Much Ado About Nothing Guided Reading Questions for Act I

Act I / Scene 1

2. What is the relationship between Don Pedro, Claudio, and Benedick?

3. What does the Messenger say of Claudio?

4. A. When Beatrice asks about Signoir Mountanto, to whom is she referring?  B. How does Beatrice cover up her concern for Benedick? C. Identify at least three different ways Beatrice before he even appears.  What aspect of his character do these insults attack?

5. Beatrice mentions that in her last conflict with Benedick “four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governed by one”.  What are the five wits?

6. What simile does Beatrice use to describe Benedick's faith (friendship)? What do you think she is implying by using this comparison?

7. How might Benedick’s first remark in the play be considered inappropriate?  How is Leonato’s response to this remark a comic put-down of Benedick?

 9. What is the “jade’s trick” referred to by Beatrice?

10. What is the greatest fear of Claudio and Benedick?

11. What about Hero is of major concern to Claudio?

12. Define misogyny.  Which character reveals his misogyny? Do you believe his misogyny is real?

Act I / Scene 2

1. Who overheard the conversation between Claudio and Don Pedro, and where did he hear it?

2. Why does Antonio tell his brother about this conversation?

3. What is the misinformation conveyed in this scene?

4. How quickly does news travel in Messina and in what manner?

5. How did this misinformation probably come about?

6. In Elizabethan times, the word “nothing” would have been pronounced like “noting” as in “to take note of something.  Based on the action of the play thus far, how is the word “nothing” used as a pun in the title of this play?

7. Is there any other word used in the title of the play which might also be a pun?

8. What does the action of the scene tell us about hearsay?

9. Leonato prefers to treat the information he received in this scene as a dream. Why?

10. Who will tell Hero the news?

Act I / Scene 3

1. How is Don John related to Don Pedro?

2. What is Don John's mood in this scene?

3. Under what planet is Conrade born?

4. What kind of advice does Conrade give Don John?

5. How does Don John respond to Conrade's advice?

6. What information does Borachio bring to Don John?

7. What effect does this information have on Don John?

8. Why are Conrade and Borachio willing to assist Don John?

9. Where does Don John go at the end of the scene?

10. How does Shakespeare use repetition of the motif of “noting” or eavesdropping in this scene?  How does Shakespeare use contrast in this scene (think about the two brothers and the disposition of the characters in this scene when compared to the disposition of characters in Scenes 1 and 2)?

Quotations for Act I:  Note (a) who said it, (b) to whom did they say it, (c) explain how the quote relates to the events and/or characters in the play

1. “Much deserved on his part, and equally remembered by Don Pedro: he had borne himself beyond the promise of his age; doing, in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion”

2. "I wonder you will still be talking, Signior Benedick; nobody marks you."

3. "What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?"

4.  “Why, i’faith, me thinks she too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise, and too little for a great praise: only this commendation I can afford her, that were      she other than she is, she were unhandsome: and being no other but as she is, I do not like her.

5. “I can see yet without spectacles, and I see no such matter: there’s her cousin, an she were not possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty as the first of May doth the last of December.”

6. “That woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise giver her most humble thanks: but that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me.  Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust none; and the fine is, for the which I may go the finer, I will live a bachelor.”

7.                     O, my lord,
      When you went onward on this ended action,
      I look’d upon her with a soldier’s eye,
      That liked, but had a rougher task in hand
      Than to drive liking to the name of love:
      But now I am return’d and that war-thoughts
      Have left their places vacant, in their rooms
      Come thronging soft and delicate desires,
      All prompting me how fair young Hero is,
      Saying, I liked her ere I went to wars.

8.   I know we shall have reveling to-night:
I  will assume thy part in some disguise,
And tell fair Hero I am Claudio:
And in her bosom I’ll unclasp my heart,
And take her hearing prisoner force
And strong encounter of my amorous tale:
Then after to her father will I break:
And the conclusion is, she shall be thine.

9. “You have of late stood out against your brother, and he hath ta’en you newly into his grace: where it is impossible you should take true root but by fair weather that you make yourself: it is needful that you frame the season for your own harvest.”

10. "I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace ; and it better fits by blood to be disdained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any: in this, though I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but I am a plaindealing villain."

11. “I am trusted with a muzzle, and enfranchised (Hey!  One of your 100 Words!) with a clog; therefore I have decreed not to sing in my cage.  If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my liking: in the meantime let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.”