YMMV / Much Ado About Nothing

• Adorkable:
  • Both Beatrice and Benedick apply, with their mutual love for each other being quite awkward, but incredibly endearing to both parties and the audience.
  • Claudio's childish and shy nature combined with the way he falls so easily for Hero can get him to apply as well. Though his later actions may negate this for some.
  • Hero can get in on this as well due to her shameless feelings for Claudio and the way she acts like a Nervous Wreck before her wedding.
  • Dogberry certainly applies. The man is a verified nut-job who goes around bumbling through his job with the utmost enthusiasm. This also applies to his squad for similar reasons, especially his ever present sidekick Verges.
  • Don Pedro's unabashed love to play matchmaker to varying degrees of overcomplicating methods can cause him to be seen this way.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • It's possibly to show that, underneath her lively personality, Beatrice is sometimes rather a melancholy person. Her "My mother cried" line could have a significant pause after it, implying that she feels guilt and depression for having caused her mother's death in childbirth. The 2012 production at London's Globe Theatre did this particularly well, having Beatrice tear up a little as she spoke about her mother. The same was true for a 1970s production at Stratford-upon-Avon with Judi Dench in the role.
  • In the Setting Update Nothing Much To Do, John explains after the scheme takes place that he'd intended for Cora to immediately reveal Hero's innocence after Claudio's accusation, as the point of John's schemes weren't to hurt Hero, but to ruin Pedro via exploiting Pedro's friendship with the unstable and insecure Claudio. John resented Pedro thanks to him being Always Someone Better and knew that if Claudio behaved horribly towards Hero in public and Pedro supported the behavior, it would ruin Pedro's reputation as an "all-around great guy." John deeply regrets that Hero was the one who ended up getting hurt, which allows him to redeem himself just as much as Claudio.
  • There are more than a few lines that indicate that Beatrice and Benedick have a romantic history — one that ended badly long before Act I. Beatrice informs the Prince that once, Benedick loaned her his heart, and she gave him hers — but that he won her heart "with false dice." Joss Whedon explicitly starts his film with this idea.
  • Is Claudio redeemable after his humiliation of Hero or not? While it is cruel and, as we the audience know, unfair, Claudio thought he'd witnessed his fiancée cheating on him the night before their wedding. Arguably Hero's father has no right to be angry with Claudio when Claudio was the one who was tricked. Still, he really should have talked privately to Hero before the wedding and brought up what he saw, instead of publicly shaming her and by extension her family. However, he was hurt and angry, so it's understandable that he handles it the wrong way. His friends should have insisted he talk to her privately before the wedding, but they mishandle a delicate situation badly, too. Further complicating the issue is that the scene where Claudio and Don Pedro are tricked into mistaking Margaret for Hero takes place offstage — though some productions show it — so we don't know if it was really a convincing trick or if Claudio and Don Pedro were fooled too easily.
  • Hero's father, Leonato: flawed yet benevolent, or Jerkass? When Claudio reveals Hero's 'cheating,' it would have been understandable to say, 'Okay, if she did this, I acknowledge she's completely in the wrong, and you have every right to walk away,' but instead he instantly believes the worse of his daughter, physically strikes her, and goes so far as to say it would be best if she died. It's debatable if, at first, he truly does come around and believe her side, or if he just jumps on Friar Francis's plan to restore her name and reputation because it would restore the family's honor too. He then engages in emotional warfare on Claudio and the others, despite the fact he condemned his own daughter before hearing her side. It's one thing for a man who thought he saw his fiancée cheating to react badly, but it's horrible for a parent to so easily, quickly, and cruelly turn on their child without even getting the child's side. And needless to say, even if Hero had cheated, him wishing death on her and physically and verbally abusing her would've not been anywhere near okay.
