Don
John in Much Ado About Nothing
| INTRODUCTION |
In this paper we are going to analyse the
character of
Don John, the Prince’s bastard brother, and we are going to see
mainly its
relationship with some of the other characters in the play and
its main role
in the play, that is to say, what did Shakespeare create this
character for?
Don John is a key character in
Much ado about Nothing,
since if it were not for this character there will be very few
conflicts, if
any, in this play and the whole plot would be very simple. This
character is
the one that livens up the plot and complicates it in order to
be more
spectacular. Due to this evil character, the other characters
are confronted
with two main conflicts that they have to resolve and, thanks
to that, the
whole play is more interesting and it is not just a comedy
about love, it
has a subplot of revenge in it, and therefore, its complexity
lies in the
struggle between these two themes. In the end, as this is a
comedy, love
defeats revenge, good versus evil, and thus, we are given the
expected happy
ending.
| WHAT DOES THIS CHARACTER REPRESENT IN THE PLAY? |
First of all, we are going to see what this character represents in this play. As this is a comedy, comedies are supposed to be happy and everything is supposed to be festive and joyful. However, Shakespeare, as we can observe when reading his plays, is not so simplistic, and he always needs some other element to interfere in the main plot, that in the case of the comedies, it is usually love and sex. That is why he creates the character of Don John in Much Ado about Nothing. This character represents the evil part of this comedy, the dark side, the one who induces the other characters to commit erroneous actions, the one that misleads them. We can support this statement by looking at an interview with Tom Stuart, an actor who plays the character of Don John in the Globe theatre (we will mention this interview throughout the paper, since I think it summarises best the character of Don John): I was very excited to play the only nasty element in such a lovely romantic comedy. Everyone else in the play is happy and joyful and Don John undercuts that all the way through. [1]
Therefore, the main plot is threatened by
the character
of Don John and his plan to ruin Claudio’s life. However, since
comedies
must end in a happy way, Don John’s mischief is brought to
light and
everything is resolved at the end of the play. So, even though
we have this
evil side in the play, at the end it does not win over the good
side due to
the genre of the play. According to Vicente Forés,
‘at the end what counts is the love relationship between the
protagonists. There is always someone who loses in
Shakespeare’s comedies’[2]
,
and in this case, it is Don John the one who ends up
losing.
By contrast, if instead of being a
comedy this play were
a tragedy, probably Don John’s role would be even more
important, and he
would have achieved his main purpose: to destroy everyone
else’s happiness.
Probably, as in other Shakespearian tragedies, in which the
main evil
character ends up dead together with the good characters
(King Lear),
he would have ended dead as well, but he would also have
brought Claudio and
Hero to the grave with him. That is probably the main
difference between the
role of an evil character in a comedy and an evil character in
a tragedy; in
a tragedy he would have reached his goal and in a comedy he
does not reach
it, as we can see in the comedy we are dealing
with.
| DON JOHN
COMPARED TO OTHER
CHARACTERS Claudio |
Up to this stage, we are going to analyse
Don John’s
relation with other characters in the play. First of all, we
will deal with
Claudio, since it can be said to be the antithesis of the
character of Don
John. While Claudio enhances the good and virtuous values of
the play Don
John is completely the opposite, he stands for evil and
villainy. Claudio is
seen as a very optimistic character, he falls in love at first
sight and
claims marriage without contemplating any negative consequence
and Don John,
by contrast, when he first learns about Claudio and Hero’s
intended marriage
he just thinks: ‘What is he for a fool that betroths himself
to
unquietness?’ (Act 1, scene
III).[3]
Thus, showing to the reader how disdainful he is towards women;
Women, as he
claims, bring restlessness to man’s lives.
