Much Ado About Nothing Explore the themes of the play Is it much ado about nothing
There are three different ways to interpret the title ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. The first interpretation is the one that appears to be very clear-cut; the play is purely about much ado about nothing. Another interpretation is that the whole play is in fact obsessing with noting, or the lack of it. This is likely to have been the interpretation of many in the Shakespearean Era, as at this period ‘nothing’ was pronounced ‘noting’. The third understanding is that the title could be thought to be much ado about women. The word ‘nothing’ can refer to the female genitalia, as opposed to the male ‘thing’, therefore women have no thing. Shakespeare clearly shows that he is aware of the similarity between the words note, noting and nothing, as is shown in Act 2 Scene 3, Don Pedro: Do it in notes. ... Don Pedro: Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks, Notes notes forsooth, and nothing. Shakespeare continuously relates his themes, even the diminutive themes, to the title of the play. The main and most extreme theme within the play is when Hero is found to be ‘sleeping’ with Borachio, a follower of Don John. ... The issue of much ado about nothing, noting and no thing, comes up when Claudio and Don Pedro, led by Don John, look at the window and think they see Hero sleeping with Borachio. Don John, the bastard brother of Don Pedro, is the main cause of the ado about nothing throughout the themes within the play. ... Earlier in the play the song Balthasar sings is a song about infidelity. ... A way to clear up confusion and inherent in the play is to write everything down, as Dogberry hints, “get the learned writer to set down our excommunication”. ... Act 3 scene 2 shows that Claudio is going to create lots of ado about the nothing, in the sense that Hero did not sleep with Borachio, “If I see anything tonight why I should not marry her, tomorrow in the congregation where I should wed, there I will shame her. ... This adds to the great amount of ado that is being made out of the nothing; the misinterpretation of Margaret sleeping with Borachio. However as Beatrice believes that Claudio is incorrectly accusing Hero of infidelity she is making ado out of something, not ‘nothing’. ... After Hero has been accused of sleeping with another man she has been reduced to nothing in a more drastic sense, when she fakes death.