Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

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Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing opens in a situation with a war that has just

ended. The men enter a "golden world" in Messina where the women are

already located. In this situation, people fail to take things

seriously causing the peace soon to turn into a war of words. Benedick

and Beatrice are the main examples of male/female rivalry that

converts into belligerent wordplay.

The first confrontation between Beatrice and Benedick appears in Act

One Scene One. Beatrice interrupts the conversation between Don Pedro

and Leonato (71-84) with her more lively language and Benedick

responds to that. She starts the conversation by pretending to ignore

Benedick. Beatrice tells him that 'nobody marks' him meaning that

nobody listens to him. Benedick replies straight away (88) in the same

offensive way 'Are you yet living?'. He also calls her 'Lady Disdain'

implying that she looks down on other people. The war of words starts

as they are picking up on each other's language. Beatrice takes into

account 'Disdain' and plays around with the word (89-91). Especially,

in lines 89-90, when she says 'meet food' she shows her skill in using

the language. The expression she chooses might have a couple of

different meanings: a) she might mean normal food such as meat - lamb

etc. b) Benedick is suitable food for her disdain 'meet'. She enjoys

using puns. She also might be playing around with the sounds: feed,

food; alliteration appears at this point. In line 92, Benedick thinks

of himself as an experienced ladies man and that all of them love him,

only Beatrice is the exception. This statement might imply that

Benedick would like Beatrice to fall in love with him as well. It

might also mean that there is something wrong with Beatrice. Benedick

also accepts the fact that he is a villain by saying that 'for truly'

he 'loves none'. The same idea is expressed in line 123 when he says

he is a 'professed tyrant'.

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