What can we learn about Margaret from this scene? Ask yourself:

• What does Margaret’s choice of language tell us about her? What does it tell us about the kind of relationship she and Beatrice have?
• Which words does Margaret choose to repeat and change the meaning of? What kind of meaning does she give them?
• Some of the word meanings have changed since Shakespeare’s time. How does this affect how funny the scene is?
• Some of the lines are quite short. What does this say about the pace of the scene? How fast does it go? What effect might this have? If you are able to read along you will notice how quickly some of it can go to make the jokes even funnier.
• Look at the punctuation in Margaret’s last speech. Think about where the character is breathing and pausing; what effect might this have on the comedy of the scene?

• Look at other times in the play when characters use witty exchanges or banter. When do they do it in private and when are they doing it to entertain or affect others who are listening?
• Look at where these exchanges come in the play. Is Shakespeare putting them there for a reason? Do they lighten the mood or raise the tension of the play at that point?
• Keep a record of the images the characters use in their witty exchanges. There is a lot of use of war and animal imagery in this play. Find out more by looking at the Analysing the Imagery section.

• How does Dogberry’s language affect the drama of the play at this point? What effect might this have on the audience?
• What does Dogberry reveal about himself by speaking in this way? What do we think of him as a character?
• What challenges does his use of language have for an actor? What about a modern actor attempting this language today?
• Look at how Leonato handles Dogberry in this scene? What does it tell us about his character?

• Look at Dogberry’s first appearance with the Watch in Act 3 Scene 3. Ask yourself:
  • What effect is he trying to have on the rest of the Watch by how he speaks to them? In which ways does he try to achieve this? Is he successful?
  • Look closely at his choice of words. What do they tell us about the man he is? What might a new member of the Watch think of this language?
  • Examine how Dogberry explains the duties of the Watch. How much of it makes sense? Where does it get confusing and why?
• Look at Dogberry’s reaction to Conrad’s insult at the end of Act 4 Scene 2. Count the number of full stops, exclamation marks and questions marks. How many sentences are there in the whole speech? How might this suggest how it should be spoken?

• Benedick and Beatrice use a lot of animal imagery to express how they feel about marriage. In Act 1 Scene 1, Benedick instructs Don Pedro to ‘pluck off the bull’s horns, and set them in his forehead’ if ever he gets married. Wearing or growing animal horns was a common image in Elizabethan times and meant that your wife had been unfaithful. Benedick is afraid to trust women in case he is made to look a fool.
• In Act 2 Scene 1, Beatrice says she would rather lead ‘apes into hell’ than marry. This is an image from a proverb which was common in Shakespeare’s time of an unmarried woman leading apes into hell as she has no children to send to heaven. Beatrice chooses such an unflattering image to show just how determined she is to stay independent.
• How many examples of animal imagery can you find in the play and what do they reveal about the character who uses them?

• Images of sickness and disease are used often in Much Ado to describe love as something that can be caught, make someone ill and alter their behaviour. In Act 1 Scene 1, Beatrice describes Benedick as an infectious disease that will drive you mad and you can never get rid of: ‘He is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! If he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a thousand pound ere he be cured.’
• Love itself is seen as something strong enough to give you a physical illness if you deny it or keep it secret. Benedick claims to ‘have the toothache’ in Act 3 Scene 2 after his gulling scene and Beatrice appears with a cold in Act 3 Scene 4, after hers: ‘I am stuffed cousin, I cannot smell.’
• How many examples of this type of imagery can you find in the play and what do they reveal about the character who uses them?

