Much Ado About Nothing

Paper instructions:
The play ends with the the revelation that Hero is alive and the joyous pairing off of the two main couples, but it also features the reprise of jokes about

adultery (as when Claudio says to Benedick, “I had well hoped thou wouldst have denied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled thee out of thy single life to make thee a

double dealer, which out of question thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look exceeding narrowly to thee” or when Benedick tells Don Pedro, “There is no staff more

reverend than one tipped with horn” [5.4.108-11, 118) and the promise that Don John will be returned to Messina for torture (“brave punishments” [5.4.122]).  What mood

should prevail for the audience at the end?  Should we be joyous and optimistic about the future of the play world?  Should we be troubled to any significant degree?