Much Ado About Nothing
Emily Fischer
Casting the Characters
Claudio
In a new production of the play, Leonardo DiCaprio would play an outstanding Claudio. He has portrayed the love interest in many movies, and would fit in wonderfully with the script and characters of Much Ado About Nothing. With his cute, boyish grin and flowing hair, he could play the shy, playful Claudio without a problem.
Benedick
Benedick is a comedic character, and Jim Carrey would exemplify his role, as he has often played sarcastic, funny characters in the multiple movies he starred in. He would pair perfectly with Jennifer Lawrence as Beatrice, and the two would have onscreen chemistry that could make an audience laugh out loud. Based on his rolls as The Grinch and Lloyd from "Dumb and Dumber," it is obvious that Jim Carrey could be perfectly portrayed as the sharp, but sometimes naive, Benedick.
Beatrice
In real life and on screen, Jennifer Lawrence is a quick, witty girl who loves to laugh and make other people laugh along with her. Just like Beatrice, she teases and playfully bickers with her friends and loved ones. She also impersonates a beautiful girl that is loved by many men in some of the rolls she has taken. She would embody the part of the amusing, clever, and beautiful Beatrice.
Three Main Events
1-Borachio and Margaret
In this scene, Borachio is with Margaret when Claudio and Don Pedro see them and mistake Margaret for Hero. This scene is important because it changes the story from a perfect love story to a complicated one. It reveals that although Claudio loves Hero, he will not tolerate her cheating on him or being impure before their wedding night. It sets the stage for most of the conflict of the play.
2- Claudio Rejecting Hero
Although what happened between Margaret and Borachio might have been the start of the conflict in the play, when Claudio publicly called out Hero, he showed the viewers that he had a ruthless and unemotional side. He refused to talk to Hero quietly about the issue, but instead shames her on her wedding day in front of her entire world. In that day, it could be punishable by death to sleep with somebody before your wedding night, but Claudio made it clear that he did not care what happened.
3-Hero reveals that's she is still alive
By this point in the play, Claudio knows that Hero was not lying and he feels horrible about it. He has agreed to marry Leonato's niece instead of Hero to make it up to Leonato for causing the grief that killed his daughter. But, in what could be considered the climax of the story, Hero takes of the veil and reveals that she is in fact alive and forgives Claudio for wrongly accusing her. Unlike most of Shakespeare's work, Much Ado About Nothing ends on a happy note and the two get married.
Theme
The song "No Reply" by The Beatles represents the theme of lying and deceit in many ways. In the song, there is a girl lying to a boy and having her family lie to him too. They tell him that "it wasn't her," just like Leonato told Claudio that Hero was dead. When the boy in the song realizes that the girl is avoiding him, he sings "I nearly died/I nearly died." This is the same remorse and sadness that Claudio feels when Hero is dead because of him. At the end of the song, the boy sings that he would forgive her of the lies that he had been told. In the same way, Claudio forgives Hero for the lies that Don John told him.