Branagh’s interpretation of Much Ado About Nothing depicts Hero and Claudio as very much in love. Do we know this from the text of the play itself? Note particularly how many lines Hero actually has in the first few acts and the concern Claudio himself expresses to the Prince about not wanting to seem too forward in his attentions to Hero (act 1). Of great interest is the fact that Branagh removes act 3, scene 4 entirely from his movie. Reread that scene and think about why Branagh might want to do that. How does having that scene in the play change the way we view the wedding at the beginning of act 4 and possibly the resolution of the play in act 5?

The text of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing depicts the romance of Hero and Claudio as a characteristically adolescent affair that is founded upon instant attraction, cemented by conventional approval of the heroine's ostensible virtue, doomed by the supposed revelation of the heroine's lack of virtue, and restored when her virtue is at last proven fit to be surrendered in matrimony. Claudio "feels" rather than "knows" that he loves Hero. Much humor is spent upon the the notion of virtue understood as chastity. In scene 4 of act 3, Hero expresses her sense that she has an exceedingly heavy heart. Margaret crudely remarks that Hero's heart will soon be made heavier still by the weight of her future husband. Its ribald comedy notwithstanding, this scene hints at an element of potential tragedy that does not suit the narrow dramatic conventions employed in Branagh's adaptation.