Benedick's Changing Character in William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

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Benedick's Changing Character in William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

During the play "Much Ado About Nothing", Benedick's character changes

dramatically towards certain aspects of life, namely in his attitude

towards women and love. At the beginning of the play Benedick is

portrayed as an experienced soldier and a knowledgeable scholar but

with little interest in women, love, and marriage; a partly formed

Renaissance man. His friends were mainly his army colleagues those

whom, he had fought alongside when at war. However, as the play

progresses, we see him become easily influenced by others and his

attitude towards life change, thus displaying his 'giddy' character.

In the first scenes of this play, Benedick and Beatrice seem to have

formed an instant hatred for one another; Beatrice seems to know of

Benedick before he even arrives in Messina. Beatrice warns Messina

about Benedick, so when Benedick arrives in Messina, everybody has an

idea of what Beatrice thinks he is like, so they do not have very high

opinions of him. We notice as the first few scenes take place that

there is a large amount of witty repartee going on between them.

"And a good soldier to a lady, but what is he for a lord?" Beatrice

says this even before Benedick has arrived; giving the impression that

he sleeps around with various different women, and he will not commit

to anybody. This shows his lack of maturity. As Benedick arrives in

Messina, Beatrice's response to him is one full of witty repartee and

mocking, however they do not seem to take the comments made by each

other to heart, and it appears more as a joke. It becomes apparent

later on in t...

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...essina, Benedick refuses to take part in these

actions of ridicule. He has become more sociable and civilized and the

Messina has noticed that he has matured a lot through the play. He has

become more of a gentleman and thinks about others before himself. He

doesn't want anybody to miss out on the happiness that he has worked

hard for with Beatrice and tries to get Don Pedro to get married.

"Prince, thou art sad, get thee a wife"

He is now so happy with Beatrice and even though they were tricked

into liking each other they notice how much they like each other. This

is a completely different Benedick than at the start of the play, who

despised marriage, and said that to get married is the last thing he

wanted to do in his life, no-one would have guessed as the play came

to an end, and that Benedick would be married.

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