Much Ado About Nothing

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?

How long ago did he live?

How many plays and sonnets did Shakespeare write?

What was the name of his theatre and performing troupe?

Which members of royalty did he perform for?

Why is Shakespeare’s grave still undisturbed?

The Play

How does the play begin?

Who refuses to marry in the beginning of the play?

What do Don Pedro, Benedick, and Claudio discuss after their arrival at

Leonato’s estate?

Who noted or overheard the conversation between Claudio and

Don Pedro?

Who is Don John andwhat does he want?

What significant events happen at the masquerade party that night?

[Name three]

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?

What character defects does Benedick’s companions ascribe

to him?

What character defects doesHero ascribe to Beatrice?

What is Borachio’s plan to stop the wedding of Hero and Claudio?

Who appears at Hero’s window and why is she mistaken for Hero?

Why does Claudio reject Hero at the alter?

Why does Don Pedro support Claudio’s public shaming of Hero?

Who supports Hero and offers a plan to help her?

Why is it necessary in the plan for Hero to seem to die?

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?]

What makes Claudio realize that he wrongly accused Hero?

What penance does Leonato set for Claudio for falsely accusing

Hero?

What is Dogberry’s and Verges’s key role in the play?

Why is it important that Dogberry brings to light the treachery of

Borachio and Don John?

What happens at the chapelat the end of the play?

[Who gets married (two couples) and who gets arrested?]

What is the effect of mentioning Don John at the very end

of the play?

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.”

“Nature never framed a woman’s heart of prouder stuff than that of

Beatrice. Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes. Her wit

values itself so highly that to her all matters else seems weak: she

cannot love.”

“If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it, and I will break with her and with her father, and thou shalt

have her.”

“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.”

“Lady, as you are mine, I am yours: I give away myself for you and dote

upon the exchange.”

“Cupid is no longer an archer: his glory shall be ours, for we are the

only love-gods.”

“If it proves so, then loving goes by haps: some Cupid kills with arrows,

some with traps.”

“I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.”

“I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes.”

“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…”

“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.”

“Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended [apprehended] two a[u]spicious [suspicious] persons.”

“I say thou has belied mine innocent child; thy slander hath gone through and through her

heart and she lies buried with her ancestors.”

“One Hero died defiled, but I do live, And surely as I live, I am a

maid.”

The Language[Refer to your vocabulary sheet for

definitions. The following are examples of the literary techniques being used.]

Foil-

Benedick-ClaudioBeatrice-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?

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?

Who are the comic characters in the play?

The End