On the other hand, Claudio and Don
John’s relationship is
based on jealousy from Don John towards Claudio. Don John is
Don Pedro’s
bastard brother, and we are given some information at the
beginning of the
play (Act 1, scene I) about their recent reconciliation, since
they were
fighting in a battle against each other. In that battle, Don
Pedro defeats
Don John and later he forgives him. The important thing here is
that Claudio
was fighting at Don Pedro’s side and Don John is jealous of him
because
Claudio is Don Pedro’s right hand man. Therefore, he wants to
bring disaster
to Claudio’s life and he cannot stand seeing Claudio happy
about marrying
Hero, which is why he wants to interfere in this wedding. As
Tom Stuart
says: “Claudio has everything that Don John should have and
so he hates
him”.[4]
That is to say, Don John
should be his
brother’s favourite and it is actually Claudio. Don Pedro
should have
arranged a marriage between Hero and Don John instead of
Claudio, because he
should contemplate his brother’s benefit instead of Claudio’s,
but it is,
however, the other way round, because Claudio has never been
disloyal to Don
Pedro and Don John has.
Moreover, John and Claudio’s
vocabulary is very different
as well. Depending on how characters see the world surrounding
them, they
speech in a way or another. John’s speeches are always very
cheerless and
melancholic while Claudio’s are very cheerful. The only time
that we see
Claudio’s anger is when he trusts Don John and therefore he
becomes as
bitter as Don John is. That is when he humiliates Hero in front
of everybody
at their allegedly happy wedding. We, readers, are astonished
at the way he
treats Hero, since we have not seen him behave like this
before, and it is
very striking to us how such a tender and gentle character can
become such
an insensitive and bitter one.
Therefore, it can be said that each time Don
John
participates in somebody else’s life in the play, we can see
the dark side
of them. Don John just mixes with the other characters to bring
unhappiness
and hatred to them. By reference to Kenneth’s Branagh’s
film, it is very well portrayed what we have just mentioned,
since each time
Don John appears in the movie the atmosphere is darker, and he
is always
planning his mischievous plans in indoor spaces, compared to
those outdoor
spaces in which we see the other characters in the
play.
Now, we are going to examine the
different situations in
which both characters address to each other. The first one, in
which we
start to see how evil Don John is, is when they are at the
masked ball. Don
John pretending to be talking to Benedick, he
tells Claudio that his brother, Don Pedro, is courting Hero for
himself
because he likes her. Moreover, Claudio asks him: ‘How know you
he loves
her?’ To which Don John replies: ‘I heard him swear his
affection’ (Act II,
scene I).[5]
He lies to Claudio with premeditation and when Claudio learns
about this he
gets really upset and disappointed with Don Pedro, even though
after this
everything is sorted out and Claudio and Hero get
engaged.
The second time Don John addresses Claudio is also to mislead him. It takes place in the third act (scene II). This time, not only does Don John deceive Claudio but he deceives his brother, Don Pedro as well. He wants them to believe that Hero is having sex with another man and both of them fall into the trap. Don John tells Claudio: ‘You may think I love you not: let that appear hereafter, and aim better at me by that I now will manifest. For my brother, I think he holds you well, and in dearness of heart hath holp to effect your ensuing marriage;--surely suit ill spent and labour ill bestowed’.[6]
In these sentences, even though we can see
some affection
towards Claudio, we know that he is deceiving him, what makes
him even more
evil. We can observe that Don John is jealous of Claudio, when
he tells him
that his brother ‘holds him well’; fact that must be killing
Don John along
the entire play and brings him to the pursuit of Claudio’s
unhappiness,
which also affects Hero’s honour.
| Benedick |
With regards to the relation between Don John and Benedick there is a similarity that can be observed between both characters: the disdain about women that both show, in some way, in a moment of the play. However, the difference lies in that, although Benedick’s repulse against women does not take place all along the play but just at the beginning of it, Don John’s probably does, since we do not see any kind of affection from his part to anybody in the play.
We see that Benedick
repudiates women at the beginning of the play when he says: ‘I
will live a
bachelor’ (Act 1, scene 1).[7]
However, Benedick says so because
he has learned
the lesson about women and he probably thinks they are too
complicated to
deal with, and not because he hates them, which is probably the
case of Don
John. In the end, Benedick will end
up marrying
Beatrice whereas Don John does not show any interest towards
women
throughout the play. In fact, we see that he actually rejoices
at Hero’s
humiliation: ‘There is not chastity enough in language without
offence to
utter them (referring to the supposed encounters between Hero
and
Borachio). Thus, pretty lady, I am
sorry for thy
much misgovernment’ (Act IV, scene I).[8]
Therefore, even though he knows that he has accused Hero
falsely, he
exaggerates more and more the situation, thus showing how
unaffectionate and
distant he is towards women.
