Much Ado - Journals

Much Ado - J1 (Lesson One: Intro and Acts 1.1-2.1)

1. Explain the structure of the play.
2. Explain the title of the play.
3. Why is Don John angry with Claudio?
4. How are love and war different? Similar?
5. What is the "romantic" view of love? The "commercial"? How are are they two sides of the same coin?
6. What is Beatrice's view of love and men?
7. Why does Benedick resist love and marriage? (explain using the term "cuckoldry")
8. What is the history of Beatrice and Benedick's relationship?
9. What is "mimetic desire"? How does this theory account for Claudio's "love" for Hero? How does it reflect Benedick's fear of love?




Much Ado - J2 (Lesson Two: Acts 2.2-3.3)

1. Explain the significance of the order of the five scenes.
2. How are Don John and Don Pedro similar and different?
3. How is Don John's description of his deception significant on a biblical level?
4. How does Shakespeare's Much Ado venture beyond, yea, provide a nuanced perspective of, the stale theme, "appearances can be deceiving"?
5. How does Shakespeare's resolution to the problems of appearance and reality save his audience from slipping into skepticism?
6. Why does Benedick think it unmanly to be in love?
7. Why is Benedick's description of falling in love vital to an understanding of true love? How does this understanding of love contrast with Claudio's understanding and experience? How does Benedick display his own understanding?
8. What is important about what Benedick and Beatrice's friends say about them that induces them to love one another?
9. How does the character of Dogberry fit the themes of Much Ado?



Much Ado - J3 (Lesson Three: Act 4)

1. How are the fulfillment of the two deceptions directly linked, and why is this significant?
2. What does a wedding signify, and how is Claudio and Hero's wedding "a hellish, demonic parody" of an ideal wedding?
3. Why does Claudio direct such a public outrage toward Hero (in other words, what does this tell us about the nature of his "love")?
4. How is the imagery of nakedness, covering, and shame used in the wedding scene?
5. How is Friar Francis's proposal a fitting solution for the play, and how is it reflective of how several early church fathers understood the gospel?
6. Why is it significant that Beatrice and Benedick profess love for each other immediately after the first wedding?
7. Why does Beatrice want Benedick to kill Claudio?
8. What is her conception of most of the men of Messina?