Misunderstandings In William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

In William Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing, he spins a tale of misunderstandings leading to terrible consequences, but truth prevails in the end. He sets the scene in the mansion of the Messinan Governor Leonato. Don Pedro has just won a huge battle and has decided to pass through Messina. As he arrives, accompanied by Claudio and Benedick, Claudio quickly falls in love with Leonato’s daughter Hero, and Beatrice engages Benedick in a battle of wit and insults. As the play unfolds, the audience learns that Don Pedro’s brother, Don John the Bastard, will try to destroy Don Pedro’s plans no matter the cost or consequence. Claudio asks Don Pedro to win him Hero’s favor, At the Masquerade Ball and convince Leonato to approve a marriage

In Much Ado About Nothing, wit was the down fall to many of the characters, but it was also used to provide the audience with comedic relief. Beatrice‘s and Benedick’s pride in their cleverness, Claudio’s assumptions and gullibleness, and Dogberry’s lack or wit and intelligence lead to the misunderstandings and Discoveries throughout the play (Dennis 224). Dennis is saying that each character had a fatal flaw that Shakespeare highlighted by having something terrible or having something ironic happen to them. This shows how he used the elements and levels of wit to captivate the audience by leaving the characters blind to what was really going on. The audience knew the plan for Beatrice and Benedick, but their own confidence in their wit betrayed them. Also, their witty comments to each other make for highly entertaining moments. Claudio allows other people to fool him into believing untrue things, which leads to dramatic altercations with numerous characters. Dogberry’s unwittiness leads to a coincidence that saves the whole play and creates an ironic feeling that the least intelligent character discovered the evil plot. “The wit of Shakespeare’s play informs the words spoken by the characters, places the characters themselves as truly witty and intelligent, inappropriately facetious, or ingeniously witless, suggests the lines of action these characters will