  • Don Pedro has also been subject to this: is he simply a benevolent match-maker with a mischievous streak, or a burgeoning Manipulative Bastard like his brother whose antics are given a free pass simply because they happen to end happily? Why exactly is he sad at the end of the play even when everything's sorted itself out? Is he in love with Beatrice (and is his subsequent reaction after she rejects him to pair her up with Benedick a case of I Want My Beloved to Be Happy or does he think they genuinely will drive each other mad and is therefore a form of punishment)? Some productions have even gone so far as to hint to him being attracted to Claudio, explaining his sadness at the end of the play that Claudio and Hero are getting married after all. His relationship with Don John is also up for debate: depending on the production, the relationship can range from anything between Don Pedro actively trying to encourage Don John to join in as a show of peace between them (which would help to explain why he accepts the story about Hero so easily) to Don Pedro actively excluding Don John from the various celebrations and shenanigans, almost treating him like a dog on a leash after his defeat.
  • After being called an ass, Dogberry goes on a self-important tirade about how he's smart, and owns his own house, and has two good gowns—and in among his blustering is tucked the line and [I am] a fellow that hath had losses. The actor playing him can make a lot out of this if they so choose.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Don John is arrested offstage which is mentioned near the very end. Some productions will have him carried onstage with this announcement for an extra moment of tension, which helps. But at the end of the day, the Big Bad's Evil Plan comes undone with him unable to see the results, just like how the audience doesn't get to see his downfall. Of course, this is somewhat appropriate for John, as he's really not that competent a villain anyway, already being beaten by Pedro before the play begins and letting Borachio come up with the successful trick instead of him, with his prior attempt being undone in the same scene where it's introduced. Not to mentioned without either of his henchmen around, it was only a matter of time before his luck turned for the worse. Still, if the production's Don John manages to be a memorable bad guy, then his offscreen loss can be considered anti-climactic.
• Base-Breaking Character: Claudio for his actions during the wedding. It’s universally agreed on that he handled the situation in an extremely poor fashion, but does his grief earn him sympathy or not? Going along with that, some think he redeems himself at the end when he tries to make things right after realizing his mistake. Others think his quickness to accuse her publicly and in such a vicious manner (which was his own idea, not Don John's) means he doesn’t deserve his happy ending even if his later intentions were genuinely noble. This has led to versions where Hero forgives him, but doesn't accept his hand in marriage. A combination of how much his regret is played up, whether or not the audience gets to see how he falls for Don John and Borachio's trick, and how his later confrontational dialogue against Benedick is handled and/or edited can go a long way to how audiences will or will not forgive him.
• Crack Ship: Lots of people who've seen the Kenneth Branagh version like to ship Hero with Don John, which is aided by the fact that he's played by the darkly handsome Keanu Reeves and the implication that he secretly fancies Hero himself, with one particularly charged moment where he kisses her hand.
• Crazy Is Cool: Dogberry is a wack job of the highest order, but he still manages to get the job done, and some productions may show him as being a legitimate physical threat by dealing with Borachio and Conrad. Of course, if he weren't such a fool, he might've been able to stop all the drama from happening altogether, but hey, nobody's perfect.
• Cry for the Devil: Don John can earn a bit of sympathy depending on how his status as a bastard is played. While it can be interpreted as him just using it as an excuse to be a Bastard Bastard, it can also be hinted that he's a villain because his status as a bastard has caused him to be mistreated. The Tennant and Tate production seems to lean into this, as Don Pedro is noticeably colder to his brother than in other versions.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Dogberry counts due to supplying some of the show's funniest moments with his absolutely bizarre buffoonery and hilariously poor grammar. Adding onto all of this is the fact that he actually manages to play a major role in saving the day.
• Ethnic Scrappy: A 2011 production of the play by Washington DC's Shakespeare Theater Company set in 1930s Cuba renamed the characters Hugh Oatcake and George Seacole Juan Huevos and Jose Frijoles (Spanish for eggs and beans) before Latino organizations protested (keep in mind the play did not Hispanicize Don John's name into Don Juan). Furthermore, the play featured a Translation Convention where the only actors in the play who spoke with Spanish accented English were those playing the rustics and the servants while the main characters spoke eloquent English.
