ABSTRACT
In Much Ado About Nothing’s first three acts, characters both feel and arouse only a mild form of indignation in the audience. Don Pedro and Leonato desire to moderate Beatrice and Benedick’s unconventionality, while this latter pair’s commentary regularly shows up the former pair’s conventional assumptions. In Act 4, though, indignation intensifies for both characters and audience in the wake of Don John’s hoax: Claudio’s and Leonato’s indignation at Hero is fuelled by self-interest, something mirrored by Dogberry’s indignation at Conrad, while Beatrice and Benedick’s indignation toward Claudio is tempered by pity, the opposite emotion, for Hero. In the end, Beatrice and Benedick’s acceptance of Claudio’s dubious repentance inadequately satisfies the indignation his have raised in the audience. In Measure for Measure, Angelo’s administration of justice and Isabella’s denunciation of Claudio are both motivated by a self-righteous indignation. While their indignation arouses an equivalent response in the audience, Shakespeare keeps it carefully in check by making the Duke aware of the dramatic situation and by the fun he regularly makes of Isabella’s and Angelo’s self-righteousness. The Friar-Duke’s hoaxes exacerbate the pair’s indignation in an attempt to elicit from them pity for others’ weaknesses, something Angelo fails to show, but Isabella succeeds at in an unexpected way by pleading for Angelo’s life.
