Act III sc III

Comic Relief

MALAPROPISM. IDIOCY. FARCE.

n. A humorous or farcical interlude in a serious literary work or drama, especially a tragedy, intended to relieve the dramatic tension or heighten emotional impact by contrast

Coleridge's criticism of this scene. 

" 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 we could argue against Coleridges critic opinion, for the scene is not entirely pointless. Yes the characters have no unity compared towards the others in the play, but this scene itself is an example where Comic Relief has been used to release the tension given by the previous scene. Rather without this scene Much Ado would seem to fall into a tragedy more than a comedy- it is significant that we see this scene instead of Borachios trickery in that it follows the plays light hearted values- the input of the dark scene would completely alter out perception of the comedy, without the release of tension the dark themes would prevail over the purpose (lighthearted feelgood wit etc)

He continues " any other less ingeniously absurd watchmen and night constables would have answerd the mere necessities of the action" (to big a comparison, basically. the character is crap)

However Coleridges separation of character from plot has caused him to mis interpret and ignore the purpose of the scene. To release tension, plus, the characters are not fault of bad characterisation, rather they are perfect examples of "the idiot"

Dogberry and his men show a problem for social idealisms. as they are lower class (apart from margaret the only lower class characters) it presents the lower class as moronic and idiotic. More so, however, as they are essentially policeman it generalises as the authoritive force as , also, moronic and idiotic. Presenting an argument to be raised outside of the play, to quote the greeks " who watches the watchmen " ? if the Police are morons, how are we safe?

Dogberry utters many malaprops because he attempts to sound authoritative, but instead furthers his idiotic appearance. "For the watch to babble and talk is most tolerable "

"you shall comprehend all vagrom men" ( apprehend, vagrant )

His primary concern seems to be to keep out of harms way, as to not arrest any thief's but to announce " i knew he was a thief" he is obviously cowardly but believes he is authoritative and correct through his (attempted) authoritative speech. However he is let down by continuos malaprops.

The watchmen then understand Borachio has fooled claudio by sleeping with Margaret in Heros dorm, under Don Johns command.