Much Ado About Nothing is about the forms of social communication that people use to get by together, the true feelings that lie beneath them, and the gap between the two. There are a lot of different types of social interaction and communication in the play.

People yearn for honesty and respect behind the social forms and appearances; they search for truthfulness in relationships. They try to turn their misery into humour and to create illusions to get by. The play is full of illusions — tricks and deceptions, and the social fictions people maintain.

The play also examines what happens when social codes break down, whether by malice or by misunderstanding. At the end, all that remains is the blasted landscape of a society barely holding together after the breakdown of social relationships and hierarchies.

The play is thus full of dark moments, and comes close to tragedy (and not just because of Hero); there are many glimpses of and allusions to heartbreak, pain, and loss, and there is much melancholy underneath the lightness.

Manners are the glue that holds social life together, and there is a web of social obligations and connections in the play.

Everyone is afraid of looking bad, and a lot of this has to do with fear of being cuckolded. Hence everyone’s concern with Hero and her “nothing”.

Fear of shame causes people to assume masks and roles defensively; but they contribute to misunderstanding, which destroys social relations.

In Shakespeare’s day, “nothing” was pronounced more like “noting”. Noting, in all its meanings, is important in a social world like that of the play.

Talking about other people is the main activity in the play, which is mostly in prose as a result. It’s in large part a play about gossip; things are overheard, misheard, and designed for eavesdroppers. Masking and deceiving can disrupt noting, and there is an escalating series of false notings:

Leonato thinks he notes guilt in Hero, and he is too impatient to note Dogberry.

Friar conceals Hero, “out of all eyes”.

Claudio notes wrongly, and makes much ado about nothing. He must marry the second time without noting the bride.

John notes dishonestly.

As a play about social communication and social rules, it is very much about language. Maintaining the social order is crucial. The characters engage in a lot of different types of social rhetoric.

Consciously keeping up appearances is important as well. Words are used as weapons, both of attack and defence. The “merry war” leaves scars. There are many references to violence and plague, including at the ending of the play.

John’s crimes are all discussed as speaking badly. Speech can kill; Hero dies.

Some of the characters are silent or taciturn. Without language, false noting and misinterpretation occur.

John shows what happens when two inexperienced lovers fail to communicate in a world that depends on language.

The clowns take figurative language literally.

Two approaches to marriage are considered, contrasting sexual desire and social compatibility; appearance and character; choice and arrangement. An older approach and a modern are contrasted; a romantic vs a realistic approach to courtship.

The play has more realism than romance. Beatrice and Benedick speak prose, not overblown love poetry.

Claudio and Hero are one-dimensional; their plot is more situational than character-based. It is an old-fashioned approach to courting and marriage.

Beatrice and Benedick are more modern. They are psychologically complex. Their story is character-based. They achieve a maturity that the others don’t show. They mock their earlier selves. They are whole people, adults.

Claudio’s attitudes about romance are stereotyped. He is immature and lacks confidence. He can easily believe Hero would rather be with someone else. He is bound by traditional notions of honour.

Hero is a typical virginal romance heroine. She is defined by her sexual honesty. Her story-line is Italianate.

Beatrice is an orphan, so she can’t be married off as a commodity.

Beatrice’s merriment masks a loneliness that Pedro inherits at the end.

Don John is a classic malcontent; jealous. He is a cardboard villain; he is compared to the Devil, who relies on people’s complicity to work his malice.

In the comic world, appearances can be deceptive: those who appear clever, like John, end up looking foolish; but the fool Dogberry has wisdom beneath his buffoonery.