Much Ado About Nothing - Themes overview test questions - WJEC

1

Read the extract from Much Ado About Nothing and answer questions 1-3 below.

BENEDICK
I pray you, what is he?
BEATRICE
Why, he is the prince's jester: a very dull fool;
only his gift is in devising impossible slanders:
none but libertines delight in him; and the
commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy;
for he both pleases men and angers them, and then
they laugh at him and beat him. I am sure he is in
the fleet: I would he had boarded me.
BENEDICK
When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say.

How does Shakespeare create comedy in this exchange from the masked ball?

2

How does Beatrice seem to regard Benedick?

3

Which main theme is presented in this section?

4

Read this extract from Much Ado About Nothing and answer questions 4-6 below.

DON PEDRO
Now, 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.

How does Shakespeare present the theme of nothing and noting in this dialogue?

5

What is the effect of this conversation between the two characters?

6

What happens next in this scene that relates to this conversation?

7

Read this extract from Much Ado About Nothing and answer questions 7-10 below.

BENEDICK
do much wonder that one man, seeing how much
another man is a fool when he dedicates his
behaviors to love, will, after he hath laughed at
such shallow follies in others, become the argument
of his own scorn by failing in love: and such a man
is Claudio. I have known when there was no music
with him but the drum and the fife; and now had he
rather hear the tabour and the pipe: I have known
when he would have walked ten mile a-foot to see a
good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake,
carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to
speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest man
and a soldier; and now is he turned orthography; his
words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many
strange dishes. May I be so converted and see with
these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not: I will not
be sworn, but love may transform me to an oyster; but
I'll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster
of me, he shall never make me such a fool. One woman
is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am
well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all
graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in
my grace.

Which main theme does Benedick explore in this speech?

8

What does he think is the main effect of falling in love?

9

How does Shakespeare show that Benedick is unaffected by love?

10

How does Benedick represent the theme of love?