Much Ado About Nothing

59 pages • 1 hour read

Much Ado About Nothing

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1598

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Introduction

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

ACTS I-II

Get access to this full Teaching Guide and much more!

9,100+ In-Depth Study Guides
4,650+ Quick-Read Plot Summaries
Downloadable PDFs

Reading Check

1. Where is the play set?

2. How is Leonato related to Beatrice?

3. Who is Don Pedro’s half-brother?

4. Who are Don John’s two companions and helpers?

5. What does Benedick promise he will never do?

6. What is Benedick doing while his friends discuss Beatrice’s supposed love for him?

The SuperSummary difference

8x more resources than SparkNotes and CliffsNotes combined
Study Guides you won’t find anywhere else
125+ fresh titles added every month

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is the nature of the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick at the beginning of the play?

2. What is Don Pedro’s plan to help Claudio win Hero’s love?

3. Why is Don John envious of Don Pedro?

4. Why does Conrade tell Don John he should stay in Don Pedro’s good graces?

5. How does Hero’s lady-in-waiting Margaret inadvertently help Don John sabotage Claudio’s marriage to Hero?

6. Why does Benedick avoid Claudio after he becomes engaged to Hero?

7. How do Claudio, Don Pedro, and Leonato trick Benedick into loving Beatrice?

Paired Resources

“The world of Italy in Shakespeare's comedies"

This article from the Folger Shakespeare Library discusses the origins of Shakespeare's fascination with Italy, considers the Italian settings of many of Shakespeare’s plays and speculates about what Shakespeare might have known about Italy and the people of Italy.
Shared themes include Sex and Class.
Why was Shakespeare so fascinated with Italy? Do you believe the Italy of Much Ado About Nothing is based on Shakespeare’s observations, or simply his research and imagination?

Masquerade and Masked Balls

This entry from Encyclopedia.com discusses the history of masquerades.
Shared themes include Sex and Class and Faithfulness and Deceit.
How are masks used as an important symbol or motif throughout the play? How do masks reflect the play’s central themes?

“Illegitimate Parenthood in Early Modern Europe“

This academic article from History of the Family presents the legal and social perceptions of illegitimacy in Early Modern Europe: instructor resource (not student-facing).
This connects to the theme of Sex and Class.

ACTS III-V

Reading Check

1. Who tells Claudio that Hero has been unfaithful?

2. Who is Dogberry?

3. What does Dogberry intend to say when he tells his men to “be vigitant”?

4. Who backs up Claudio’s accusations against Hero?

5. What does Beatrice want Benedick to do for her as a token of his love?

6. Why does Benedick tell Don Pedro he is leaving the army?

7. Why does Borachio tell Don Pedro that he should not punish Margaret for her part in Don John’s scheme?

8. What favor does Benedick ask of Leonato before Claudio’s wedding to Hero’s cousin?

9. Who does the veiled cousin that Claudio must marry turn out to be?

10. Who is sad after the double wedding?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How do Margaret and Ursula trick Beatrice into falling in love with Benedick? How is their strategy different from the way the gentlemen trick Benedick into falling in love with Beatrice?

2. Why does Dogberry instruct the watch to keep an eye on Leonato’s house in particular?

3. Why does Leonato say he wishes that Hero would die?

4. What is the friar’s plan for verifying whether the story about Hero’s infidelity is true?

5. How does Dogberry find out about Don John’s scheme?

6. How does Claudio find out that he was mistaken about Hero?

7. How do Claudio and Hero prove that Beatrice and Benedick really are in love with each other?

Paired Resource

“Dueling: The Violence of Gentlemen“

This article from the National Endowment for the Humanities provides a brief and readable overview of dueling.
Shared themes include Love and Pride and Sex and Class.
What values or social mores did dueling represent? How are these values or social mores represented in Much Ado About Nothing?

Recommended Next Reads

As You Like It by William Shakespeare

This pastoral comedy by Shakespeare, probably written around 1599, concerns a woman named Rosalind who escapes her cruel uncle to find mercy and love.
Shared themes include Faithfulness and Deceit, Love and Pride, and Rivalry Between Brothers.
Shared topics include comedies and satirical plays.
As You Like It on SuperSummary

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

One of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, first performed before 1597, this is the timeless tragedy of two star-crossed lovers.
Shared themes include Love and Pride and Rivalry and Feud.
Shared topics include family feuds and identity.
Romeo and Juliet on SuperSummary

Reading Questions Answer Key

ACTS I-II

Reading Check

Get access to this full Teaching Guide and much more!