• Fandom Rivalry: A mild one appears to be developing between the Kenneth Branagh and Joss Whedon adaptations.
• Fanon:
  • Benedick and Beatrice were an item before and things ended badly. Though it just barely counts, as the text heavily implies this to be the case.
  • There's nothing in the text that says Hero is present for her own funeral, but most productions seem to put her there, which goes a long way to her forgiving Claudio.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: When Benedick is trying to write a sonnet for Beatrice, he bemoans the fact that "lady" only rhymes with "baby" — "an innocent rhyme." Cut to modern day, where calling a woman "baby" has significantly different connotations.
  • At times, you'd swear that Shakespeare was mocking his modern reputation with Dogberry. "This gentleman is too cunning to be understood."
  • Ring of Honor fans will find it difficult not to laugh at the fact that the main couple shares their names with the Kings of Wrestling, Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero
  • And Doctor Who fans will get a laugh out of the lines about "his two hearts" and Beatrice being described as "Noble" when watching the David Tennant/Catherine Tate version.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Whatever excuses he has, there's still no denying that Claudio's treatment of Hero at their wedding is absolutely abhorrent. Still, even as he ruthlessly rails into her for a crime she didn't commit, it's clear that he's heartbroken, both for what he believes she did, and for what he's doing to her. And regardless of how deserving it is, getting challenged to a duel by your best friend is certainly not enviable. Not to mention, after he's been lead to believe she's dead only to discover her innocence, Claudio is completely overcome with guilt and willing to do anything he can to make things right.
  • Benedick is a crank and more than a bit of an ass, but he also gets his fair share of crap, and it's implied that his hostility towards Beatrice and love come from things ending badly with the former some time ago. You also can't help but feel bad for the guy when the love of his life tells him to murder his best friend, especially considering this comes immediately after a moment of pure happiness when they admit their feelings for each other.
  • After Claudio's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Hero, Leonato's immediate treatment of his daughter isn't all that much better. But like Claudio, it's clearly inspired by grief as well as anger, believing the child he loves to have been corrupted and ruined, not to mention the great harm that's been done to his entire family's name.
  • Don Pedro stands by and let's Claudio ruin Hero's life, but his inaction is motivated by guilt over bringing his friend together with an apparent whore, and much like Claudio, he becomes even more remorseful when he believes he led an innocent girl to her grave. Not to mention, he's dealing with a brother who hates him and is actively planning against him even when he attempts to bury the hatchet, and it's implied for all his romantic trickery, he himself can't find anyone to love.
• Moral Event Horizon: Arguably, the way Claudio chooses to call out Hero for her "infidelity." He did so loudly, in no uncertain terms, and in a public place. By the standards of the day, Hero's reputation would have been ruined forever, as would her family's, and a pall of doubt would have been cast over anyone connected to her. Her virtue impugned, she never would have been able to marry; Hero likely would have been forced into a nunnery by her family. No matter how naive he might seem, there's no way Claudio didn't know this when he called her out.
  • On the other hand carrying on with another man on the eve of your wedding (and Claudio thinks he's seen this with his own eyes) is pretty heinous even by modern standards.
  • If anything this was Don John's and Borachio's crossing since they were the ones who planned to frame Hero for this disgraceful act and ruin her life.
• Narm Charm: On one hand, Don John's Evil Plan amounting to nothing more than ruining a wedding may sound quite anticlimactic, especially since it doesn't take too long for the problem to be fixed and John to get captured. At the same time, while John may not be the most impressive villain, the fallout that ensues from his plot does make for some genuinely excellent drama, which hits especially hard given the lighter feel of earlier scenes.
