Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing, a comedy dating from the mid-career period of William Shakespeare was probably written just prior to 1600. The play has the trappings of a theatrical farce with its use of assumptions and misunderstandings. Main characters Benedick and Beatrice are duped into announcing their love for each other while Claudio is fooled into spurning Hero at the altar when he mistakenly believes that she has not been faithful to him. The theme of lovers being tricked into thinking one or the other has been unfaithful was common in Shakespeare’s era, though no definitive source or inspiration for this play is agreed upon.

Infidelity and deception serve as major themes in the play. A wife’s infidelity or cuckoldry, real or feigned, drives the plot. Women are able to use the fact that men cannot be completely certain of a wife’s fidelity. Deception is used as a thematic device to great success in creating the atmosphere of bewilderment. Deception, even when aimed at a noble end, such as bringing lovers together, often backfires, leading to the misunderstandings that are essential to the farcical genre that predates Shakespeare and stretches to the Hollywood “screwball” comedies of the 1930s and beyond.