An interesting way to give a rough sketch of her function in the play can be given by applying Greimas’ actantial model, based on Propp’s theory. His method allows us to break down an action into six facets: the subject, object, sender, helper, receiver and opponent. It was originally used for the analysis of folk tales but is also very useful to analyze fiction in general. Both Beatrice and Benedick are subject and Object: the aim is namely to bring them together. The senders who instruct the connection between subject and object here are Leonato and Don Pedro as they came up with the idea of the matchmaking. It is interesting to see that Benedick and Beatrice not only are the subject and object of this plot, but also the opponents as they strongly deny and scorn each other in the first part of Much Ado. Hero and ursula Ursula, but also Leonato and Don Pedro are helpers: thanks to their words, Beatrice and Benedick finally are brought together.

After this character analysis, we can conclude that Beatrice enriches the play considerably. Looking at the plot keywords of Kenneth Branagh’s cinema version of Much Ado About Nothing on the imdb-website, we can see that many of the keywords concern Beatrice and would not have been on the list if it was not for her. What is more, her character is invariably played by one of the company’s leading members. At first glance, it might look as if the two marry warriors are a subplot to kill the pastime meanwhile everybody is waiting for the marriage between Hero and Claudio, but as this analysis points out it is abundantly clear that Much Ado About Nothing would not be a comedy anymore without Beatrice and the witty sparring matches between her and Benedick.