Comparing Logos And Ethos In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

A Shakespeare classic, Much Ado About Nothing is a classic romantic comedy that involves schemes and plans that help characters fall for each other’s plans, to achieve the perfect happy ending of a wedding.To make other characters fall for their plans, each of them used different modes of persuasion to help convince the characters without them realizing. The modes of persuasion- logos, ethos, and pathos- are used throughout, from convincing two mortal enemies that they truly love each other, to ruining a happy wedding and revealing the abusive side of a seemingly innocent prince. Two major characters, Don Pedro and Leonato, both hold more power and respect over others, with their word being the law. In order to persuade Benedick that Beatrice loved her, Leonato had spewed some false facts with little evidence, not unlike a badly created rumor. However, Benedick himself “think this is a gull but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it. Knavery cannot, sure, hide himself in such reverence (Act 2, Scene 3, line 110-112).” The quote says how Benedick himself thinks of the rumors as a joke, him not believing in it if it was not for the fact that Leonato, a “white-bearded fellow”, spoke of it himself. The entire conversation held no merit or information, yet the mere fact that Leonato, a well respected man, had said

Throughout the play, ethos was showed to be highly useful in certain situations with Leonato and Don Pedro each using it correctly. However, in situations that cannot be solved with a respected command, such as convincing one of love and death, the right mix of logos and pathos would be the right thing to use.This goes to show how persuasion, a hard concept for one to master, could be easily done with the right amount of each mode of persuasion in the right