law, go to . . . and one that hath two gowns,
  and everything handsome about him. Bring him
  away. O that I had been writ down an ass!
           (IV.ii.6778)

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Slide 14 Key Questions

• Key Questions
• Remind yourslef of the whole of Act 5 Scene 4
  from where the Friar says Did I not tell you she
  was innocent? to the end of the play.
• How appropriate do you find this scene as an
  ending to the play.
• (AQA June 2006)
• What do you find interesting about Shakespeares
  presentation of Beatrice in the play?
• You may confine yourself to two episodes or
  range more widely if you prefer.
• (AQA June 2006)

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Slide 15 Summary

• The play is one of Shakespeare's comedies and the
  resolution ends in the marriage of both couples.
• The play is set in Messina in Italy
• The action takes place at Leonatos house
• Leonato is Heros father and Beatrices uncle
• Don Pedro, Claudio and Benedick return from war
  at the start of the play.
• Don Pedro is the social supreme in the play.
• Don John is the illegitimate bastard brother of
  Don Pedro.
• Benedick and Beatrice fall in love
• Hero and Claudio fall in love
• The play focuses on the love stories. The main
  plot centres around the love and deception of
  Hero and Claudios relationship.
• The sub plot follows the fanciful and playful
  love between Beatrice and Benedick.
• Both Hero and Claudio are deceived by Don John
  and Borachio.
• The play centres around deception deception has
  negative and positive effects in the play.
• Leonato is Heros father and as a result suffers
  the shame and deception of Don John and Borachio.
  
• The play reflects many of the social
  circumstances of the time such as honour, love,
  social standing and social grace.
• The use of language is important throughout the
  play.