much ado about nothing

AP World Lit Gordon Fournier
summer homework 7/2/01



When I first saw what I had to write about for this essay I was very scared for two reasons. First, it was due on July 7! and, second, the topic was asking me to make a determination on who is smarter, Beatrice or Benedick. Intelligence is an extremely difficult thing to approach. I believe that there are many different kinds of intelligence. For example, when comparing a doctor and a carpenter, one would probably presume that the doctor is more “smart.” However, that might not be the case, the carpenter could be Mr. Popularity, being very skilled at reading people where the doctor might not. The doctor might have to hire someone to change a light bulb. However, I wouldn’t feel comfortable receiving a physical from a carpenter, so who’s smarter? One method of gauging intelligence is the standardized test, but Shakesp...