Much Ado About Nothing Character Flaws

A character flaw is something about a character that ends up creating issues either all throughout the story or just at a certain part. There are a lot of character flaws in the Shakespearean play Much Ado About Nothing, but nothing comes close to Claudio’s main flaw. He was too quick to trust Don John. Every time he tricked him, it lead to terrible consequences. His naive nature towards everything that was going on by the marriage scene and beyond being his greatest character flaw.

Don John is known to be an untrustworthy man and the people in the story know of his ability to deceive others like a trickster. In Act 1, Scene 3, we learn that Don John himself thinks that he would “...rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his/grace” (Shakespeare

John said that “...the lady is disloyal” (49). Claudio was in disbelief, saying things like “Who, Hero?” and “Disloyal?” showing that he was very confused about all of this. That was until John said that he could show Claudio that it was true. Claudio agreed to go out one night with a few others. The group was lead by Don John who was showing them Borachio and another woman making love rather than Hero and another man. Claudio believed what he saw and so did everyone else so yet again, Don John had succeeded in tricking them into thinking that someone else was doing something bad. This ended up with Claudio making the biggest mistake in the entire play. In Act 4, Scene 1, Claudio and Hero are getting married officially until Claudio says he won’t marry Hero. He then goes into a huge tantrum, saying things like “Not to be married, not to knit my soul to an approved wanton” (66) and in the end Hero faints. The people that were left there made a plan to make it seem like Hero died so that Claudio’s love, as shown when the Friar says “She dying-as it must be so maintain’d-” (72) for her would be rekindled and he would love her again. This plan ends up working, but only after Claudio goes through so much to show his