1. Much Ado is not like reading a traditional comedy; instead it has the potential to turn into tragedy. Comedy is made up of complications, but in this play the complications could be dangerous. Give examples of places in the play which are light and humorous and which show a darker side and a potential for disaster.
2. Compare the two sets of brothers: Don Pedro/ Don John and Leonato/ Antonio. How does Shakespeare contrast them and what parallel actions exist?
3. What kind of expectations does Shakespeare establish in the opening scene? What do you expect to happen? How do you expect relationships to occur?
4. The main themes of the play grow out of the "game of love." What sub-themes come from this greater theme?
5. What purpose does Dogberry and Verges serve? Why are they important to the play as a whole?
6. Who would you rather be-Beatrice or Hero; Claudio or Benedick? Compare and contrast the two female or male characters. Why do you think Shakespeare created the pairs of characters?
7. Select one character and write a letter describing the events in Leonato's house from that character's point of view.
8. Choose a passage in the play which best represents one of the themes. Explain what the passage means and what it reveals about the theme.
9. A lot of the humor involving Dogberry and Verges arises from their fractured sense of word meanings. Examine several of their speeches and write some of your own malapropisms.
10. What do Shakespeare and his cast of characters accomplish by metaphorically turning words into weapons? Find examples of speech and words representing wounds and battles in the play.
11. Shakespeare interweaves two love stories in Much Ado About Nothing: the Claudio-Hero plot and the Benedick-Beatrice plot. Write an analytical essay on the ways in which they parallel or counterpoint each other in characterization, in dialogue, and in plot structure.
12. Explain how deception is a means to an end. Give examples from the text.
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