Much Ado About Nothing - Essay 2

Eric Powell
Mrs. Gloria Tidwell
English 271
May 4, 2012

Much Ado About Nothing

I would like to start off by saying wow! This play, Much Ado About Nothing, was stunning and totally caught me off guard. I didn’t know that reading Shakespeare would be fun and enjoyable. All the plays I have read by Shakespeare have been tragedies so I thought all his plays were gloomy and ended on a sad note. It is so fortunate that I got the opportunity to read this play and see another side of the magnificent Shakespeare. During the play there was a lot of word play and scheming both good and bad. All this was fascinating to me but what really got my attention and my brain turning was the prince, Don Pedro.
Just who exactly is Don Pedro? Well he is the Prince of Aragon in the play and half-brother to Don John, the villain. He was also a very close friend of Claudio and Benedick.   They were the “It” bachelors of Messina at the time. All of them find beautiful wives and they live happily ever after, the end. Well that is how we would hope the play ended but unfortunately it is not. The Prince does not find a wife out of the three men and that is what draws my attention to him. Don Pedro seems very elusive during the play. He is very honorable and noble but there is really no explanation of his motives.   He did help Claudio by wooing Hero for him but why? He also had the ingenious plot to bring Benedick and Beatrice together but why? These are all questions that run through my mind because the play doesn’t give a clear motive. I believe Shakespeare left this open for the viewers to give their own opinions.
Why does the prince help Claudio by wooing Hero? Well the obvious is that Claudio is one of his close friends so of course you help a buddy out when he needs it.   He is also the prince and is it not the prince’s duty to help his kinsmen when in need. I believe that the Don Pedro is acting on his friendship at this point and not doing this because he is the prince. The...