Much Ado About Nothing Act 1 Character Foil

In every book ever made there are always at least two characters that are the opposites of each other, these opposites create what is called a character foil. In William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, there is an abouis character foil: Friar Francis and Dogberry. Once the reader has read the play they can understand that the main problem is that Don John wants to sabotage the marriage of Count Claudio and Hero. After Dogberry tries- and fails with his limited understanding of words- to tell Leonato that Don John, Borachio, and Conrad are trying to sabotage his Daughter’s wedding; it was up to the Friar to come up with a plan to help redeem Hero’s reputation. Luckily the Friar’s plan worked and everyone has an happily ever after. Friar

He is trying to help others improve their relationships and to share his wisdom. According to pages 71-72, the Friar is trying to devise a plan to save Hero’s marriage, but by using his wisdom and intellect he was able to speculate that there was a misunderstanding between the princes. He muttered to the others, “There is some strange misprision in the princes…. Pause awhile, and let my counsel sway you in the case. Your daughter here the princes left for dead. Let her awhile be secretly kept in, and publish it that she is dead indeed. Maintain a mourning ostentation, and on your family’s old monument hand mournful epitaphs, and do all rites that appertain unto a burial.” As the reader can tell from the quote, Friar Francis is a man full of logic and a passion to support others when they are in need. He wants to put Hero’s marriage back on schedule and give the princes the push they need to understand that what they did was wrong. Plays and books often have a hidden meaning, let’s find the meaning of this

Shakespeare believes that the law enforcement is very weak and that the church holds the wisdom and intelligence. As stated earlier, on page 63 Dogberry confirmed that they had “...indeed comprehended two auspicious persons.” His lack of understanding the meaning of words makes him and his “watch” look like fools. This signifies that Shakespeare is convinced that the law enforcement in England does a very poor job. As we also saw being stated earlier, on pages 71-72, that the Friar is a man of wisdom and that he only looks out for the well-being of others. With his knowledge on perception he realises that the princes are not acting like themselves that something seems ‘fishy’. He comes up with a genius plan, “Pause awhile, and let my counsel sway you in the case. Your daughter here the princes left for dead. Let her awhile be secretly kept in, and publish it that she is dead indeed. Maintain a mourning ostentation, and on your family’s old monument hand mournful epitaphs, and do all rites that appertain unto a burial.” From this plan we can tell that Shakespeare thinks highly of the church staff and believes that they are passionate in everything that they do. After all the information that we have discussed today, we can see that Shakespeare’s characters hold a double meaning- they reflect the way he saw England. His plays were a way that he could describe the political issues that were