Lesson 3 Much Ado About Nothing

The reading skills that are assessed in the Shakespeare Paper are:  your ability to understand a question and select relevant material to suit your answer to it  your appreciation of how the language of the text informs your analysis of the question  your ability to construct an appropriate argument and develop your points in a coherent way  your understanding of character, theme, language or performance in relation to the extract

Selecting relevant material: 1.The summaries. On the Test Paper, you will get a summary of each extract in a grey box. This is valuable material to use in your opening paragraph to link the question and the scenes with your opening point of view.

Much Ado About Nothing Act III Scene ii, lines In this extract, Don John claims that Hero is unfaithful. Summary 1 Summary 2 Much Ado About Nothing Act IV Scene i, lines In this extract, Don John claims that Hero is unfaithful Paper:

Question :How does Beatrice respond to insults in these extracts? Summary 1 – Act III scene i 32-end Hero and Ursula talk about how much Benedick loves Beatrice and how wonderful a person he is. They know Beatrice is listening and talk about how his love would be wasted on her. Beatrice is horrified at the perception of herself and vows to love Benedick with all her heart. Summary 2 – Act IV scene i Beatrice asks Benedick to kill Claudio in revenge for his slander and dishonour. Benedick resolves to challenge him.

How might the essay start? Uses words with meanings that are linked to those in the title giving added coherence and showing understanding.

Selecting material to suit - scene summaries - annotation leading to quotation

How does Beatrice respond to insults in these extracts? Beatrice:vengeful, wilful, scornful, genuine, faithful, wise, just? Focus of question?Character Theme Language Performance

Act 3 scene i

Act IV scene i

From your annotations, select the best 2 that suit the question and draft a paragraph with embedded quotations that are analysed in detail In the first extract, Beatrice responds to the news that Benedick is in love with her with joy. On the other hand, she responds to the news that her kinswoman has no faith in her to requite that love with horror. She is alarmed that she is so condemned for “ pride ” and “ scorn ” and immediately resolves to change her ways. She sees that “ no glory lives behind the back of such ”, indicating that she sees no future happiness for her as a shrew. She is so smitten with the idea of herself and Benedick in love that she determines to “ incite ” Benedick to marriage. She is ready to believe in Benedick ’ s excellent character on the basis of what she overhears, suggesting that they are merely confirming thoughts she already held but had denied for so long.

How does Beatrice respond to insults in these extracts? Using extract 2:

Recap: Annotation? Embedded quotations?

Homework:How might this extract be performed to engage the audience? Write one paragraph with embedded quotations.