On the other hand, we do not see Don John and Benedick
addressing to each other thoroughout the play. It is supposed
to happen
once, but in fact, it is actually Claudio who is listening to
Don John and
Don John knows before hand that he is addressing to Claudio
instead of
Benedick; that happens when Don John wants to make Claudio
believe that Don
Pedro is wooeing Hero for himself instead of in Claudio’s
behalf. So, it can
be said that Don John’s relation towards Benedick is a distant
one, as well
as with most of the characters of the play, since even though
they are
supposed to be friends because both of them arrive at Messina
with Don Pedro
of Aragon, they do not talk to each other, probably due to Don
John’s
bitterness.
| Hero |
As for the relation between Don John and Hero,
the only kind
of bond that we could see between them in the play is that of
jealosy too,
as well as with Claudio. However, it is not the same type of
jealosy but we
could referred to it in terms of helplessness. That is to say,
Don John
cannot withstand the fact that his brother prefers Claudio to
him in order
to marry Hero, that is why by messing up Claudio, he indirectly
messes up
Hero in some way, because he wants to ruin the wedding and that
concers her.
Therefore, Hero gets humilliated by Claudio, but it is actually
Don John’s
fault. Thus, the relationship between Don John and Hero can be
summarised in
terms of hatred, because in the end of the play Hero
probably hates Don
John for what he has done to them.
| Don Pedro |
The bond between Don John and Don Pedro is
quite complex to
understand because we have to infer what has happened between
them through
what the other characters say. Allegedly, before arriving at
Messina, they
were fighting against each other and after Don John being
defeated by Don
Pedro’s army, Don John is forgiven by his brother and they are
reconciled.
We can see that when Leonato says to Don John in the first
act: ‘Let me bid
you welcome, my lord: being reconciled to the prince your
brother, I owe you
all duty’.[9]
However, in the Scene II of the same act we learn that Don John
has not
forgiven his brother, and that ‘he is still really angry and
bitter’[10]
,
we see that for example when Borachio and Don John are talking
and Borachio
says to him: ‘ You have of late stood out against your brother,
and he hath
ta’en you newly into his grace; where it is impossible you
should take true
root but by the fair weather that you make yourserlf: it is
needful that you
frame the season for your own harvest’. And Don John replies to
him: ‘ I had
rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace’[11],
showing in this way that he is still very resentful about his
brother.
According to Tom Stuart: ‘Don John thinks he has more grit
and more focus
than his half brother and that he would be a much better
prince. He resents
the fact that it is only by birth that Don Pedro is prince and
thinks it
should have been him.’
[12]
That is an appropiate way of explaining the relation between
these two
characters. So, due to this resentment, Don John is going to
cause suffering
to all the people Don Pedro is friends with, thus causing
problems to
Claudio and Hero, as we have already seen before.
| Borachio |
The last character that we are going to compare Don John to is Borachio. They have, mainly, a master-servant relationship. Borachio is Don John’s servant, but what is even more important is that he acts as if he were Don John’s brain, that is to say, he is the one who plans all the dirty plans that are carried out by Don John. So, to some extent, the master-servant relation is reversed because we can see Don John accepting orders from Borachio when Borachio plans the second conspiracy against Claudio and Hero (Act II, Scene II).[13]
Although we do not see who plans the first plot
against
Claudio (when they tell him that Don Pedro is in love with
Hero), we do see
that it is Borachio the one that learns about Claudio and
Hero’s engagement
and goes to tell Don John in order to do something against it.
It is the
second time they want to do something against Claudio and
Hero’s marriage
when we clearly see that it is Borachio the one who comes up
with the
maliciuous plan. So, in a way, Borachio is the intelligent and
active man
whereas Don John is a passive character who does what Borachio
tells him to.
Borachio is as much wicked as Don John is, therefore, what he
plans always
has evil and negative consequences.
