Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
essays about beatrice in much ado about nothing
love as the subject matter of much Ado about nothing
how does shakespeare portray love in much ado about nothing
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: essays about beatrice in much ado about nothing
Lovers of Messina in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
Figuratively speaking, there are several ears propped to a door, eavesdropping on a conversation pivotal to Shakespeare's comedy, Much Ado About Nothing; a story about love; real, new and pretended, that began before the messenger arrives with his news. Two very different couples cling to each other or push one another away during five acts of masked balls, sighing under balconies, hysterics, a make-shift death and resurrection, attempts to compose poetry and finally, a feast. The lovers of Messina: innocent Hero, fiery Beatrice and their gallant knights, weak Claudio and comic Benedict stumble through abundant trickery, taking very different paths to reach the same goal: a happily-ever-after ending.
Hero, though one of the main characters of the play is a silent presence for the entire First and Second Acts, given a voice only when others speak about or for her. She is first introduced not by name, but as "the daughter of Signior Leonato", described by Claudio as a "modest young lady" and "the sweetest lady I ever laid mine eyes upon". Hero is described by everyone as beautiful, kind and gentle. Always she was the dutiful daughter. When her father, Leonato, instructs Hero that she must consent to a wedding proposal by Don Pedro, a man she barely knows, she happily agrees. Leonato says, "Daughter remember that I told you. If the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know the answer."
In truth, Hero and her father realize later, she had not conceded to marrying Don Pedro, but Claudio. Her willingness to transport her hand from one man to another shows that it is not in her own interests that she acts, shows that her happiness is not as important as her father's wil...
... middle of paper ...
... exchange personalities with respect to our heroines, Hero and Beatrice. While Bene*censored* loves Beatrice, writes poetry for her and attempts to woo her, Claudio scorns Hero though with real anger and not the mock anger shared by Beatrice and Bene*censored*. The two female protagonists do not exchange personalities but rather situations; Beatrice no had a new love and the prospect of marriage, while it no longer seemed that Hero would ever be married.
We can imagine the lives of the lovers of Messina as they were before the play began and we can infer how they will be when the last curtain closes; it could be a happy scene. Claudio has wronged Hero, killed her; out of her death and rebirth there might be a new love. Beatrice and Bene*censored* may very well talk themselves mad but they do share a real love, one that arose from the ashes of a pretended love.
Comparing Shakespeare's Presentation of the Love Between Claudio and Hero with that Between Beatrice and Benedick
True love is a bond shared by few and dreamed of by everyone. The appearance of a relationship may not accurately depict the true reality of the situation. The bond between Claudio and Hero appears far stronger than that of Beatrice and Benedict, yet events of the play provide evidence for the converse. In Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing, the masked emotions of two couples are evoked through subterfuge.
The title of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing has sparked scholarly debates about its meaning for centuries. Some say it is a play on the term “noting”, revolving around the theme of all sorts of deceptions by all sorts of appearances (Rossiter 163). Others claim it has more to do with everyone making a fuss about things that turn out to be false, therefore, nothing (Vaughn 102). Regardless of these speculations, there is something rather profound going on in the play that is worth making a big deal about: four characters in the play learn about love, and eventually, how to love.
Shakespeare’s introduction of the other couple in question is in stark contrast to the way in which Beatrice and Benedick were introduced. Claudio and Hero are amorously receptive to one and other from the very start. Upon laying eyes on Hero, Claudio remarks of her to Benedict “is she not a modest young lady?” (1.1.125). Clearly, by having Claudio express his fondness of Hero to Benedick, the playwright directly compares the older and more cynical to the more young and naive, allowing the reader to see the contrasting personas of the two men. This is reinforced by Benedick, who after finishing listening to Claudio’s rhetoric on the charms of the young Hero (“in m...
The next day Claudio does exactly as he had said, degrading Hero in front of all her family and friends. Because she did not cheat on him, she did not expect that kind of reaction. She is so dejected that she faints, and everyone assumes she is dead. Eventually Borrachio is overheard talking about Don John’s plan, and Don John is arrested. Later Claudio learns that Hero is not actually dead, and they are finally married.
By the end of the play, we see Claudio’s transformation from being an immature, love-struck boy who believes gossip and allows himself to easily be manipulated grow into a mature young man who admits to his mistakes and actually has the capacity to love the girl he has longed for. The wedding dance of Claudio and Hero along with Beatrice and Benedict shows how order is now restored in the city of Messina, and order given to the life of Claudio.