• One-Scene Wonder: He almost certainly will pop up several other times throughout the show, but Balthasar's only real prominence is getting to sing two songs. But if you've got a strong singer and music to go along with these lyrics, then he can be quite memorable.
• Signature Scene:
  • Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato playing a trick on Benedick so that he'll accept Beatrice's "Unrequited Love" right after he bragged about never falling for a woman.
  • The disastrous first wedding where Claudio publicly disparages Hero, followed by Beatrice and Benedick admitting their feelings for each other and him agreeing to challenge his friend.
• Super Couple: Beatrice and Benedick are widely loved as a pairing thanks to their hilarious Belligerent Sexual Tension in addition to some truly lovely moments once they realize they actually do love each other. While not as iconic as Romeo and Juliet, for those who actually know the material, these two are Shakespeare's most acclaimed couple.
• Tear Dryer: Beatrice is mourning over her cousin Hero's failed marriage and the accusation of infidelity against her. Benedick finds her and promises to defend Hero's honor. In the process, they confess their love for each other and embrace.
• Tear Jerker: Provided the actress playing Beatrice knows what she's doing, and has a Benedick who knows what he's doing, Beatrice's monologue begging Benedick to kill Claudio (or at least challenge him) is virtually guaranteed to leave a sizable portion of the audience close to or actually in tears. The 2011 stage version has an exceptional example.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Many believe that Claudio doesn't deserve to wind up with Hero after his vicious actions against her at their first wedding. The fact that he doesn't bother to check with her in private before publicly ruining her reputation and life and sides with a man who he should absolutely know not to trust before his horrifically abusive words doesn't help. True, he was deceived into acting that way, it's possible Don John and Borachio's trick was very convincing, and the idea of cheating on your fiancé the day before your wedding is an admittedly despicable deed. It's an overall messy situation, but the fact that Claudio comes out of it with only a few emotional scratches that are undone by the end doesn't sit well with all audience members.
  • Leonato's immediate treatment of Hero after Claudio disparages her doesn't exactly reflect well on him either. At first he tries to stick up for her, but once the supposed infidelity has been made clear, he sides with his daughter's accusers and gives her a huge "The Reason You Suck" Speech, after she just endured plenty of similar verbal abuse from her fiancé. Even worse in some versions where he actually strikes her. And while Claudio gets called out for his abhorrent behavior several times afterwards, Leonato does not. And unlike Claudio, he didn't even see the fake cheating, he's just convinced by the words of other men before even checking to hear his own flesh and blood's side of the story. To his credit, it's only when Don Pedro speaks about seeing Hero's crime himself that he turns against her, and Pedro's word as both a trusted friend and the prince ruling over his lands should carry weight. But enough weight to wish death upon your kin? The fact that he takes the moral high ground on Claudio and Pedro when he reacted just as badly as the former and worse than the latter also may not sit right with some viewers. Granted, unlike Claudio he's reacting to all this drama right as he finds out with no time to actually process all the info, and everything he hears first sounds like it's Hero's fault and that she's effectively ruined her own life as well as their family's reputation. Given the circumstances as they happened, it makes sense that he reacted poorly, and once he manages to think things through he does try to help make matters right. Still, audiences members can be forgiven for still holding his Hypocritical Jerkass behavior against him.
  • Don Pedro can also get this, with Claudio joining in again. In a part that is often cut or trimmed down quite a bit, most likely to avoid this trope, the two of them indulge in some rather douchey behavior when Benedick confronts them over the wedding. Given Claudio and Pedro's friend has just challenged the former to a duel and cut ties with the latter, and before that they were just informed that Hero has died due to their actions, the fact that they make mocking jokes at Benedick's expense really makes it seem like they're not taking things are seriously as they clearly should.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Hero is delighted to eventually get married to the Jerkass who accused her of being a whore on her wedding day. While she was at the altar. In fact, in the BBC's recent setting update of the play in Shakespeare Retold (starring Billie Piper as Hero), she actually doesn't take him back. Same in the recent vlog adaptation, Nothing Much To Do, where Hero forgives him but also doesn't take him back.
