Overhearing, plotting, and misunderstanding occur frequently in Much Ado About Nothing, as characters constantly eavesdrop or spy on other characters. Occasionally they learn the truth, but more often they misunderstand what they see or hear, or they are tricked into believing what other people want them to believe. In these scenes, Antonio’s servant and Don John’s associate both overhear the same conversation between Don Pedro and Claudio, but only Borachio understands it correctly, while Antonio’s servant (and, consequently, Antonio himself) misunderstand. He carries this incorrect information onward, first to Leonato and then to Hero.
It appears that Don John has no strong motive for the villainy he commits and that his actions are inspired by a bad nature, something he acknowledges fully: “though I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but I am a plain-dealing villain” (I.iii.23–25). Yet, the fact that Don John is Don Pedro’s bastard brother—that he is of a much lower station than Don Pedro and possesses little chance of rising in society because of his bastard birth—suggests that there is more to his behavior than his evil character. He most likely resents Don Pedro, the most powerful figure in the play’s social hierarchy, for claiming the authority and social superiority of a legitimate heir. His jealousy of his brother’s success is most likely what drives him to wreak havoc on Claudio and Don Pedro. His insistence on honesty in this scene might appear admirable, but he lies to many people later on, casting his statements here about being harmless into doubt.
To understand Don John’s claim of natural evil, we should remember that he stands in a very difficult position. As the illegitimate brother (or half-brother) of Don Pedro, Don John is labeled “the Bastard.” Illegitimate sons of noblemen found themselves in a tricky position in Renaissance England. Often, their fathers acknowledged them and gave them money and an education, but they could never be their fathers’ real heirs, and they were often excluded from polite society and looked upon with disdain. In plays, bastard sons were sometimes admired for their individualism, enterprise, and courage, but in Shakespeare’s works, their anger about their unfair exclusion often inspires them to villainy. Like Edmund in Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear, Don John seems to be a villain at least in part because he is a bastard, and like Edmund he is determined to cross his legitimate brother in any way that he can.
In Much Ado About Nothing, Don John is in the difficult position of having to behave well and court favor with his more powerful brother, Don Pedro, while at the same time being excluded from the privileges Don Pedro enjoys because of his illegitimacy. Don John is bitter about the restrictions imposed upon him: “I am trusted with a muzzle, and enfranchised with a clog. Therefore I have decreed not to sing in my cage” (I.iii.25–27). He complains, in essence, that he is not trusted at all and not given any freedom; he rails against the constraints of his role, refusing to “sing” in his “cage,” or make the best of things. Instead, he seems to want to take out his frustrations by manipulating and hurting other people for his own amusement. Don John’s claim that he hates Claudio because he is jealous of Claudio’s friendship with his brother seems questionable; it seems more likely that Don John simply hates anyone happy and well liked and thus wants to exact a more general revenge upon the world.
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