Shakespeare’S Much Ado About Nothing

Figuratively speaking, there are several ears propped to a door, eavesdropping on a conversation pivotal to Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing; a story about love; real, new and pretended, that began before the messenger arrives with his news. Two very different couples cling to each other or push one another away during five acts of masked balls, sighing under balconies, hysterics, a make-shift death and resurrection, attempts to compose poetry and finally, a feast. The lovers of Messina: innocent Hero, fiery Beatrice and their gallant knights, weak Claudio and comic Benedict stumble through abundant trickery, taking very different paths to reach the same goal: a happily-ever-after ending. Hero, though one of the main characters of the play is a silent presence for the entire First and Second Acts, given a voice only when others speak about or for her. She is first introduced not by name, but as “the daughter of Signior Leonato”, described by Claudio as a “modest you...