Despite all of Don John’s intellect, he shows that he has not yet developed the mental capability to conjure up a plot as Conrade shows himself to be the deviser of any mischievous plans in the scene. Proof of this is shown as he says ‘it is needful that you frame the season for your own harvest’, this meaning that Don John is still allowed to hate his brother, and with the aid of his wit, bring him down. Also, Conrade’s concealed use of language suggests to the audience that Don John’s powers of utilizing language have evolved with the normalcy of being around his friends. However, even though Don John may not possess all the brains of someone with cognitive powers, he still thinks of himself to be ‘a plain dealing villain’. Shakespeare writes this in order to emphasise his arrogance over his evil. The play-write perhaps tries to make arrogance the emphasis as the play is a comedy and making intense use of evil may make the plot too extreme, causing the play to no longer be of a laughable nature, but of a much more serious idiosyncrasy. The fact that Don John admits this suggests to the audience that he is trying to convince himself, as subconsciously he is still a young man and is attempting to act like a man who has experienced all in life. This statement also shows that he lacks any dignity and honour; this is reinforced by, ‘I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace.’ The fact that he believes he will occupy his brother’s life by finishing his life implies his present lack of comprehension in relation to life.
Don John makes use of sarcasm, once again showing that he really is ‘a man of many words.’ This is shown as he says, ‘Who? The most exquisite Claudio?’ This line implies his jealousy. Shakespeare knows how to portray a villain with the utmost precision when fabricating his/her characteristics. To possess qualities like jealousy, anger and depression causes the audience to repel your personality even more as it is human nature of not wanting to be around people who constantly dwell on their misfortune.
In Act 2 Scene 2, the stage directions say that Don John is ‘outside Leonato’s house’ this is symbolic of him being an outsider in the more metaphorical sense. Once again, he continues to dwell in his misfortune and in doing so talks scornfully about Claudio and Don Pedro. Shakespeare uses Don Pedro as his object of Don John’s hate in order to show the audience the insensitivity of his character as well as to emphasise the harshness. The harshness is shown as he says ‘whatsoever comes athwart his affection ranges evenly with mine.’
Once again Don John is not the man with the plan in this scene but his trusty friend Borachio, this once again emphasising the fact that he is not as logical as he would wish. However, despite Borachio’s helpfulness, the audience is forced to question his actions as a ‘friend’ when Don John says, ‘Be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats’, this implying that Don John has no true friends but only blood sucking companions that are after his money. This idea reflects the idea of Claudio being after Hero’s wealth.
Once more, Don John makes use of parallelisms, ‘What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?’ Shakespeare often penetrates the text with parallelisms to make emphasis as well as to show the articulated speech of the character.