  • It is worth noting that in that era, Claudio was the best she could do after he completely destroyed her reputation. If he'd just recanted there still might have been doubt on her and her family which would have made it difficult to find a good husband (the primary goal of most women in that era), but Claudio marrying her is effectively proof that the accusations were false, restoring her family's good name.
  • An example that's always cut. Claudio — who is currently redeeming himself mind you — says that he'd take his "new bride" even if she were an Ethiope. Yes, he bragged about how he's so committed to marrying this woman, he'd still do it if she were black. Joss Whedon's version was one of the rare uses of this line, and even then, it's played as Cringe Comedy.
  • Another moment that's never included nowadays is when Benedick talks about how awful he would be to not requite Beatrice's love by saying "If I do not love her, I am Jew". Common practice is to replace "Jew" with "Fool" or "Dog" which gets across the point of the line without being offensive.
• Values Resonance: Beatrice is witty and delights in taking Benedick down a peg and matching his snark beat for beat, and yet is considered a virtuous character. When Claudio ruins her cousin's life at her wedding and Leonato immediately takes his side and becomes monstrous towards Hero, completely dismissing Hero and Beatrice's protestations of innocence, Beatrice is enraged. She rails against the limitations she's forced to work with as a woman, who can't take Revenge and (this being too close to the end of the play for her to start crossdressing) has no outlet but tears and to convince Benedick to kill him for her. At the time this was an unusual role. Many adaptations for centuries have made her more socially acceptable as a heroine by having her become more demure towards the male characters, or else have her much gentler by the end, but advances in feminism have made Beatrice's rage and her Snark-to-Snark Combat with someone who is after all just as rude as she into something not shocking at all. In several recent adaptations she screams the lines "Oh that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace!"
• Wangst: Benedick absolutely applies. Fortunately it's all Played for Laughs.
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Huh, Hero? This decision is without a doubt the biggest criticism you'll hear about the otherwise hugely acclaimed classic.
  • Or, you might say, What the Hell, Hero??
  • This one really depends on the way the role of Claudio is performed—in the vanilla script he seems to be more mistaken and impulsive than malicious.
  • The David Tennant/Catherine Tate version (set in the 1980s) has an addition, after the scene at Hero's supposed tomb, where Claudio returns to tomb, gets wildly drunk, and is about to commit suicide, when Hero sees him and steps out of the shadows to stop him. Claudio sees her, thinking (most likely) that he sees a ghost, and passes out. That goes a fair way to making Hero's acceptance of Claudio, even in a modern setting, palatable.
• The Woobie:
  • Hero is a perfectly Nice Girl who gets utterly humiliated at her wedding when the groom falsely calls her out as a whore, effectively destroying her reputation, leaving her crying on the ground. Then her father joins in, saying he's so ashamed of her he wishes she were dead, possibly even hitting her. Thankfully, her traumatizing ordeal ends not long after and she gets her happy ending. Though even then, depending on how you view it, marrying the guy who was that quick to slut-shame you on your wedding may not be that happy of an end, even if she seems content.
  • Sure, it didn't happen to her, but Beatrice's reaction to her cousin's poor treatment is heartbreaking. The sheer pain it causes Beatrice is enough for her to wish death upon Claudio, and when Benedick initially refuses to do such a deed, she's willing to leave him right after they just confessed to their immense love for each other. And mentioning their relationship, it's heavily implied that they were an item beforehand, but things ended poorly with Benedick leaving her. Adding onto all this, some productions show off another sad side to Beatrice by implying she feels great guilt for causing her mother to die in childbirth.

Tropes from the 1993 Adaptation:

See YMMV.Much Ado About Nothing 1993

Tropes from the 2012 Adaptation:

See YMMV.Much Ado About Nothing 2012

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