Furthermore, it can be said that, to some extent, Borachio
is taking advantage of his plans, since he ends up having sex
with Margaret,
Hero’s lady-in-waiting and we know that he has been in love
with her for a
year because he tells so to Don John (Act II scene II).[14]
Apart from that, he is supposed to get a thousand ducats if he
accomplishes
what he has to do to stop Claudio’s wedding plans. However, in
the end, as
this is a comedy and everything has to be sorted out, Borachio
is overheard
explaing to Conrade all the things that had happened and they
are accussed
of everything. In this case, we can see that John is, in some
way, more
intelligent than Borachio because he escapes from Messina,
supposedly when
he learns that Borachio has been caught. Nevertheless, as we
have said
before, this play has to have a happy ending and all the
villains have to
pay for what they have done, and thus John is caught at the end
of the play.
| THE PLAY SEEN WITHOUT DON JOHN |
Up to this stage, it will be interesting to
analyse what
would happen if Don John would not have been in the play. The
first thing
that probably comes to our minds is: how would Shakepeare have
created any
conflicts if Don John had not been in the play? In other words,
there would
have been any type of obstacles for the other characters if Don
John had not
been a villain? Personally, I do not think so. Consequently, it
can be said
that Don John is quite an important character for the
development of the
play and thanks to him, even though we hate him, the play is
more
interesting because if not everything would have been very easy
for the main
characters. They would have just fallen in love and get married
and there
would have been nobody to interrupt their plans. The only thing
that, maybe,
would have remain similar as it is, is Benedick and Beatrice
relationship,
since their relationship is not interfered by Don John.
On the other hand, as we are dealing with a comedy, the
happy ending would have remained the same, that is to say,
Claudio and Hero
would have got married anyway as well as Beatrice and Benedick
because that
is the final aim of the comedies, marriage in order to
procreate and make
life longer.
Regarding Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship, if Don John
had not been in the play, it may have become the main plot of
the play,
since the difficulty of clarifying all the problems would have
laid in
Beatrice and Benedick coming to terms with each other, since
they are
arguing along the entire play about insignificant things
because, of course,
they are insanely in love with each other even though they deny
so.
Therefore, this would have been the main conflict of the play,
and not
Claudio and Hero’s intended marriage. As a matter of fact,
Claudio and Hero
would have remained in the background since they would have
fallen in love
at first sight and get married.
Perhaps, in order to make the play more
appealing,
Shakespeare would have made Don Pedro fall in love with Hero
too, and they
would have had to fight or something in order to obtain her.
Because the
main problem would have been that Leonato would have prefered
Don Pedro to
Claudio to become her daughter’s husband, because Don Pedro is
a king.
However, Hero would have wanted Claudio because he would be
younger and more
handsome. Nevertheless, love would have won over reason and it
would have
been Claudio the one who had gained Hero in spite of Leonato’s
will.
| FEELINGS AND IMPORTANCE OF DON JOHN |
Now, we are going to make some comments about Don John’s importance in the play and about what his feelings are. According to Tom Stuart: ‘Don John is a bastard, an illegitimate son, and because of this he has been treated really badly all his life. He is desperate to rectify that and grab something for himself, and I like him for that. He has a reason for being evil.’[15] As he says ‘he has a reason for being evil’, he has not had the same opportunities as his brother has had due to his birth and, thus, he thinks life has not treated him well, he thinks noboby loves him and he sees the world from a very pessimistic point of view. As John Stuart says, Don John’s main line is: ‘In this though I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man it must not be denied that I am a plain dealing villain.’ (Act 1 Scene 3).[16] That is, according John Stuart, the line that best summarises the character of Don John. He knows he is a villain and he does want to be a villain and he is going to bring unhappiness to the people surrounding him, since as he is not happy he does not want people to be happy either.
From this point of view, we could say that Don
John is
rather selfish because instead of being happy for the success
of his brother
he has no positive feeling or any affection towards his brother
and the
people surrounding him. On the other hand, if we get to analyse
Don John’s
reasons for hating his brother, we can feel some sympathy
towards him, since
he has been denied being a king because he is a bastard child,
and that is
not his fault.
