Much Ado About Nothing Themes

When they do fall in love, they are ready for any sacrifice. Benedick deserts his best friends to protect the honour of Beatrice's cousin, for instance. However, even when they are ready to marry, they still poke fun at romance, and each other.

The men themselves have very different standards. They might look for sex with a prostitute when they are young, but then expect to marry later in life (and insist on marrying a virgin).

Don John and Don Pedro, enemies in the war before the play begins, face off again on the field of social life: one schemes to ruin a marriage, another to create one. Benedick and Beatrice are “ambushed"...

The idea that we live in a world of language and appearances, beyond which we cannot see, is common throughout Shakespeare. The famous quote that “All the world’s a stage,” is another example.

Ironically, Much Ado About Nothing suggests that the characters fear of shame in love is more likely to lead to embarrassment than love itself will.

He resents Don Pedro and will do anything to get his own back after he lost the war. Other characters are jealous, too. Benedick does not like Hero, and does not want Claudio to marry...