Much Ado About Nothing

CHARACTERS:

Beatrice

Benedick

Claudio

Hero

Don Pedro

Leonato

Don John

Margaret

Borachio

Conrad

Dogberry

Verges

Antonio

Balthasar

Ursula

Beatrice: Leonato’s niece and Hero’s cousin. Beatrice is “a pleasant-spirited lady” with a very sharp tongue. She is generous and loving, but, like Benedick, continually mocks other people with elaborately tooled jokes and puns.

Benedick: An aristocratic soldier who has recently been fighting under Don Pedro, he is very witty, always making jokes and puns. He carries on a “merry war” of wits with Beatrice, but at the beginning of the play he swears he will never fall in love or marry.

Claudio: A young soldier who has won great acclaim fighting under Don Pedro during the recent wars. Claudio falls in love with Hero upon his return to Messina. His unfortunately suspicious nature makes him quick to believe evil rumors and hasty to despair and take revenge

Don Pedro: An important nobleman from Aragon, sometimes referred to as “Prince.” Don Pedro is a longtime friend of Leonato, Hero’s father, and is also close to the soldiers who have been fighting under him—the younger Benedick and the very young Claudio. He is generous, courteous, intelligent, and loving to his friends, but he is also quick to believe evil of others and hasty to take revenge. He is the most politically and socially powerful character in the play.

Lenato: A respected, well-to-do, elderly noble at whose home, in Messina, Italy, the action is set. He is the father of Hero and the uncle of Beatrice. As governor of Messina, he is second in social power only to Don Pedro.

Don John: The illegitimate brother of Don Pedro; Don John is melancholy and sullen by nature, and he creates a dark scheme to ruin the happiness of Hero and Claudio. He is the villain of the play; his evil actions are motivated by his envy of his brother’s social authority.

Hero: The beautiful young daughter of Leonato and the cousin of Beatrice. Hero is lovely, gentle, and kind. She falls in love with Claudio when he falls for her, but when Don John slanders her and Claudio rashly takes revenge, she suffers terribly.

Margaret: Hero’s serving woman, who unwittingly helps Borachio and Don John deceive Claudio into thinking that Hero is unfaithful. Unlike Ursula, Hero’s other lady-in-waiting, Margaret is lower class. Though she is honest, she does have some dealings with the villainous world of Don John: her lover is the mistrustful and easily bribed Borachio.

Borachio: An associate of Don John. He is the lover of Margaret, Hero’s serving woman. Also, he conspires with Don John to trick Claudio and Don Pedro into thinking that Hero is unfaithful to Claudio. His name means “drunkard” in Italian.

Dogberry: The constable in charge of the Watch, or chief policeman, of Messina. Dogberry is very sincere and takes his job seriously, but he has a habit of using exactly the wrong word to convey his meaning. He is one of the few “middling sort,” or middle-class characters, in the play, though his desire to speak formally and elaborately like the noblemen becomes an occasion for parody

Conrad: One of Don John’s more intimate associates, entirely devoted to Don John.

Verges: The deputy to

Dogberry, chief policeman

of Messina.

Antonio: Leonato's elderly

brother. As well as Hero and

Beatrice's uncle.

Balthasar: A waiting man in Leonato’s household and a musician. Balthasar flirts with Margaret at the masked party and helps Leonato, Claudio, and Don Pedro trick Benedick into falling in love with Beatrice.

Ursula: One of Hero's

waiting women.

Setting: 16th century

Proagonists: Claudio,

Hero, Beatrice and

Benedick.

Conflict:

Don John creates the

apperance that Hero is a whore

and is unfaithful to Claudio(which he believes). Claudio, Don Pedro, and Benedick share a suspicion of

marriage as a trap in which husbands are controlled and deceived, but they want to be married.

Rising Action:

Claudio falls in love with Hero; Benedick, Don Pedro, and Claudio express their worries about marriage jokingly; Don Pedro woos Hero on Claudio's behalf; Don Pedro makes Hero look like a whore.

Climax: Claudio (with Don Pedro's support) rejects Hero at the altar, insulting her and accusing her of unchase behavior; Benedick, being the most opposed to women and love at the beginning, sides with Hero and his future wife Beatriece.

Falling Action:

Benedick challenges Claudio to a duel for slandering Hero; Leonato procalims publically that Hero died of grief at being wrongly accused; Dogberry brings Hero's innocence to be known. Claudio and Don Pedro repent.

Resolution: Claudio, blindly married a masked woman whom he thinks he has never met, shows that he has abandoned jealous suspicions and fears of being controlled. He is rewarded by discovering that his bride is actually Hero.

THE END :)

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