The importance of Humour in the play "Much Ado about Nothing"

Humour; is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. The majority of people are able to experience humour, i.e., to e amused, to laugh or smile at something funny and therefore they are considered to have a sense of humour. In the play Much Ado about Nothing humour is a very important theme due to the face that this play is a comedy. The play used minor characters to bring across major themes in the play, minor characters such as Dogberry a constable.

Dogberry is a constable, appointed by the governor of Messina to keep the peace and organize the night watchmen. In face he is the Elizabethan equivalent of a policeman, though he seems rather unsure of his duties. His mixed-up thinking is reflected in his language; he mixes up words, it is therefore surprising that it is Dogberry, in his slow, bumbling way, along with his colleagues manages to bring the perpetrators to justice. Dogberry arrived in Act 3 of the play, but his arrival was viewed as unnecessary since Dogberry would misuse words and phrases, for example he thinks of “tedious” as a compliment and confusing “damnation” with “redemption”; which in return showed the audience that he was helpless in solving the crime.

Because of Dogberry’s constant mistakes, is where the play got its spark because this shows that even in schemes there can be humour found in it. Humour was also used as foreshadow for various events to come in the book and also the main idea of the play, because everyone was being involved in a lot of ruckus but in the end there was really nothing. The presence of humour ease the tense mood in the play, this was done by Dogberry and his men, because due to their constant mistakes, creates a sense of relief to break the chain of tragic events.