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The orchard scenes, along with the scenes involving The Watch, are a major source of humour in the play. Eavesdropping leads to Beatrice's and Benedick's most hilarious lines and Dogberry's continued misunderstandings and malapropisms help soften the tone of the play as they follow the more sinister sections. Dogberry's insistence on others noting that Conrade called him an ass is especially funny: .
"Oh that I had been writ down an ass" (4. 2. 70-71). .
The audience enjoys the irony that Dogberry has been "writ down an ass" - by Shakespeare himself. The Watch's inability to reveal what they have correctly noted, however, also adds to the tension of the play. Hero's shame could have been avoided. Noting is one of the plays main preoccupations, and making observation integral to the plot demonstrates and emphasises its importance. .
Because noting/observing has such importance in Messina (and, by implication, Elizabethan society), manipulation and deception are used by the dark forces in the play to exercise power and control. Don John is a stock Elizabethan villain whose intention is to harm all those involved in his downfall - especially Claudio. Twice he tries to convince Claudio that Hero favours another. These episodes both involve deception and slander and this malevolence distorts Claudio's perception of the events. Both times Claudio notes incorrectly and his willingness to believe falsehoods and attribute blame - first to beauty ("for beauty is a witch" 2. 1. 135), then to Hero's base nature ("savage sensuality" 4.1. 135) - also point to self-deception about love, honour and women. Claudio's failure to distinguish appearance from reality is brought about by his romantic idealism. Hero becomes an illusion in which all womanly virtue and beauty are contained ("Can the world buy such a jewel" 1.1.108-109). He can not note Hero's flesh and blood humanity and, later, he can not note her innocence.