In the play Much Ado about Nothing humour does indeed play a vital role. In the sense of its characters in pertinence to Dogberry and his constable though playing minor roles provide humour to the comedy showing in fact as the plays name there is really a lot of much ado about a false accusation. Through their stupidity they bring forward the evil conspiracy in the form of good humour.
The character Dogberry with the use of his constable uncovers the plot quite by mistake. Though not very intelligent, Dogberry sets about to hire watchmen and chooses one base on him being able to read and write. As he states in Act 3 scene 3 that it is vanity that the watchman knows how to read and write. The unintelligence but humour is shown in his choice of words ‘ you are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the Constable of the watch’ (Act 3 scene 3), the word senseless should be in fact sensible stating the man to be the best man for the job. Dogberry is used as the character to create that set stage for humour in the play Much Ado about Nothing.
Humour is a very important part of the play, it is used to show that even in a conspiracy there is humour in it. The character Dogberry uses many ways to humour his audience creating for the reader a pleasant experience. The character Dogberry uses the word ‘vigitant’ which he is actually saying to the watches to be vigilant in their watching of Leonato’s gate because a wedding would be there and there would be a ‘great coil tonight’. From this it could be seen that it was a foreshadow of Claudio going to shame Hero at the wedding the next day. The use of humour set the stage to show that in Much Ado about Nothing, the crime that was committed was really nothing that fools could solve it better then a person of intelligence.
The use of humour plays a vital role in Much Ado about Nothing. It shows significance in the fact that it is used to show the main idea of the play which was a lot of fuss over absolutely nothing and it was also used as a foreshadow to the events that were coming in the book.
