Much Ado About Nothing -random notes

Character List:
Leonato: brother of Antonio, age old friend of Don Pedro and govenor of Messina, father of Hero, uncle to Beatrice

Antonio: brother of Leonato, father figure to Beatrice, uncle to Hero

Benedick: under Don Pedro, ramantic interest of Beatrice

Beatrice: adopted daughter of Antonio, cousin of Hero, niece of Antonio

Claudio: one of Don Pedro’s men, love interest of Hero

Hero: daughter of Leonato, cousin of Beatrice, love interest of Claudio

Don Pedro: Prince of Aragon, most powerful character in the play, brother of Don John, acts as cupid (Interestingly, Don Pedro makes half-advances on both Hero and Beatrice in the play)

Don John: "the bastard,": the illegitimate half-brother of Don Pedro, villain of the play

Margaret and Ursula: Hero's gentlewomen

Balthasar: an attendant on Don Pedro

Borachio and Conrad: Don John’s henchmen

Friar Francis: devises the plan to redeem Hero’s reputation

Dogberry: comic relief for majority of the scenes

Verges: Dogberry’s second in command

The Watch: they overhear Borachio and Conrad and discover Don John’s plot

The Sexton: leads the trial against Borachio and Conrad
　
　 Much Ado About Nothing is a comedic play written in the late 16th Century by William Shakespear. It is set in Messina, a port on the island of Sicily (a place near Italy). The act of the play takes place on the estate of Leonato.
Based on the title alone, it shows the elements of comedy that are to be expected in the play. Taken literally, the title implies that a great fuss ("much ado") is made of something which is insignificant ("nothing''). The word play and deeper meaning can be translated further: Nothing was a homophone in Shakespearian times for 'noting', which had/has many meanings. Firstly, it could have been the noticing of something [observing] and one example is given in the conversation between Claudio and Benedick, in which he confesses his love for Hero:
Claudio: Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signor Leonato?
Benedick: I noted her not, but I looked on her.
Also, Friar explaining as to how he has managed to live so long:
Friar: ... For I have only been silent so long
And given way unto this course of fortune
By noting of the lady. It is with this quote that it is to be explained that Nothing is a double entendre. ''An O-thing" (or a "n othing" or a "no thing"), was slang between 1550's to the early 1600's for a woman's 'vagina'.
The other possible meanings of the word 'noting' is brought out in the triple play on words in which noting signifies noticing, musical notes and nothing:
Don Pedro: Nay pray thee, come;
Or if thou wilt hold longer argument,
Do it in notes.
Balthasar: Note this before my notes:
There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.
Don Pedro: Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks –
Note notes, forsooth, and nothing! *Don Pedro’s complex last line may be interpreted as, "Pay attention to your music and nothing else!" :a pun on "crotchets," referring to both musical notes and whimsical notions.
It is clear that the aspects of humour will arise from the manner of wits, and satirical/ironic elements combined with more serious annotations towards shame, honour, and the politics of the social circles.
This is brought to light moreso in the relativity of the title to various points through out the play : Noting also means rumour, gossip, and general eavesdropping/overhearing. Concluding on the above, Much Ado About Nothing can be the turbulent love story about two couples:
Hero and Claudio: a young couple who are left speechless infront of the other (perhaps for their mutual love). Claudio so far seems to be easily manipulated as he is fairly gullable -he believes whichever rumour may so much as pass him. Hero contributes to the play, but only as a shy girl that adds meat to the story and further delivers the pun as to have nothing but ''nothing'' between her legs.
Benedick and Beatrice: the couple of more attention, who both contribute in a ''merry war'' with each other -a complete dramatic contrast to Hero and Claudio. They banter on about how they will never fall in love -as of which it can be noted that Beatrice appears to be this way because of a deeper unexplained happening (quote ? ). This makes her out as sad and hurt from a past experience; and from what we can tell so far, it may have to do with the fact that she has no mother. Beatrice’s witty explanation for why she must remain an unmarried woman is that there is no man who would be a perfect match for her. Those who have no facial hair are not manly enough to satisfy her desires, yet those who do possess beards are not youthful enough for her. This paradoxial sentiment is not restricted to Beatrice as it was very common in Renaissance literature and culture: young men on the brink of maturity were the ultimate objects of sexual desire. This is exemplified that even though Beatrice jokes that she would dress up a young man as a woman, the actor playing Beatrice at the time the play was written would have been doing exactly that, since all female roles were played by prepubescent boys until the late 17th century.
Benedick on the other hand simply seems to proclaim his disdain of love because he has not yet found someone to marry- this can be proven in that he needs no persuasion into believing that Beatrice may like him, and further fooling himself (the scene in the courtyard when he 'accidentally overhears' Leonato, Claudio and Don Pedro talking about Beatrice confessing her love for him)
Claudio: Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a pretty jest your daughter told us of.
Leonato: O, when she had writ it and was reading it over, she found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet? in which Leonato makes a sexual innuendo, of Beatrice writting her love on a sheet of paper, as leading to her and Benedick towards an implied bedsheet.
Based on the above, and further incidences in the play, it is apparent that the centre of all reasoning revolves around heresay and competition of mind games.