“…do you play the flouting Jack, to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter?”
This is a subtle satirical bite at courtly love. Words like ‘hare-finder’ are obvious double-entendres with strong sexual implications, which Claudio seems to miss completely. Here we see that Benedick’s tongue is just as sharp at Beatrice’s, and the two witty and also wisest of characters are introduced. When Claudio mentions marriage with Hero, this disappoints Benedick, and he immediately launches into a stab at ‘the married man’.
“In faith, hath not the world one man but he will wear his cap with suspicion?”
This is an obvious reference to cuckolding. A cuckold in Shakespearian times was always shown wearing two large horns on his head in theatre, like a yoked and chained bull. The regular references to horns also relate to this, and are of low sexual humour. Again later on, when Don Pedro and Claudio are persuading Benedick that he will get married, he replies with seeming horror.
“If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at me, and he that hits me, let him be clapped on the shoulder and called Adam.”
All this fiery wit and language may be obvious satire, but we wonder here if Benedick is not a ‘professed tyrant to their sex’, but merely afraid of relationships. Therefore Benedick himself is a victim of the playwright’s satire.
The moment Benedick leaves, we see a new form of satire in Claudio and Don Pedro. One that is not straightforward and funny, and one that is not realised by the characters themselves. Shakespeare portrays these two in particular as noble upholders of chivalry and courtly love, but as we read through the play it becomes evident that they are victims themselves, being made of style, swank, and narcissistic in nature, but not having much underneath their facades.
“If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it, and I will break with her, and with the father, and thou shalt have her”
Don Pedro says this in reply to Claudio. I think that it is the first we see of Don Pedro’s disturbing, rather egotistical and panderous nature. He addresses Claudio in verse form, seeming loyal and noble, but the fact that he is insistent on wooing Hero himself in Claudio’s name is rather unusual, and makes us wonder what his intentions are deep down. He seems more and more self-obsessed and unstable as we progress in the play, especially in Act 2 Scene 1 where he displays the same strange traits in trying to get Benedick together with Beatrice.
“I will, in the interim, undertake one of Hercules’ labours, which is, to bring Signior Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection th’one with th’other.”
In this dialogue, Don Pedro says the word ‘I’ more than anything else. His suggestion is very strange and it seems like he is a control freak, and also very lonely. However, instead of questioning his reasons, Leonato and Claudio, blinded by swank just as much, agree to it wholeheartedly. Just as Claudio believes himself to be a courageous and loving young nobleman, Leonato affects to a father figure role, and believes that he is the wisest of them all, whereas in truth, he is no less jaded than any of the other characters, and is easily made a fool of.
Friar : You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady?
Claud. : No.
Leon. : To be married to her, friar: you come to marry her.
One would think after having known these men for a long time, he would be able to recognize their intentions, and Claudio puts them very bluntly here. The darker side to this marriage ceremony becomes apparent later on. Claudio and Don Pedro state blindly that Hero is guilty, and Leonato believes them straight off without one word of doubt. Not only does Claudio obviously not know Hero’s personality in the slightest, neither does her own father, treating her like some object for sale. At parts like this the comedy aspect is lost and dark satire takes over.
“But mine, and mine I lov’d, and mine I prais’d,
And mine that I was proud on - mine so much
That I myself was to myself not mine…”
This public posturing statement from Leonato is ridiculous and makes him look like a conceited idiot. Not only does he not seem to know or care for his own daughter in the slightest, but even when she collapses and may be dead, all he can think about is himself and his honour. He even goes as far as to wish Hero were dead. This shows how the male code of honour can be twisted and warped so much as to completely blind people to the truth.
Next. I will study the dark and ominous Don John, cunning and powerful villain. Or at least he’d like to think so. John the bastard is one of the play’s anomalies as so much as he disappears without a trace when most of the other characters’ fates are decided. He affects to the role of saturnine enemy of the peace, and has two sidekicks – Borachio and Conrade. He trusts them with all his devious plots and pays them handsomely, without realizing the pay is probably the only reason they help him. None of the characters ever question his genuineness, and they all stupidly trust him without question at first, but it is obvious to the reader that in reality he puts on his role of stage villain, and is just a lonely man, upset by seeing other couples get together.
“If I had my mouth I would bite; if I had my liberty I would do my liking: in the meantime. Let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.”
For someone who claims to be a man of little words, John does a good job of pouring out his heart in this outburst. There are many similarities to Don Pedro’s style here. He does not speak in blank verse, but again the number of ‘I’s and the yearning for power show his egotistical and unstable nature, and also his liking for longwinded pretentious speeches. After studying these different characters it becomes apparent that they all have vital similarities – At some point they are all totally ignorant of the truth, all because of the deception of ‘honour’ and the trickery and plots, whether benign or malicious, of other people.
Shakespeare was very fond of satire. Even famous tragedies such as MacBeth and Romeo & Juliet have strong satirical elements to them, and this play is no exception. In fact, it is probably one of his greatest satires, along with maybe Troilus & Cressida. It is impossible to understand Much Ado About Nothing without knowing the mind of the playwright, and his intentions. Nothing is as it seems and ‘much ado’ is made of nothing whatsoever.
