ABSTRACT
Much Ado About Nothing defines comic error in relationship to Messina’s governing social conventions, which are in turn frequently identified with the concept of “fashion” and “fashioning.” In contrast, the play represents social convention as a virtuous mean in behaviour. This mean is initially defined by Don Pedro, Leonato, and Claudio, and deviated from by Beatrice, Benedick, and Don John. Yet Don John’s hoaxes soon upset these representatives, as Claudio’s romantic conventionality and Leonato’s conventional hopes for his daughter lead them to vicious extremes of behaviour. In contrast, Don Pedro’s hoax corrects Beatrice’s and Benedick’s initial extremes of social unconventionality by triggering their own self-awareness, a self-awareness opposite to Leonato’s and Claudio’s self-ignorance. Different from Much Ado, Measure for Measure locates comic error in the degree of dissonance between a character’s reason and emotion. Angelo’s excessive study has led to his emotional hardness as a magistrate, while Isabella’s rigid moralism results in the emotional excess of her response to Claudio. The play keeps these potentially tragic errors comic by putting Angelo and Isabella into awkward opposition and by making their errors the objects of the Duke’s hoaxes. His hoaxes integrate comic error into the plot in a Jonsonian way, providing scenarios for these errors to manifest themselves.
