Claudio's Villainy In Much Ado About Nothing

One simple event or one antagonist can push a good character over the edge into villainy. In Shakespeare’s works, one can argue that everyone has villainy in them; it just takes the right person or event to bring it out of them, even though the evil they spread doesn’t do much to help them in the long run. Shakespeare also looks at how these acts are used to make the enactor happy, but in turn results in nothing but a fleeting happiness. In Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing, Don John is drawn to villainy due to his bastard status, whereas Claudio is drawn to villainy due to his fiancé’s perceived loss of innocence. Don John, the bastard brother of Don Pedro, is mad at the world because of the situation his father put him in growing

When he is standing at the altar with Hero he says to Hero and her father, Leonato, “There, Leonato, take her back again. Give not this rotten orange to your friend. Behold how like a maid she blushed here…but she is none, She knows the heat of a luxurious bed. Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty” (4.1.31-42). Instead of quietly canceling the wedding like a decent human being would, Claudio waits to shame Hero in front of everyone. He shows no remorse for her and does everything in his power to ruin her life. In this time, being left at the altar and unmarried for a sexual transgression is worse than death. At this point, Hero has no choice. Her life is pretty much over and her family faking her death is her best

Hero really had no other choice than to do what her family believed was right for her. Leonato, speaking to the priest, trying to figure out what to do with her says, “Wherefore, why, doth not every earthly thing cry shame upon her? Could she deny the story that is printed in her blood? Do not live, Hero…For, did I think thou wouldst not quickly die, thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames, myself would… strike at thy life” (4.1.120-127). No one, including her father, believed that Hero could overcome these obstacles in her life and in a way they were right. In this time, what Hero was accused of and being shamed for was one of the worst things that could happen to a lady. Hero’s own father even believed she was better off dead. This just shows how atrocious Claudio was to Hero and in the end, doing this didn’t bring him much joy. When he truly believed that Hero died and rose back from the dead, after she was found to not be guilty, Claudio still with little remorse for his actions says, “Sweet Hero, now thy image doth appear in the rare semblance that I loved it first” (5.1.245-246). Claudio completely disregards how terrible he was the Hero and how he ruined her life. All of a sudden, Claudio is back to his doting fiancé act and once again loves Hero. Claudio again has the option to marry Hero, when