9,100+ In-Depth Study Guides
4,650+ Quick-Read Plot Summaries
Downloadable PDFs

1. Messina, an Italian city in Sicily (Act I, Scene 1)

2. He is her uncle (Act I, Scene 1)

3. Don John (Act I, Scene 1)

4. Conrade and Borachio (Act I, Scene 3)

5. Get married (Act I, Scene 1)

6. Hiding (Act II, Scene 3)

Short Answer

The SuperSummary difference

8x more resources than SparkNotes and CliffsNotes combined
Study Guides you won’t find anywhere else
125+ fresh titles added every month

1. Beatrice and Benedick are locked in a perpetual battle of wits at the beginning of the play, insulting and mocking one another mercilessly. They seem to have a negative history and claim to dislike each other. (Act I, Scene 1)

2. Don Pedro tells Claudio he will woo her in his name. (Act I, Scene 1 and Act II, Scene 1)

3. Don John is illegitimate and thus envies his half-brother Don Pedro, who is legitimate. His lower status causes him to feel better and seek revenge. (Act I, Scene 3)

4. Conrade reminds Don John that he has only recently regained Don Pedro’s trust after fighting against him in the past, and that if he angers Don Pedro, it may be hard for him to regain that trust yet again. (Act I, Scene 3)

5. Don John’s henchman Borachio persuades Margaret to meet him in Hero’s room and makes romantic advances on her in view of Claudio, calling her “Hero” so that Claudio, watching from below, will think that his fiancée is unfaithful. (Act II, Scene 2)

6. After Claudio and Hero’s engagement, Benedick avoids his friend Claudio because he is tired of listening to his lovestruck babbling. (Act II, Scene 3)

7. Claudio, Don Pedro, and Leonato make up stories about how much Beatrice loves Benedick so that Benedick can overhear them. (Act II, Scene 3)

ACTS III-V

Reading Check

1. Don John (Act III, Scene 2)

2. The chief of the local watch (Act III, Scene 3)

3. Be “vigilant” or watchful (Act III, Scene 3)

4. Don Pedro (Act IV, Scene 1)

5. Kill Claudio (Act IV, Scene 1)

6. Because he is angry at him for supporting Claudio’s treatment of Hero (Act V, Scene 1)

7. Because Margaret did not realize what role she was playing in the scheme (Act V, Scene 1)

8. To be married to Beatrice after the ceremony (Act V, Scene 4)

9. Hero (Act V, Scene 4)

10. Don Pedro (Act V, Scene 4)

Short Answer

1. Margaret and Ursula have a loud conversation in which they talk about how much Benedick is in love with Beatrice. Unlike the gentlemen, who focused on how much Beatrice was suffering because of her love, the ladies emphasize Beatrice’s proud character. (Act III, Scene 1)

2. Dogberry anticipates that Leonato’s house, being in a bustle with the preparations for Hero and Claudio’s wedding, will present many opportunities for crime. (Act III, Scene 3)

3. He wishes her dead because she thinks he was unfaithful to Claudio. (Act IV, Scene 1)

4. The friar suggests that Leonato claim that Hero has died to see how Claudio reacts. If Claudio has been misled, his grief will compel him to reexamine the accusations against Hero and will lead to the truth coming out. (Act IV, Scene 1)

5. Dogberry interrogates his prisoners, Borachio and Conrade, after they are apprehended by his watchmen. Eventually, he learns from the watchmen themselves what they heard from Borachio and Conrade and pieces together Don John’s scheme. (Act IV, Scene 2)

6. Dogberry brings his prisoners Borachio and Conrade to Claudio, and together they confirm the trick Don John played. (Act V, Scene 1)

7. Claudio displays Benedick’s half-finished love sonnet to Beatrice, while Hero displays a sonnet Beatrice wrote for Benedick. Beatrice and Benedick are thus forced to publicly own up to their feelings and are married. (Act V, Scene 4)