Identify and analyse the major themes and issues with the play Much Ado About Nothing.

Gender is one of the central themes in Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing.
In Beatrice and Benedick's squabbles, the differences between the genders are illuminated. Benedick initially swears to live and die a bachelor and rails against the female sex. Beatrice is similarly full of vitriol toward men, claiming she could never love a man who has a beard but could never love a man who doesn't, either. Despite these many protestations, however, Beatrice and Benedick are ultimately more similar than they are different. They are both stubborn, quick-witted, and loath to admit their feelings.
The theme of gender is also hugely important to the Hero/Claudio plotline. When Claudio is deceived into believing that Hero is not a virgin and that she has been, essentially, cheating on him, he publicly shames her on their wedding day. Even Hero's own father believes Claudio over Hero. This dynamic is entirely bound up in the gender ideas of the time. Only Beatrice (and by extension Benedick) believes in her cousin's innocence.
For further evidence of the importance of this scene and of the play's attitude toward gender, take a look at Balthazar's song in act II, scene iii. Generally, the songs in Shakespeare's comedies are giddy things about love and springtime. Here, however, Balthazar sings about the inconsistency of men, comforting wronged women and advising them not to sigh over their unfaithful lovers. These lyrics subvert expected gender roles in which women are the ones who can't be trusted, and they foreshadow the events of the play. Beatrice and Hero remain true to their lovers and their words. It is Benedick who breaks his vow to be a bachelor forever, and it is Claudio who is so easily tricked into turning on his fiancee.