Much Ado About Nothing Analysis

Much Ado about Nothing is set in the busy port town of Messina; this bustling port city is where the play opens. Messina’s hot climate makes it tranquil and agricultural; meaning the men returning from battle would view Messina as a welcome respite from the war. The idea of the soldiers returning to an idyllic setting, away from the battlefield, creates a ‘holiday mood’ at the start of the play. While the majority of the play is set at Leonato’s house, Leonato’s orchard figures as a central place of action too, particularly the blossoming of Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship, Shakespeare uses the beautiful garden to create a perfect backdrop for the whimsical romance that characterises the play. The setting of Much Ado about Nothing is also bigger than its physical realm; Shakespeare chooses to start the play in this tranquil setting to emphasise that pastoral will be an important theme in this play.

Shakespeare uses the idea of ‘the pastoral’ to create different spaces in which comedy can take place. This allows for a controlled chaos and means the characters feel free to escape the restraints of social conventions. Shakespeare suggests that the setting in which the characters stand effects their beliefs and how they act towards each other. For example being ‘within nature’, i.e. in the garden or countryside. A place in which anything could happen, Shakespeare presents the pastoral as a place for extraordinarily improbable events to take place. But the pastoral is also able to create a certain mood and an almost give a mischievous feeling to a scene. This idea of a pastoral setting is also mirrored in another of Shakespeare’s comedies, A Midsummer's Night’s Dream, another play in which the pursuit of love is effected by sett...

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...or ‘true’ love. The pastoral creates a tranquil environment in this scene, perhaps to remind us of the soldiers returning to Messina at the beginning of the play. As the audience receive a sense of closure and happiness.

In conclusion, Shakespeare uses setting to create the perfect space for comedy by using a range of pastoral environments, e.g. Leonatos’ orchard, his garden and then his courtyard. This creates a landscape which leads the audience to associate the outdoors with comedy and mischief, but also happiness. The definition of pastoral is; ‘a work of literature portraying an idealized version of life’ and Shakespeare certainly does idealise certain relationships in the play, such as Beatrice and Benedicks’. The use of the pastoral backdrop adds to the theme of fantasy and improbability, creating a perfect space for comedy, and also complication, to occur.