An exploration of the ways in which pride is presented in William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing"

"Much Ado About Nothing" is a highly successful play, and one of the reasons for this is because of the way in which the themes are explored and presented by Shakespeare. As well as its light-hearted elements, such as the comical exchanges in the "merry war" between two central characters Beatrice and Benedick, and the highly varied exploration of the values, tests and rewards of love, there are also the more contemplative areas, such as …

…strange misprision in the princes," Beatrice is vehement in her conviction that Hero's innocence has been wronged. This conveys how the damaging of pride affects people to different degrees. More importantly, however, through the behaviour of Beatrice and Benedick Shakespeare shows that to a certain extent pride can be superficial, because if a situation is important enough, people will shed their own feelings of self-importance in order to strive to protect the virtue of others.