"Far from endorsing a conventional idea of the battle of the sexes, Much Ado About Nothing is a powerful plea for dignity and equality in the public and private relationships of men and women".

It is perhaps ironic that the characters who do truly lose their dignity in this play are men; Claudio and Don Pedro as well as Leonato lose their dignity when they confront Hero about her supposed affair which never actually happened. Indeed Don Pedro’s vicious language in calling Hero “a common stale” causes the audience to feel great resentment towards his character. Claudio though loses his dignity the most, by embarrassing Hero at their wedding, by accusing her unjustly of being “more intemperate… / Than Venus” implying that she is a lustful woman with no care or respect for his love. His love follows courtly convention and this turns Shakespeare’s audience against him even more. Perhaps Claudio feels that Hero has stripped him of his dignity, despite her innocence. Claudio feels cuckolded and embarrassed that his fiancée is adulterous. Most of the men in the audience can relate to the fear of knowing they are a cuckold as at the time it was “a familiar figure of fun” according to Michael Mangam. We only feel sympathy for him when Shakespeare returns him to favour by showing us Claudio’s earnest, heartfelt remorse at Hero’s death. Leonato loses his dignity with the audience because of his quick acceptance of Claudio’s story and melodramatic response; only a few moments after hearing the story, he claims to be so ashamed that he asks to die, “Hath no man’s dagger here a point for me?” This is utterly ridiculous to the point where the audience think that he just wants people to notice him in all the excitement. He loses even more of the audience’s respect when he tells Claudio to wed his brother’s daughter, who is “Almost the copy” of Hero; he has moved on so quickly from sorrow for his daughter that there is little he can do to redeem himself. What is the most ironic thing about the way Shakespeare has written this play is that Hero manages to uphold her dignity throughout the entire play, and is polite and respectful all the way through as a typical Elizabethan women was expected to be, for example when Claudio accuses Hero to her face of being promiscuous “betwixt twelve and one,” she merely replies politely, “I talk’d with no man at that hour, my lord.” Even when Claudio and Don John accuse her of having an affair and her father is the first to accept the story as the truth she is still courteous and dutiful towards them. Shakespeare has created a normal female stereotype in this case, but has created strong pathos towards her sad condition. This was done deliberately perhaps to show the problems of treating women unfairly.  This is a strong contradiction of the status between Beatrice and Benedick, when Beatrice asks Benedick to avenge her cousin’s humiliation. Beatrice realises that she cannot challenge Claudio as she is a woman and so tests Benedick’s love for her by asking him to duel with his good friend, Claudio. It is a sign of Benedick’s love for Beatrice but also of his opinion of woman in general that he accepts Beatrice’s plea to create hostilities between himself and his comrade.

Shakespeare also has to use comedy to try to get his message across, Sir H. Walpole once commented, “A tragedy should make us feel, a comedy should make us think.” This is exactly what Shakespeare has adroitly done in his creation of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. Due to the clever subtleties, those who were educated enough to understand the language can think about the underlying plea for equality between men and women. Normally the more intellectual people watching the play would also be those who had the money to be educated and with money lay power. Those with power could perhaps use their influence to change public approach to women and their dignity. However, we must not forget that the primary function of Shakespeare’s comedy was to entertain.

Shakespeare chose his language appropriately for the lower classes, who would find the character of Dogberry funny because of his malapropism. His utter stupidity would make the audience feel superior which results in laughter. However, the more intellectual would understand the complicated and ironic language. He is trying to reach as many of the populace with his ideas and has to make everybody relate to his plays. Despite ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ being a plea for women’s dignity and their equality, Shakespeare has been clever to provide a comical play that provides humour for both male and female audiences. Yet his brilliance came in conveying a subtle social message aimed towards a typical male dominated society and causing them to question their own position in society as well as that of women in general.  

Shakespeare’s resultant comedy combines satirical humour and deception to form an enjoyable comedy with a serious message at its heart. He creates a pleasing, enjoyable storyline where two lovers come together and live happily ever after, as predicted by Campbell, who declares that he is certain that, “Beatrice will provoke her Benedick to give her much and just conjugal castigation.” Shakespeare’s ideas were ahead of his time but instead of being radical and trying to openly convince everyone that his ideas were right, Shakespeare wrote these subtle truths into his plays for all to watch and make up their own mind about. His appeal lay in providing something which everyone from the lowest peasant right up to Queen Elizabeth could enjoy, think about or become emotionally attached to. He had to subtly imply his message through his writing and then hope that people no matter how intelligent would be able to think about and come to a decision. Shakespeare appealed for women to have equal amounts of dignity in both a private relationship but also for public figures like the queen to be treated like an equal by men even though she was far superior to any man in Britain. Perhaps the fact that the reigning monarch was a strong feminist woman who had already shown that she was any mans equal just by ruling for the length of time which she did. If England had been ruled by a male chauvinist would Shakespeare have written such equal minded and ahead of his time plays? ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ stands strongly as a witty, perceptive play which goes conclusively against the conventional ideas of a battle of the sexes and tries to educate the public to give women equal dignity and respect whether they be the queen, a wife or peasant.