Much Ado About Nothing

Characters:

• Beatrice
• Leonato's niece
• Hero's cousin
• generous and loving but with a sharp tongue
• wages a war of with against Benedick
• appears content never to marry
• Benedick
• aristocratic soldier recently fighting under Don Pedro
• friend of Don Pedro and Claudio
• very witty, always making jokes and puns
• swears he will never fall in love or marry
• Claudio
• young solder who has won great acclaim fighting under Don Pedro
• falls in love with Hero
• his suspicious nature makes him quick to believe rumors and hasty to despair and take revenge
• Hero
• beautiful daughter of Leonato and cousin of Bearice
• lovely, gentle and kind
• falls in love with Claudio but suffers when Claudio rashly takes revenge as a result of Don John's slander
• Don Pedro
• nobleman from Aragon, sometimes referred to as Prince
• longtime friend of Leonato, Benedick and Claudio
• generous, courteous, intelligent and loving to his friends
• Leonato
• respected, well-to-do elderly noble
• governor of Messina
• father of Hero and uncle of Beatrice
• Don John
• illegitimate brother of Don Pedro, sometimes called "the Bastard"
• melancholy and sullen by nature 
• schemes to ruin the happiness of Hero and Claudio
• envious of his brother's social authority
• Margaret
• Hero's serving woman who unwittingly helps Borachio and Don John deceive Claudio into thinking that Hero is unfaithful
• her lover is the mistrustful and easily bribed Borachio
• of the lower-class and loves to break decorum with bawdy jokes and teases
• Borachio
• associate of Don John and lover of Margaret
• conspires with Don John to trick Claudio and Don Pedro into thinking that Hero is unfaithful to Claudio
• Conrad
• associate of Don John entirely devoted to him
• Dogberry
• chief policeman of Messina
• sincere and takes his job seriously
• has a habit of using the wrong word to convey his meaning
• Verges
• deputy to Dogberry
• Antonio
• Leonato's elderly brother, and Hero and Beatrice's uncle
• Balthasar
• waiting man in Leonato's household and a musician
• helps Leonato, Claudio, and Don Pedro trick Benedick into falling in love with Beatrice
• Ursula
• Hero's waiting woman

Plot Summary:

• Leonato prepares to welcome Don Pedro, Claudio and Benedick home from the war
• Claudio quickly falls in love with Hero, and Benedick and Beatrice resume the war of witty insults that they were carrying on with each other previously. 
• Claudio and Hero decide to marry. The friends also decide to get Beatrice and Benedick to stop arguing and fall in love. Beatrice and Benedick soon fall secretly in love with each other.
• Don John gets Borachio to make love to Margaret at Hero's window during the night and he brings Don Pedro and Claudio to watch.
• Claudio believes Hero has been unfaithful to him and humiliates her by accusing her of lechery on the day of their wedding and abandons her at the altar.
• Hero's relatives decide to pretend she died of shock and grief and hide her away while they wait for the truth about her innocence to come to light. 
• Benedick and Beatrice finally confess their love to one another.
• The night watchmen overhear Borachio bragging about his crime and Dogberry and Verges arrest Borachio and Conrad.
• The truth about Hero's innocence is revealed and Claudio, who believes she is dead, grieves for her.
• Leonato tells Claudio that he wants him to tell everyone in the city about Hero's innocence as punishment. He also wants Claudio to marry Leonato's "niece" who looks very much like the dead Hero.
• Claudio goes to church and prepares to marry the mysterious woman, but when Hero reveals herself to be the masked woman, he is overwhelmed with joy.
• Benedick then asks Beatrice to marry him, and a double wedding ensues.