Don John In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

407 Words2 Pages

Who is really at fault for all the confusion and interrupted wedding of Hero and Claudio? One could easily assign Don John as the culprit of this catastrophe. Don John being the bastered (in the technical form) brother of the prince Don Pedro is characterized as the villain in Much Ado About Nothing. He devised a scheme to trick Claudio that his fiancé Hero has been unfaithful to him, which caused this fiasco. However, Claudio has as much blame as Don John for falling under the influence of the obvious villain and trickster. In acknowledging this, Claudio is the real cause of this catastrophe. Don John, the villainous brother of Don Pedro, contributed to the unfortunate event in Claudio`s almost wedding. Don John is showed devising a plan to wreak Claudio`s wedding in Act II, scene ii. Don John expresses “Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be med'cinable to me.” This meaning that any barrier or obstacle to Claudio`s happiness is like medicine to him. In this scene Don John asks Borachio, Don John`s partner in crime, if he can wreak Claudio`s wedding. Borachio answers in the affirmative and he tells Don John his plan. Borachio will get Ursula, Hero`s maid, to dress in Hero`s clothes and meet him in Hero`s room …show more content…

It is a favorable notion that Claudio is Don John`s puppet. In addition, Claudio vowed that he would humiliate Hero during the wedding. He could have taken a different approach in order to prevent the failure of his wedding. For instance, he could have simply asked Hero whom she was with, or he could have asked Hero if what he saw was true. Instead, he humiliated Hero at their wedding. In Act IV, Scene I, the harsh events that followed Hero`s humiliation were all because of Claudio`s unintelligent choice to believe Don John, the obvious villain. In Claudio`s defense, he might have been drunk while Don John was deceiving him. However, this is no excuse for his false accusation of