Much Ado About Nothing

 

             Leisure is the key to deception.  In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare plays with the fact that when you have nothing to do your mind creates fiction that follows by horrible destruction.  Honesty coins with hard working people and falsehood relates to those you have excess time. 

          Dogberry and Company are hard working people who are able to sort out the scandal because they are outsiders.  They stumble onto the truth because they did not see the fictional lovemaking and are not emotionally involved with key characters like Claudio and Hero’s family.  The reason that Claudio did not have the ability to see the truth was because back then and even today, people do not stop and confront the situation.  Claudio’s childlike behavior should have been a reason for Hero not to marry him.  Dogberry and Company represent the agency of simplexes and merit because they were on the outside looking in.  These investigators found out the deception of Don John because of their ability to assess the matter in a mature way.  Immaturity can also be associated with those who have excess time.           

          There are two roles of an idiot character.  The first is for humor and the second is to experience the minds of the minor characters.  Faustus, Edward II and even Romeo and Juliet were all tragic plays.  Scholars say, that the same person, Shakespeare, wrote all three of these plays. 

          Evidence that Dogberry is an “idiot” character is in scene four, section two. 

Dost thou not suspect my place?  Dost thou not suspect my years?  O, that he were here to write me down an ass!  But masters, remember that I am an ass, though it would be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass.

In this scene Dogberry is accusing Don John of lying.  He burglarized Hero from Claudio.  His intervention between these two was uncalled for.  Dogberry’s speech seems ridiculous but reveals a great deal of truth.  He says he is an ass, even though there is no visible proof.  Within this he is trying to convince Conrade and Sexton that Don John is at fault.  He has no proof but wishes they would believe his word just like there is no evidence he is a real ass.     

Was Shakespeare such a disturbed person or were the people around him living lives of deception?  His depressionists writings involve tragedy and seriousness.  Much Ado About Nothing does not.  The common thread between those three plays is the fact there was no idiot character.  Idiot characters are able to step back and tackle sticky situations. 

          Much Ado About Nothing is a play of light heartedness and fate.  Those who do wrong do not get their way and those who accept fault create peaceful lives.  Don John was denied disrupting long lasting happiness.  He also brought someone down with him.  Borachio, his servant, had him make love to Hero’s servant and the eyes of Claudio saw Hero committing lechery.  An evil character like Don John is used as an example of what “no gooders” fate will be.  In the end, Claudio and Hero marry and Benedick and Beatrice agree to marry creating a happy ending.   

            

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This page was last edited 05/04/2000