Reading Journal - Much Ado About Nothing

This book confuses me so much and I think this is due to the fact that Shakespeare has made the characters have similar names so I get confused with who is who.

-Why does Shakespeare give the characters names which are similar to each other?
-Why is the play called 'Much Ado About Nothing'?
-What happens next?
-How is the romance developed?
-Why are there such small scenes compared to others?
-Why does the characters each hold a secret which only the audience can see?

50 -60 lines from the poem ''The Pied Piper of Hamelin''

Lines 55 - 105 from the poem 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' 

55 "Come in!'' - the Mayor cried, looking bigger 

And in did come the strangest figure!

His queer long coat from heel to head 

Was half of yellow and half of red, 

And he himself was tall and thin, 

60 With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin, 

And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin 

No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin, 

But lips where smile went out and in; 

There was no guessing his kith and kin: 

65 And nobody could enough admire 

The tall man and his quaint attire. 

Quoth one: "It's as my great-grandsire, 

"Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone, 

"Had walked this way from his painted tombstone!''

70 He advanced to the council-table: 

And, "Please your honours,'' said he, "I'm able, 

"By means of a secret charm, to draw 

"All creatures living beneath the sun, 

"That creep or swim or fly or run, 

75 After me so as you never saw! 

"And I chiefly use my charm 

"On creatures that do people harm, 

"The mole and toad and newt and viper; 

"And people call me the Pied Piper.'' 

80 (And here they noticed round his neck 

A scarf of red and yellow stripe, 

To match with his coat of the self-same cheque; 

And at the scarf's end hung a pipe; 

And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying 

85 As if impatient to be playing 

Upon this pipe, as low it dangled 

Over his vesture so old-fangled.) 

"Yet,'' said he, ``poor piper as I am, 

"In Tartary I freed the Cham, 

90 "Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats, 

"I eased in Asia the Nizam 

"Of a monstrous brood of vampyre-bats: 

"And as for what your brain bewilders, 

"If I can rid your town of rats 

95 "Will you give me a thousand guilders?'' 

"One? fifty thousand!'' -- was the exclamation 

"Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation.

Into the street the Piper stept, 

Smiling first a little smile, 

100 As if he knew what magic slept 

In his quiet pipe the while; 

Then, like a musical adept, 

To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled, 

And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled

105 Like a candle-flame where salt is sprinkled; 

Browning gets to re-discover his past events that may of been an influence to him and from this poem he uses different techniques to explain and re-live the story.
I choose to pick these lines because I think it gives a certain story that Browning wants to tell and from this I think it's very powerful as well as pretty and innocent.
Browning's perspective of the poem is a man telling a story to a child, but Browning has not told the reader who the child is and why he was there in the first place.
The poem has been written in an iambic pentameter with rhyming couplets and from this Browning gets the tell the story in a way he wants too. He may have used these techniques to roll in with the sub heading being ''A  CHILD'S STORY'', that the rhyming scheme from lines 55 on wards creates a very powerful image due to how it's been structured. It becomes more of a nursery rhyme due to the rhythm of this stanza. This effect gives an atmosphere worth taking into consideration because you don't know why Browning has done this as you don't know he is talking to a child till the end of the poem.
The effect of the bright colour that Browning gives the Mayor gives him a powerful character due to that time of year only bright colours were worn by powerful and royalty  However, he could also be described as a jester/clown figure within the poem.
Another technique that Browning uses in this poem this the effect on rhetorical questions and how it tells the story from this. Rhetorical questions are used so no answer has to be given, however it gives the reader a chance to question the poem and why they have been used, this is show in line 95.
In the whole of these three stanzas Browning decides to talk about the Mayor and how he has changed, he has done this to caution the reader and make them feel alarmed by him.
Browning has used the technique of foreshadowing in lines 75-79, this keeps the reader in suspense as they don't know what's going to happen and when it's going to happen, this tells the story in a very mystic and gloomy way as well as the poem being very powerful and pretty.

BBC News at ten.

The notes I got given to create my dramatic monologue:

• Age: 54.
• Gender: Female.
• Has only one child - Son.
• Son wants to go to Uni - Mum won't let him.
• Mum won't let him go anywhere.
• Thinks everything is dangerous.
  

BBC News at ten,

Here's the story on Ben,

'Just let me have some fun'

'Oh mum, I'm only young'

BBC News at ten,

Here we go again,

'You're just a little boy'

'What happened to your toy?'

BBC News at ten,

That's the story on Ben.

 This poem was written when thinking on the mind of a protective parent. 

The mum will always see her son as a 'little boy' who will never grow up and this is because of him being her only child. She doesn't want to let go. She doesn't want him to grow up.