Much Ado About Nothing Essay: Society

There is a strong suggestion that Shakespeare took elements of contemporary Venetian society into account in his imaginative construction of Messina, its local society and dominant values. Venice in Shakespeare's day was a leading commercial power, and, like Messina, it was a materially rich city in which attendance at masquerades was expected of all its leading figures. Even more to the point, Venice was known in Elizabethan times as a hotbed of intrigue and deception, a place in which outsiders could easily be fleeced by indigenous city-slickers. Messina too is full of plots and ploys, some benign in their aims, others malevolent in their purposes. At bottom, there is "something wrong" in Messina.

As noted elsewhere in this analysis of Much Ado, in Act I, scene i., not only does the legitimate Prince of Aragon, Don Pedro, appear on the stage with his loyal followers, his bastard brother Don John is there as well, along with a brace of demi-villains to assist him in further dirty work. Don Pedro explains that even though Don John has attempted to over turn his reign, the two are now reconciled. For Shakespeare's audiences, this would have sounded loud of alarums. Threats to the state by illegitimate usurpers had only one proper ending in Elizabethan society, the execution of the guilty. Seeing a defeated enemy of the state on stage, moving about freely and permitted to rub elbows with the local Messinians would be interpreted as a sign of weakness in the body politic. Under Leonato, Messina is a weak patriarchy, vulnerable to intrigue and disorder, with clowns like Dogberry assigned the task of safeguarding the public order. It is noteworthy that once Don Pedro has explained his "reconciliation" with Don John, no further word is said about the rebellion that the later has presumably led. Instead, war, even civil war, is treated by the victors and their hosts as a gentlemanly pursuit, a sport in which individuals distinguish themselves, rather than a serious political crisis.

Ceremony and custom predominate in Messina. With the possible exception of Beatrice, an elaborate social code of behavior defines and constrains all of the characters in the play. Claudio turns over the wooing of Hero to Don Pedro not because he thinks that the much older man has greater romantic charms than himself, but because Don Pedro is equal in rank with Leonato and can therefore better meet the customary obligation of requesting the governor's permission for his daughter to wed. Indeed, even the mature Benedick must seek out Leonato's blessing before marrying Beatrice, the patriarch's niece.

There is a narcissistic self-centeredness infused throughout the Messina of Shakespeare's Much Ado. The "hero soldiers" of Don Pedro's cause are given to florid, self-congratulatory rhetoric. Indeed, ornate, artificial and stilted language is the common verbal currency of Messina. The text of the play is replete with antithesis, alliteration, puns, euphemisms, repetitions, and word-patterns. The imagery of Much Ado is also artificial and tends toward the prosaic and the conventional, e.g., as in the "clothes" motif, rather than the strikingly imaginative. What people say and, above all, how they say it, counts heavily in Leonato's court. Indeed, one reason that both Beatrice and Benedick are held in such high regard stems from their capacity for verbal wit. On the bottom of the social hierarchy, Dogberry plugs away, trying to use "big words" over which he has no command or even comprehension.

Social rank and money figure large in Messina. Claudio may be immediately smitten by Hero, yet his inquiry about whether her father has a son and, hence, a male heir, fleshes out the welcome fact that Hero will inherit her father's estate. In Act V, Leonato seals the marriage of Claudio to a fictitious niece by mentioning that she too comes equipped with a suitable dowry. Indeed, one of the reasons that Claudio and Don Pedro react so negatively to the sight of Hero (actually Margaret) taking a lover (actually Borachio) is that they feel that they have been "cheated" in a marriage "bargain."

Against this social backdrop of hypocrisy, some characters do distinguish themselves. Beatrice and, to a lesser extent, Benedick, remain apart from Messinian society. Their non-conformity is, in fact, a virtue. Friar Francis is also outside of Messina's highly secularized culture by virtue of his clerical vocation and his good sense. What ails Messina, however, can be cured by the introduction of a counterweight to curb unrestrained male egotism. Thus, not only would Don Pedro and the (presumed) widower Leonato benefit from having a female partner, Messina itself is in evident need of feminine charity and concern for others.