Much Ado About Nothing Test Prep
This powerpoint is designed to help you review for the upcoming test. Use your class assignments and notes to answer the following questions.
The Author
Who is considered the greatest English playwright?
William Shakespeare
How long ago did he live?
400 Years
How many plays and sonnets did Shakespeare write?
37 plays, 154 sonnets
What was the name of his theatre and performing troupe?
Theatre – the Globe Performing Troupe – The King’s Men
Which members of royalty did he perform for?
Queen Elizabeth and King James I
Why is Shakespeare’s grave still undisturbed?
He put a curse on his epitaph
The Play
How does the play begin?
A servant comes and tells Govenor Leonato that Don Pedro’s military is returning home from war and will stop by his home.
Who refuses to marry in the beginning of the play?
Benedick and Beatrice
What do Don Pedro, Benedick, and Claudio discuss after their arrival at Leonato’s estate?
Love and marriage. Specifically, Claudio being in love with and wanting to marry Hero. Benedick claims he will never marry.
Who noted or overheard the conversation between Claudio and Don Pedro?
Servants of both Leonato and Don John.
Who is Don John and what does he want?
“ I am a plain dealing villian… I will bite.” (Don John) He claims he is devious and wants to hurt other people’s happiness.
What significant events happen at the masquerade party that night? [Name three]
1. Don Pedro woos Hero in Claudio’s behalf 2. Don John tries to ruin the arranged marriage plans by lying to Claudio 3. Don Pedro proposes to Beatrice (but, she declines)
How does Benedick describe Beatrice?
How does Beatrice describe Benedick?
How do Don Pedro and the others make Benedick and Beatrice fall in love? What do they do exactly?
They trick them into being in love. They have a conversation where they claim Beatrice/Benedick is madly in love with the other person. But, no one wants to tell them, because they think they are too proud and will only be rude to the one in love.
What is Borachio’s plan to stop the wedding of Hero and Claudio?
He will make Claudio believe Don Pedro is proposing to Hero, for himself, not Claudio.
Who appears at Hero’s window and why is she mistaken for Hero?
Hero’s servant, Margaret. She is mistaken for Hero because she looks like Hero and she is in Hero’s bedroom window.
Why does Claudio reject Hero at the alter?
He thinks Hero has been unfaithful.
Why does Don Pedro support Claudio’s public shaming of Hero?
Don Pedro arranged the marriage, so his honor is on the line.
Who supports Hero and offers a plan to help her?
Friar Francis believes Hero is innocent. He suggests they hide Hero and claim that she died upon hearing the slander against her. He thinks people will have sympathy for her. It also gives them time to clear her name.
Benedick supports Leonato’s family after Hero has been accused. 1- Why does he do this? 2-How does he show his support – [What does he say he will do?]
He supports the family because he loves Beatrice. He agrees to challenge Claudio to a duel, to show his support for Hero and her family.
What makes Claudio realize that he wrongly accused Hero?
Borachio confesses
What penance does Leonato set for Claudio for falsely accusing Hero?
Claudio must: 1. Confess to the entire town that Hero was innocent, that he wrongly accused her. 2. He must sing to her epitaph each year. 3. He must marry another member of the family (a niece).
What is Dogberry’s and Verges’s key role in the play?
They are the comic relief.
Why is it important that Dogberry brings to light the treachery of Borachio and Don John?
Because he is the most simple minded of all of the characters in the story.
What happens at the chapel at the end of the play? [Who gets married (two couples) and who gets arrested?]
1. Hero and Claudio marry. 2. Beatrice and Benedick marry. 3. Don John is captured and will receive “brave punishments.”
What is the effect of mentioning Don John at the very end of the play?
Poetic justice – The bad guy receives punishment for his evil deeds.
Quotes
Who states: “Why, he is the prince’s jester: a very dull fool; …his gift is in devising impossible slanders: none but libertines delight in him; …for he both pleases men and angers them, and then they laugh at him and beat him.”
Beatrice
“If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it, and I will break with her and with her father, and thou shalt have her.”
Don Pedro
“No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.”
Benedick
“Lady, as you are mine, I am yours: I give away myself for you and dote upon the exchange.”
Claudio
“Cupid is no longer an archer: his glory shall be ours, for we are the only love-gods.”
Don Pedro
“If it proves so, then loving goes by haps: some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”
Hero
“I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.”
Beatrice
“I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes.”
Benedick
“I have deceived even your very eyes:…how your brother incensed ne to slander the Lady Hero, …how you disgraced her, when you should marry her: my villany they have upon record: which I had rather seal with my death than repeat over to my shame. The lady is dead upon mine and my master’s false accusation…”
Borachio
“By noting of the lady I have mark’d… a thousand innocent shames in angel whiteness… in her eye there hath appear’d a fire, to burn the errors that these princes hold against her maiden truth.”
Friar Francis
“Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended [apprehended] two a[u]spicious [suspicious] persons.”
Dogberry
“I say thou has belied mine innocent child; thy slander hath gone through and through her heart and she lies buried with her ancestors.”
Leonato
“One Hero died defiled, but I do live, And surely as I live, I am a maid.”
Hero
The Language [Refer to your vocabulary sheet for definitions. The following are examples of the literary techniques being used.]
Foil characters- Benedick-Claudio Beatrice-Hero Don Pedro-Don John
Malapropism- Dogberry constantly mixes up his words, creating the comic relief in the play. “Thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption [perdition] for this.”
Metaphor- Claudio-“Can the world buy such a jewel?” Benedick-“She speaks poniards.”
Onomatopoeia- The word sounds the way it is spelled. Buzz, smack, zoom, splash, spray, sprinkle, squirt, drip, drizzle
Oxymoron- “Not ‘til a hot January” “I will devise brave punishments”
Paradox- “What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage? (Don John)
Poetic Justice- Both Don John and Borachio are brought to justice at the end of the play. Borachio – “I had rather seal with my death than repeat over to my shame.” Benedick will “devise brave punishments” for Don John
Pun- At the memorial service, Don Pedro states, “the wolves have prey’d.” What does this pun refer to? Don Pedro and Claudio attacked Hero at the wedding, like wolves attacking their prey. Don Pedro and Claudio are wolves [having attacked Hero] and are now praying at her memorial service.
Pun [Example #2]- How is ‘nothing’ [noting] used as a pun in the title of the play, Much Ado About Nothing [noting]? 1-The plot revolves around an event that never actually happened, ‘nothing’. 2-Nothing [noting] also refers to romantic relationships. There are several romantic relationships in the play.
Raillery- Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato tease Benedick about being in love with Beatrice.
Simile- Benedick speaks of Beatrice… “I stood like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at me.” “If her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her.”
Soliloquy- Benedick is by himself in the orchard thinking about love and marriage. He speaks his thoughts aloud.
Motifs
Who are the foil characters?
What are the different relationships of ‘love’ in the play?
What deceptions or disguises are shown in the play?
The End