The Character of Don John in Much Ado About Nothing
William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy in which he uses one of his more peculiar villains. The antagonist in this play is Don John, the bastard brother of Don Pedro. In this paper I will discuss the role of Don John as well as his motives and the character himself. I will also delve into Shakespeare's use of Don John as the antagonist. I will be comparing Don John to other characters in the play as well as to other villains in Shakespeare's works. While Don John does not spend a great deal of time on the stage in Much Ado About Nothing, he still plays a vital role in the plot of the play. The plan that he sets in motion is one of the two main stories within the play (the battle of wit between Beatrice and Benedict being the other).
Don John, as I mentioned before, is the bastard brother of Don Pedro. His illegitimacy is one of the factors that makes him altogether vile and hateful. He is bitter because of his social standing and at the beginning of the play is directly bitter and jealous of Claudio. We might find some reasoning into why Don John hates Claudio by what he says when speaking to Barrachio and Conrade in the first act. When finding out about Don Pedro's plot to help Claudio win the hand of Hero, Don John says:
"Come, come; let us thither: this may prove food to my displeasure. That young start up hath all the glory of my overthrow: if I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way." (Shakespeare 16)
While Shakespeare never actually distinguishes specific motives for Don John's hatred of Claudio, we can infer one of two possibilities from his use of the word "overthrow". The overthrow he refers to could be a military overthr...
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... in the face to Don John.
The character Don John is not a very complicated character. He is not a character that gets very much time on the stage either. You cannot deny, however, that he is one of the most evil and twisted characters that Shakespeare has ever come up with. I think that Don John is the perfect villain in every aspect of the word.
Works Cited
Hunter, G.K. William Shakespeare: The Later Comedies. Great Brittian: Langman's Green & Co. Ltd. 1962
Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. Cambridge: At the University Press 1962
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. 1963
Shkespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. New Haven: Yale University Press 1917
Spivack, Bernard. Shakespeare and the Allegory of Evil. New York: Columbia University Press 1958
First, Don John want to retaliate Claudio just because that Claudio hath all of Don John’s glory. After Claudio get glory in the battle, Don John begin to retaliate Claudio in many ways. Claudio was very brave in the battle, and he got many glory and was award by Don Pedro. In the other side, Don John said, “come, come, let us thither: this may prove food to my displeasure. That young start-up hath all the glory of my overthrow: if I can cross him anyway, I bless myself every way (Act I: Scene III).” Jesus tells us that, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also (Matthew 5:38-39).” This means that we should forgive others, and
In Brave New World, there are three societies: the civilized society of Bernard and Mustapha Mond, the savage society of John and Linda, and the old society, which is not explicitly in the book but is described by the characters. These societies are vastly different. The old society is 20th century Western society; the civilized society creates people and conditions them for happiness and stability; and the savage society is very far behind the civilized society technologically, and is very religious. John is a very important character in the novel because he represents the link between all three of these societies.
Don John plays an essential role for nearly all of the trickery and deception in this play. He acts like a catalyst and an instigator for trouble, whose sole aim is to marmalize the love and happiness between Claudio and Hero. Shakespeare uses foreshadowing of Don John’s villainy to display the trickery and deception: ’It better fits my blood to be distained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any, in this, though I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle and enfranchized with a clog: therefore I have decreed not to sing in my cage. If I had my mouth, I would bite, if I had my liberty, I would do my liking.
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed Stephen Greenblatt, et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
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McDorment, Teddy. "More information about: William Shakespeare." BBC. N.p., 2002. Web. 13 Jan. 2014. .
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When being an illegitimate child like Don John, one begins to think of themselves the way people treat them. Therefore, when Don John acts in his villainous ways, one blame it on Don John or rather the people who made him feel that he is less than human. Don John believes that his only way to be acknowledged is to act in a way no one will forget, therefore he acts as the villain in Much Ado About Nothing, because that what society made him out to be.
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