Much Ado About Nothing Socratic Seminar Questions
- Did you catch the reports at the beginning of the movie, telling us what has happened before the movie starts? Where are the soldiers coming from? Why are they visiting Messina? How is this visit very different from their previous activities?
- Where do we see the potential for tragedy in this movie? What near-tragic events take place? What characters potentially have tragic flaws?
- In what ways is the plot of this movie similar to the plot of Hamlet?
- Why is this not a tragedy? What changes—in terms of plot or character—turn the plot towards comedy (in the sense of happy ending)?
- Is this a comedy in the sense of a play that ends happily or a comedy in the sense of a funny play? (Why?) Where are our funny moments? Is it necessary for a play to be funny in order to be a happy-ending-type comedy?
- Many theorists feel that tragedy is noble, while comedy contains low humor as well. They claim that including characters from all classes actually helps along the comic ending—that the “lower” characters prevent tragedy. Who are our lower class characters in Much Ado? How do they help prevent tragedy? What does this tell us about their worth as people, more generally?
- Trust: Where do characters place an inappropriate amount of trust in other people?
- Trust: Where do characters fail to trust others, when they really should give that trust?
- What do Don Pedro and Claudio do that is so bad? (We see Claudio make the same mistake twice.)
Have fun!
-Mrs. Swan