Benedick and Beatrice's Love in Much Ado About Nothing

Entry 1: Act I:

Don Pedro and his men return from the war and visit the house of Leonato and his brother, Antonio. This sudden meeting reunites Beatrice with her archrival, Benedick, and it is here that Claudio and Hero fall in love.

React:

In Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, there are the usual characters that show up in most of Shakespeare’s pieces. For instance the characters Hero and Claudio could easily be compared to Romeo and Juliet. Both Hero and Juliet are innocent, quite, and beautiful young women who fall in love instantly without conversing with the other person. Likewise, Claudio and Romeo decide to marry these women within twenty-four hours. Because of these characters’ lack of unique and interesting qualities, I am intrigued by Beatrice.

Beatrice is by far the best character Shakespeare created; because of how effortlessly she lightens the mood. Beatrice is gifted with wit, humor, and strength uncommon in Shakespeare’s time. One can tell Beatrice’s drollness is at its best when speaking about or to Benedick. When Benedick greets her as “Lady Disdain” (I.i.109), she snaps, “Is it possible disdain should die, while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence” (I.i.110-113). Instead of taking offense, she welcomes the name and essentially tells Benedick that she acts contemptuous only because she’s talking to him. She adds that she’s agreeable with everyone, with him as an exception. Benedick retorts that she’s lucky that she doesn’t love him like all the other women he knows, because he loves no one especially not her. Beatrice responds, “A dear happiness to women, they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. ...

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...r it’s Hero and both the couples are happily married.

Create:

The painting that I created is an abstract depiction of fire. Benedick and Beatrice’s love is like fire because it can’t be tamed or put out. They both try to hide the kindling of their affection for each other to no avail. Even after they initially confessed to each other they both tried to douse their feelings and completely denied ever having loved the other. Despite this, their friends revealed their secret letters and the flames rekindled burning fiercer and brighter than ever before. Therefore they can only let it grow with fiery passion and succumb to their emotions and get married just like their friends planned.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Much Ado about Nothing. Ed. Paul Werstine, Barbara A. Mowat, and Gail Kern. Paster. New York: Simon &ump; Schuster Paperbacks, 1995. Print.