Another thing that is worth mentioning is how the other
characters see Don John. We have three examples in which
Beatrice, Hero and
Leonato talk about how Don John is. First of all Beatrice
says: ‘How tartly
that gentleman looks! I never can see him but I am heart-burned
an hour
after’.[17]
Secondly, Hero responds to her and says: ‘He is of a very
melancholy
disposition’[18]
and then Leonato says: ‘half Signor Benedick’s tongue in Count
Johns’ mouth,
and half Count John’s melancholy in Signor Benedick’s face’[19]
implying that Don John does not talk much, in fact, he does not
address to
these three people in the entire play, just at the beginning
when Leonato
welcomes him. Moreover, the three of them agree that he has a
very
melancholic appearance.
With reference to the importance of Don John in the play, we
could observe that Don John speaks forty times in the play and
the last time
he appears is in Act IV, scene I, at Claudio and Hero’s
catastrophic
wedding. Then, in the scene II of the same act, we learn for
the first time
that ‘Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away’
(Sexton).[20]
What significance has this got? This could mean that, as being
Don John a
second character, he is not so important as the other
characters in the play
and he only is important for the sublpot and once the subplot
has been
solved he is no longer necessary for the play. As a result, in
the last act
of the play he is absent and we just learn that he has been
caught when
escaping from Messina. Moreover, he speaks forty times and
compare to the
other characters of the play, as for example Claudio or
Benedick, he takes
very few turns of speech. In addition, most of the times he is
addressing
Borachio or Conrad and not the main characters.
| CONCLUSION |
To sump up, then, we can see that Don John’s character is quite an important piece in this play because even though we can easily get to hate him, he is, however, the one that raises up the conflict and complicates the play in order to be more elaborated. However, being a secondary character, he is not present in most parts of the play, even though we learn about what he does from the rest of the characters. This character, as we have seen, stands out from the rest of the characters due to his melacholy and pessimism, since as characters in a comedy are supposed to be surrounded by a joyful atmosphere, this is the only character that brings darkness and sadness to the play. Moreover, as stated before, in the end of the play he has to pay for what he has done and that is, actually, what happens.
Books:
- Carter, Ronald and McRae, John. ‘The Routledge History of Literature in English’. 2nd edition. London, 2001. ‘Shakespeare’ p. 79-94.
- Forés, Vicente. Curso Monográfico Literatura Inglesa: Shakespeare in Performance, 27 Nov. 2007.Academic year 2007- 2008.
- Wells, Stanley and Cowen Orlin, Lena. ‘ Shakespeare, An Oxford Guide’. Oxford University Press, 2003. USA.
Internet:
- Encyclopedia Britannica’s Guide to William Shakespeare, ‘Romantic Comedies’. 2 Oct. 2007
http://www.britannica.com/shakespeare/article- 232322
- McDonald, Russ. ‘Shakespeare with Tears’. Shakespeare, A Magazine for Teachers and Enthusiasts. University of North Carolina at Greensboro. 2 Oct. 2007.
http://www.shakespearemag.com/spring97/tears.asp
- “Shakespeare’s Globe Trust”, London 2007. 9 Oct. 2007
<http://www.shakespeares- globe.org/playingshakespeare/theplay/characters/donjohn/
- Snyder, Susan. ‘The Genre of Shakespeare’s Plays’. Cambridge University Press. 9 Oct. 2007
http://www.fathom.com/course/21701729/session4.html
- ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare”, Ed. Jeremy Hylton. Much Ado About Nothing. 19 Oct. 2007
<http://shakespeare.
mit.edu/much_ado/full.html
- TimeToTalk.org. ‘ Shakespeare’s Comedy vs. Tragedy. 19
Oct. 2007
http://www.field-of- themes.com/shakespeare/essays/Ecomvtrag.htm
Films:
- Much Ado About Nothing Dir. Branagh Kenneth. Perf. Branagh Kenneth, Keaton Michael, Beckinsale Kate, Reeves Keanu, Thompson Emma, Washington Denzel. 1993. Film
|