“Much Ado About Nothing” is a romantic comedy (Hamilton, p. 49) written between 1598 and 1599 (The British Library) by William Shakespeare. The main plot of the play concerns the relationship between the young lovers Claudio and Hero, and the subplots, in decreasing order of meaning are a) the relationship between Hero's cousin, Beatrice, and Claudio's friend, Benedick; b) Don John's plot against Claudio and c) the policemen Dogberry and Verges, their arrest of Borachio and the discovery of Don John's deception. (Hamilton, p. 49) However, the play's first subplot tends to overshadow the main plot (Bryant, p. 126), with Benedick and Beatrice being more vivid, memorable, and relatable characters than their serious Claudio counterparts and Hero. (Jay, p. 28) Beatrice, in particular, is interesting for her subversion of traditional Renaissance femininity and for her role as the opera's heroine despite this unconventionality. Comedy, as a genre, is less serious and stereotyped than tragedy. . (Hamilton, p. 49) It is not intended to discuss the human condition or delve into social issues. (Neilson, p. 377) “From the nature of this kind of drama, we do not expect from it the depth of penetration into human motives or the appeal to our deepest sympathies which we find in tragedy; and the conventional happy ending of the play makes difficult the degree of truth to life expected from serious comedies. (Neilson, p. 377) However, Shakespeare's comedies are not entirely superficial. Many of them, such as "The Merchant of Venice", comment on social issues of the time, in the case of "The Merchant of Venice", anti-Semitism (Shankman, p. 65) (Cohen, p. 25), albeit less detail of Shakespeare's tragedies or historians...... middle of paper ...... to marriage is the ideal state of women and denies most of the challenges that the character of Beatrice and her "inappropriate" behavior they pose the established patriarchal system of Renaissance England. Although Beatrice as an unconventional heroine is the most commonly analyzed female character in "Much Ado About Nothing", it is important to note that she is only one of five female characters present in the work, including Innogen, Hero, Margaret and Ursula, and therefore the Her behavior in the play does not exist alone, but is compared and contrasted with the behavior of the other female characters in the play. Most modern editions of the play tend to leave out the character of Innogen, who although listed in the play's Dramatis Personae, is present in only two scenes (Act 1, Scene 1 and Act 2, Scene 1) and has no lines of sorts. This silence is particularly notable, as