COMMENTARY

Dogberry is a character who is completely misunderstood  by both the other characters within the play and also by critics. Coleridge said " Take away from Much Ado all that which is not indispensable to the plot, either as having little to do with it, or at best, like Dogberry what remains? the implication is nothing, or almost nothing. The play as a whole has no purpose- that is has no unity.” However it seems obvious that Coleridge has failed to understand the concept of Dogberry as a character, he is used in Much Ado to provide an essential effort of comic relief at times where the narrative strays to far into the tragic genre, rather, scenes with Dogberry are used when the previous scenes events need a release of tension- Dogberry being the fool discontinues the previous scenes descent into tragedy by applying various comedic conventions stereotypical to the stock character of ‘the fool’. Note that we do not observe  Claudio witnessing ‘Hero’s Deceit’ which would otherwise be a key scene within the play. Instead, we learn of the deception through a drunken Borachio met with the Idiocy and misunderstanding of Dogberry. If the scene was exchanged with the deception of Claudio then our perceptions of the play would be completely changed; instead of laughing at Dogberrys repeated malapropisms we would instead witness darker themes set through Don John. Yes the characters Dogberry and Verges hold no unity with the other characters within the play but this does not make their role insignificant and pointless, achieving comic relief needs characters uninvolved within the main plot of the play else the same substantial release of tension would not be achieved. For example, if we used Benedick to establish comic relief we would not be able to stray from the main events which caused the tension previously (Benedick being a main character would not be able to be detached from the plays main story). Dogberry and the watchmen having no unity with the rest of the play allow us to step away from the tension as they hold no relation to the main plot points, so, can pursue a secondary plot without any tension.

Coleridge continues “any other less ingeniously absurd watchmen and night constables would have answered the mere necessitates of the action” However Coleridge’s separation of the character and plot and led him to misunderstand Dogberry’s purpose; the character is a clear example of ‘the fool’ a classic conventional character in Comic writing. It seems ignorant to criticize the characters necessity within the play when he is just an extension of the stock characters within the genre. Instead of laughing a Benedick’s witticism instead we utilize the ‘superiority theory’ and laugh at Dogberry’s inability to communicate the true nature of his words. In Act II Sc IV he uses the phrase ‘I am an ass’ with the meaning to tell whomever that he has been called an ass, and is not happy with this. However, his phrasing makes it apparent that he is proclaiming himself as ‘an ass’ and we the audience making use of dramatic irony, as we know what the character means to say we feel superior, which we laugh at; thus implementing the ‘superiority theory’. His misuse of speech furthers in his constant malapropisms "Marry, sir, i would have some confidence with you that decerns you dearly " the character means to say concerns; this misuse of language sends the scenes conversation into continuous non-contextual prose to keep away from the serious sub-text running throughout the scenes. I incorporate the same style into my scene with the misuse of  ‘pigment’ which subsequently spirals into a meaningless conversation where Dogberry assumes Don John has given him a compliment, which ironically he replaces with ‘condiment’. This misuse of language reflects on the plays theme of power behind language, rather Don John admits ‘if he had a mouth he would bite’ – Don John lacks the power of language so feels he has no power. Dogberry, however, seems to posses the ability of speech but lacks the application, in act III sc IV Dogberry attempts to communicate to Leonato in an attempt to express what Don John and Borachio have done, except he wishes to express it in a way to present himself as excessively successful and intelligent, ironically, it is his overwhelmed idiocy and constant use of malapropisms which prevent him in getting his point across.