Much Ado About Nothing takes place in the bustling port city of Messina; It is in this bustling port town that the play opens. The warm climate of Messina makes it peaceful and agricultural; meaning that men returning from battle would view Messina as a welcome respite from the war. The idea of ​​soldiers returning to an idyllic setting, far from the battlefield, creates a “holiday atmosphere” at the beginning of the play. While the majority of the play takes place in Leonato's house, Leonato's orchard also provides a central location for action, particularly the blossoming relationship between Beatrice and Benedick, Shakespeare uses the beautiful garden to create a canvas perfect background for the whimsical romance that characterizes the piece. . The setting of Much Ado About Nothing is also larger than its physical domain; Shakespeare chooses to begin the play in this tranquil setting to emphasize that the pastoral will be an important theme in this play. Shakespeare uses the idea of ​​“pastoral” to create different spaces in which comedy can take place. This allows for controlled chaos and means that characters feel free to escape the constraints of social conventions. Shakespeare suggests that the context in which characters find themselves affects their beliefs and the way they behave towards each other. For example, being “in nature”, that is to say in the garden or in the countryside. A place where anything can happen, Shakespeare presents the pastoral as the place where extraordinarily improbable events take place. But the pastoral is also capable of creating a certain atmosphere and giving an almost mischievous feeling to a scene. This idea of ​​a pastoral setting is also reflected in another Shakespeare comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream, another play in which the pursuit of love takes place in the middle of a paper... or “true”. ' love. The pastoral creates a tranquil environment in this scene, perhaps to remind us of the soldiers' return to Messina at the beginning of the play. The audience feels a sense of closure and happiness. In conclusion, Shakespeare uses the setting to create the perfect space for comedy by using a range of pastoral environments, for example Leonatos's orchard, his garden and then his courtyard. This creates a landscape that leads audiences to associate the outdoors with comedy and mischief, but also with happiness. The definition of pastoral is: “a literary work depicting an idealized version of life” and Shakespeare certainly idealizes certain relationships in the play, such as that of Beatrice and Benedicks. The use of the pastoral backdrop adds to the theme of fantasy and improbability, creating a perfect space for comedy, but also for complication..