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Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing has a complex relationship with his daughter Hero
because of how he relates her to nature. Leonato describes his daughter in the most basic terms
of nature. In the very first scene when Don Pedro acknowledges Hero as Leonato’s daughter,
Leonato responds in a comedic way. He says, “Her mother hath many times told me so”
(1.1.101). His response implies that he is only connected to his daughter because of reproduction,
which brings Hero closer to nature. Kakkonen and Penjak describe this connection between a
woman and nature in their book The Nature of Gender in two points: “2) because of their
reproductive ability, women are placed on a lower social scale than men; 3) being defined by the
body functions… women are seen as being closer to nature” (28). Kakkonen and Penjak bring up
two relevant points that help determine how Hero is connected to her father merely through basic
reproduction, and the authors also foreshadow a concern in Leonato’s patriarchy in that father-
daughter relationship. After making that comment, Leonato further responds to Benedick’s joke
of asking if Leonato truly asked Hero’s mother if that is his real daughter out of doubt. Leonato’s
response hints at possible cuckoldry forcing Leonato to undermine his patriarchy to take the
word of Hero’s mother. While undermining patriarchy through cuckoldry can lead to tensions in
Leonato and Hero’s relationship, the tension in their relationship only arises after Hero’s
shameful incident because Leonato struggles with dissociating Hero with nature and with being
his daughter.

In the scene where Leonato is expressing his disbelief over Hero, he continues using
nature to describe her. While he may appear as if he is only shaminghis daughter, his
representation of Hero in terms of nature reinforce their father-daughter relationship together in
that he is still putting his authority into action. Leonato expresses in disbelief, “Why, doth not
every earthly thing/ Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny/ The story that is printed in her