Character write-up Claudio is one of the main characters in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” In the play he is a gullible person who frequently falls victim to others deceit. He is set to be married to Leonato’s daughter, Hero. Due to his gullibility Claudio falls not once but twice for Don John tricks. The first, when Don John tells Claudio, “Signor, you are very near my brother in his love. He is enamored on hero. I pray you, dissuade him from her. She is no equal for his birth. You may do the part of an honest man in it” (2.1. 134-137). Claudio also falls for Don John’s trickery again when he says, “I came hither to tell you; and circumstances shortened, for she has been too long a-talking of, the lady is disloyal” (3.2 79-80). Claudio’s gullibility is essential to the play because it allows all of the mayhem to happen in the first place. If not for Claudio’s gullibility the events that transpire would not happen. Claudio is perceived as naïve and gullible as seen in the multiple encounters with Don John. When Don John tells Claudio and Don Pedro that Hero is cheating in him, Claudio says, “if I see anything tonight why I should not marry her, tomorrow in the congregation, where I should wed, there will I shame her” (3.2. 96-98). This shows that even without proof Claudio already believes Don John even after he already lied to him about Don Pedro loving Hero. Claudio was also seen as a great soldier by many people. In the beginning of the play as the messenger arrives in Messina and tells Leonato, “much deserved on his part, and equally remembered by Don Pedro. He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing in the figure of a lamb the feats of a lion. He hath indeed better bettered expectation than you must expect me to tell you how” (1.1 10-14). This quote shows the