Much Ado about Nothing (Vol. 31) | Gender Issues
GENDER ISSUES
James Smith
SOURCE: "Much Ado about Nothing: Notes from a Book in Preparation," in Scrutiny, Vol. XIII, No. 4, Spring, 1946, pp. 242-57.
[In the following excerpt, Smith discusses the characterization of relationships between the citizens of Messina.]
It will be remembered that Coleridge chose Much Ado as an illustration of his famous 'fourth distinguishing characteristic' of Shakespeare, in accordance with which 'the interest in the plot' in the latter's plays 'is always in fact on account of the characters, not vice—versa … the plot is a mere canvass and no more'. And he went on to exemplify: '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 and his comrades forced into the service, when any other less ingeniously absurd watchmen and night—constables would have answered the mere...
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