Othello and Desdemona are so attractive that we tend to see them only as they see each other: the noble Moor, the pure white maiden. But Shakespeare shows their love, even here at the very beginning, as dreamy, utterly defensele...
Beatrice and Bene*censored* are adversaries united only in their contempt for marriage. Once the two finally let down their guard and allow their true feelings to blossom...
The play evokes an exemplified expression of frustration and love which we bottle in. With today’s technology, social media makes it harder for us to communicate to each other; it was a tool that was meant for us to easily connect to each other, but that is not the case. We hide behind it and we start to lose our ability to communicate to each other face to face, failing to reveal our true emotions to each other. We fail to notice this dilemma because our cultural norm has changed and it is acceptable for us to hide behind text messages instead exchanging words with our mouth’s. It was a part of the play when Beatrice and Signior Benedict tried to hide their love from each other. In the end of Much Ado About Nothing, both parties tried to hide behind their excuses claiming that they only loved one another because one was madly in love with the other. Signior Benedict was flushed out when one of his friends revealed his sonnet for Beatrice that truly came from his heart. Beatrice was uncovered by Hero the same way since Beatrice also professed her love to Signior Benedict in a piece of paper. Both of them never planned to read it to each other. In a way Shakespeare understood human emotions and interactions. His works is a necessity of the years to come. It shifts us back into the lost ways in the art of
When Benedick hears that Claudio has fallen in love for Hero, he is enraged. He thought that Claudio would live a bachelor’s life like him. Benedick tells him that men who are in love are not masculine. Near the end of Act IV, Benedick’s complete change is evident when Benedick chooses love over friendship. Benedick challenges Claudio, previously his closest friend in the world, to duel to the death over Claudio’s accusation as to Hero’s unethical behavior. After Beatrice complains to him about Claudio’s mistake, Benedick gives in, “Enough, I am engaged. I will challenge him.” At this point, there is no doubt that Benedick has switched his allegiances entirely over to Beatrice. But then again, Benedick was relieved that Hero was proved guilty so he would not have to fight his close friend Claudio.
Beatrice and Benedick seem to have had some relationship before the beginning of the book that ended badly. This suggests that the initial situation between Beatrice and Benedick was one of mutual attraction, not of the overt hate they seem to flaunt at the beginning of the play. Scorn of this magnitude is rare among people who dislike each other from the start, and seems very unlikely in a broken up couple. In addition, both Beatrice and Benedick turned out to be very willing to abandon their smear campaigns as soon as they are convinced the other is aching for them. It is ridiculous that one would abandon one's own principals to bail out a hated enemy in trouble. This makes clear that their attitude toward each other is an act. If this is so, what is the purpose of the act...
On the other hand, the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is very different from Hero and Claudio. Beatrice is a very outspoken, and witty woman with masculine features. Beatrice and Benedick are in love throughout the play, but are scared to admit it. They continuously insult each other in...
Shakespeare undoubtedly creates a coherent distinction between Beatrice and Hero, the two main female characters, in such a way that allows the audience to irrefutably note their differing dispositions. Hero, “a face without a voice” (Cook 8), is characterized by her passivity and inability to assert herself, whereas Beatrice, whose speech “might seem [like] a serious violation of Messina's conventions of gender” (Cook 7), is characterized by her witty and unconventional independence that ultimately delineates the sure separation between her and women of 16th Century Europe. Almost immediately, one can observe Beatrice's acerbic demeanor towards one of the main male characters, Signior Benedick. As the messenger is informing Beatrice...
Beatrice and Hero are both wonderful and intriguing characters. They develop in interesting ways and they represent two extremely different views of society and what it was like to be a woman in those patriarchal times.
In the play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, love is a very important and a consistent theme; which the play is based on. The theme if love is important because, from a very young age people feel love. We want to know what love is. Where does it come from? How do I get it? What does it feel like? When will I have it? What do I need to have love? Love is something we wait for. We imagine our first kiss. Our first “I love you.” Our first heartbreak. The truth is love is made up of many things: Pain, Joy, Compassion, understanding, longing, and tears. Shakespeare uses the notion of love to show how important trust and loyalty are in any relationship.