• Imagery of war and the military features a lot in this play as Don Pedro and his men have just returned from fighting and it is on everybody’s minds. In Act 2 Scene 1, Benedick uses the image of a firing squad to describe a verbal attack from Beatrice: ‘I stood like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at me’ and that ‘she speaks poniards, and every word stabs’. ‘Poniards’ are a type of dagger and these images help to make her words sound like weapons which genuinely hurt him.
• In Act 5 Scene 1, Leonato says to Claudio: ‘Thy slander has gone through and through her heart’, as if his accusations have pierced Hero’s heart like a sword. Antonio then threatens Claudio: ‘I’ll whip you from your foining fence!’ This imagery of combat and fencing suits the emotions of the scene as Benedick is about to challenge Claudio to a duel.
• Take a closer look at Act 5 Scene 1 in your own edition to explore how imagery of war and the military is used in the exchange between Claudio and Benedick. Why do you think Shakespeare uses this language so much in this scene? Why is the imagery of fighting so important in the rest of the play?

• Love and marriage are central themes in Much Ado. The two main characters, Benedick and Beatrice, start the play with strong views on both with Benedick asking Don Pedro to ‘hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at me’ (1:1) if he falls in love and Beatrice swearing to stay single ‘till God make men of some other metal than earth’ (2:1). One of the main plots revolves around the two characters changing their views. Their relationship is shown in contrast to the speedy engagement of Claudio and Hero who are younger and less experienced but also have a lot to learn.
• In Much Ado, the roles of men and women in society are very different. The world of Messina is strongly patriarchal, meaning that men hold positions of power and have more freedom to say and do what they want. This is very frustrating for Beatrice, particularly after Hero’s ruined wedding where she feels unable to confront Claudio for what he’s done, saying to Benedick ‘It is a man’s office, but not yours.’ (4:1)
• See how many references you can find in the play to marriage and the roles of men and women. Can these be split into categories of positive and negative? When is marriage seen as positive and by whom? How differently is an unmarried man seen compared with an unmarried woman?

• Even the play’s title ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ suggests a lot of fuss about empty rumours and deception. The word ‘nothing’ is a pun on ‘noting’, or noticing, and the play is full of ‘noting’, in the sense that the characters are often watching and being overheard. Claudio is deceived and believes he has seen something he hasn’t when he sees Borachio with Margaret and thinks it is Hero, and even Beatrice and Benedick are deceived into loving each other by overhearing conversations. When Beatrice overhears Hero talk about her, she hears some hard truths about her character which prompt her to turn over a new leaf, saying ‘What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?’ (3:1)
• Don John deceives others constantly, lying to Claudio that Don Pedro loves Hero at the masked dance, saying ‘I heard him swear his affection’ (2:1), and later claiming that Hero has been unfaithful to Claudio, ‘you shall see her chamber window entered, even the night before her wedding day’ (3:2). Borachio gives Don John a lot of information that he overhears but fittingly, in the end, his own boasts are overheard by the Watch which saves Hero’s reputation when he is heard saying, ‘I have tonight wooed Margaret, the Lady Hero’s gentlewoman, by the name of Hero.’ (3:3)
• See how many times information is spread by characters who have overheard things. Is the information correct? How does this affect the drama? Does it have funny or tragic consequences?

• Reputation and respect are very important to people in Much Ado About Nothing. Leonato, Claudio and Don Pedro are all well-respected figures at the start of the play. All three men have their reputation damaged by Don John. Important relationships are torn apart when characters lose respect for each other, with Benedick calling his former friend Claudio ‘Lord Lack-beard’ in Act 5 Scene 1 and ending his relationship with Don Pedro the prince.
• It is Hero, however, whose damaged reputation lies at the centre of the drama, with her own father saying ‘O, she is fallen / Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea / Hath drops too few to wash her clean again’ (4:1). Even the Friar suggests hiding Hero away ‘As best befits her wounded reputation, / In some reclusive and religious life’ (4:1). Margaret’s reputation is also threatened by Borachio as she is made the subject of a vile plan without her knowledge. In a play bursting with wit and humour, this theme adds a very dark tone as the women have little power to clear their own names and have to rely on others.
• What is considered to be a virtuous woman in the world of the play? What does it mean to the women to have their reputations ruined? Are the consequences different for men? What does this tell us about the society in which the play is set?