BEATRICE: Against my will, I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.BENEDICK: Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.BEATRICE: I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me. If it had been painful I would not have come.What is the source of humor in these lines?

MCQs on language in Much Ado About Nothing, which contains dazzling wordplay as Beatrice and Benedick conduct their verbal sparring. The play, which ends in two marriages, includes much language about love. But beneath the wit and the talk of love lie hints at something much darker. Look out for the language of violence, betrayal, mistrust and shame. The play relies much upon deception and disguise, patterns marked in Beatrice’s speech, which rarely holds a single meaning, instead preferring to toy with multiple meanings.  Most of the characters in Much Ado About Nothing use language in a... Show more

MCQs on language in Much Ado About Nothing, which contains dazzling wordplay as Beatrice and Benedick conduct their verbal sparring.

The play, which ends in two marriages, includes much language about love. But beneath the wit and the talk of love lie hints at something much darker. Look out for the language of violence, betrayal, mistrust and shame. The play relies much upon deception and disguise, patterns marked in Beatrice’s speech, which rarely holds a single meaning, instead preferring to toy with multiple meanings. 

Most of the characters in Much Ado About Nothing use language in a straightforward manner when they are not trying to deceive someone else.  Pay attention to the words and phrases which are repeated in different scenes and by different characters.

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