Beatrice and Benedick in Acts one and two vs. Hero and Claudio in Much Ado about Nothing

The two sets of characters Beatrice and Benedick, and Hero and Claudio are two very different sets of people, however they have one thing in common, there is love between each couple. During acts one and two, we are shown how different Beatrice is to her cousin Hero, how similar Beatrice and Benedick are and how similar Hero and Claudio.

When you first meet Beatrice and Hero, act one scene one, they have just heard from a messenger boy of the soldiers imminent return to their household. Immediately Beatrice asks about the whereabouts of one Signor Mountanto. Only Hero knows who that she means Signor Benedick of Padua. You then instantly learn that there is some history between Benedick and Beatrice, Leonato explains,

?You must not, sir, mistake my niece: there is a kind of merry war betwixt Signor Benedick and her: they never meet but there?s a skirmish of wit between them? This tells you straightaway that there is a connection between the two, but so far we do not hear more. So far, Beatrice has spoken a lot and Hero we have only heard from once to correct the name Beatrice gives to the messenger. Beatrice teases the messenger boy about Benedick, until Beatrice?s uncle tells the messenger about the ?merry war?. It seems that Beatrice is an example of how a women shouldn?t behave around men where as Hero is showing how to be a ?proper? lady by keeping quiet until asked for. Beatrice is presented as a very passionate person, whilst Shakespeare has presented Hero as a meek, timid woman, in fact Hero only speaks one line.

You finally meet the soldiers, including Claudio and Benedick, later in Act one, Scene 1. When the soldiers do come in Claudio does not say anything until he is on his own with his friend Benedick. In this way he is very like Hero, he doesn?t say anything as it is not needed, he does not add to conversation. In fact when he does speak, you see a passionate side to him come out as he tells of his liking of Hero, in this way he is very like Beatrice as he has a very passionate personality, although he, unlike Beatrice, keeps it under wraps. When you first hear Benedick speak, he in conversation with Leonato and Don Pedro but by the 3rd time that you hear him speak, he has already engaged into a heated conversation with Beatrice.