Much Ado About Nothing

Don John is Don Pedro’s bastard (illegitimate) brother and the villain of the play. From opening act, there is a certain malevolence to John – he is often dressed entirely in funereal black and admits that “I am not of many words,” creating the impression of sullen brooding in contrast to the other nobles’ loquacious banter.

 

Unlike the villains in Shakespeare’s tragedies, Don John has no complex motive apart from envy for his brother’s social authority. As a bastard, he has no inheritance or power, meaning he must rely on his cunning to make his way in the world. He seems to have a history of treachery: Conrade tells him that “you have lately stood out against your brother, and he hath ta’en you newly into his grace.” Don John’s jealousy, however, remains: he remarks that “it better fits my blood to be disdained of all, than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any.” Here, we see his natural misanthropy: he sees love as something stolen, rather than earned or given freely.

 

In a play full of contented, benevolent characters, Don John is a walking darkness, the matchbreaker to his brother’s matchmaker. In the scenes leading up to Hero’s slander, he is carefully ambiguous: he teases Don Pedro and Claudio, his victims, with half-truths and innuendo, playing on their latent fears of cuckoldry. By creating the scene at the window, he sets up an impossible choice between spoiled love and intact honour, rushing Claudio into trusting the ‘evidence’ of his eyes above any rational judgement. At the height of his pyrrhic victory, he taunts Hero, calling her “pretty lady” and mocking her “misgovernment.”

 

Don John’s absence from the end of the play is somewhat ambiguous. It could be an auspicious sign: the villains are arrested and absent so the central characters can join hands in a merry dance and enjoy a fairytale ending. Nevertheless, his darkness remains, lurking as yet unpunished outside this merry circle, a sinister reminder that love can be manipulated and betrayed.