Prejudice

As we finish with our unit on Much Ado About Nothing, consider what stereotypes (racial, class, gender, etc.) are present in the play and how they effect your interpretation of the events portrayed. Do you think Shakespeare believed in the stereotypes he presented or do you feel he was attempting to teach his audience a lesson about misjudging others or about forcing people to conform to tradition? Your intial POST is due on 1-17-08 and your comments on other's blogs are due on 1-23-08.


Nearly all of Shakespeare's plays contain some form of a stereotype. This play focuses on the stereotype that all bastards are evil. Either your legitimate or your existance is worthless. Don John the Bastard is the villain of the play. I believe that Shakespeare is using hyperbole in order to show people just how far we go with our stereotypes. First, Don John attempts to hurt his brother by telling Claudio how Don Pedro has stolen Hero, "I heard him swear his affection" (II.1.160). Don John's initial plan fails, so he devises a scheme to insult Hero. He tells Claudio that she is disloyal, and lays out a plan so that Claudio will believe it, "Even she--Leonato's Hero, your Hero, every man's Hero" (III.2.95-96). Shakespeare is clearly making fun of our sterotypes.

Shakespeare shows us what our prejudging does when he shows how Don John's treatment leads to his behavior. Don John is always treated as a lesser and he seeks revenge for this treatment. Perhaps if Pedro/Pedro's father/Claudio... treated him better (as an equal), none of this would have happened. Shakespeare does is this in the Merchant of Venice too, where Shylock is so mistreated that he is driven to demand a pound of flesh from a man who could not pay what he owed. In this play, and in most of his plays, Shakespeare exagerates our stereotypes so that we may see our faults.