More handpicked essays just for you.
How women are portrayed in much ado about nothing
How women are portrayed in much ado about nothing
Themes regarding love in much ado about nothing
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the play “Much Ado About Nothing” by William Shakespeare, is a comedy about how love is confusing and can be both funny and dangerous. The play takes place in Messina, Italy in 1598 in a span of a week. Two cousins named Beatrice and Hero, fall in love two officers named Benedick and Claudio. After teasing between Beatrice and Benedick, and assumptions between Hero and Claudio, they end up getting married. Bt in the beginning of their relationships, the way they handle situations and react to them are completely different from one another. Hero is a foil to Beatrice because of their actions, personalities, and opinions. When Beatrice learns that Benedick is coming back to Messina she isn’t happy. She talks to the messenger about how much she hates him and how annoying he is. When the Messenger speaks to Beatrice about Benedick he asks, “I see, lady, the gentleman is in not in your books” (Shakespeare page 3). The messenger is saying how beatrice isn’t fond of benedick, Beatrice then replies, “No. And …show more content…
Hero states that, “Why you speak the truth. I never yet saw a man, how wise, how noble, young, how rarely featur’d… “ (shakespeare page 44) Hero kept saying all these nice things about Benedick trying to make Beatrice change her mind about him, and it worked. Compared to Beatrice, she doesn't think that fondly of him. At the masquerade ball, while she talks to the masked man(who is really benedick), she says, “Why he is the prince's jester, a very dull fool.Only his gift is in devising impossible slanders. None but libertines delight in him, and the commendation is not in his wit but in his villainy, for he both pleases men and angers them, and they laugh at him and beat him. I am sure he is in the fleet. I would he had boarded me” (Shakespeare page 22). She tells the “masked man” that benedick is just a funny guy, but not at all interesting, and hbe gets beaten and laughed
...e down by weeping. Shakespeare shows us that Beatrice is the only character despite some of these positive attributes of Beatrice’s character, she is very rude about men. She says ‘but manhood is melted into curtsies’ showing Benedick her lack of respect towards men. However it is possibly her refreshing honesty that leads her to be a positive role model.
At the beginning, Benedick’s attitude is negative towards women in general. He swears he will never marry, as he is very critical of women and does not trust any of them not to cheat on him. He seems to oppose with Beatrice in a competition to outwit, outsmart, and out-insult each other. Obviously he has been in some sort of past relationship with Beatrice because when he meets her at the masked ball, she describes him as a selfish pig. We can infer that Benedick has some kind of deep feelings for her because after she insults him he is hurt and says, “Will your grace command me any service to the world’s end? I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on. I will fetch you a toothpick from the furthest inch of Asia . . . do you any embassage to the pigmies, rather than hold three words’ conference with this harpy” (II.i.229–235). This blatantly means that he does not wish to talk to her.
Telling her gentlewomen that Benedick loves Beatrice is her secret and it just so happens that Beatrice overhears, because it was. all planned that she should overhear. In this scene, Hero is dominant. in the conversation and says whole paragraphs instead of a few words that she says sporadically throughout the play, like in Act 1 scene 1. where she only says one line in the whole scene, "My cousin means Signor Benedick of Padua. " Page 5, line 27.This is because she needs.
From Act 1 Scene 1 we are bombarded by Beatrice's wit and her very. loud and abrasive actions , he said. She argues with Benedick, this takes up. most of the time, the two get very carried away, and this shows us her.
" She claims here that Benedick doesn't actually have the stomach to kill anybody, and retorts to every sincere statement with a wry satirical comment about Benedick's courage. This sort of language is constant throughout the play, and makes Beatrice the foremost satirical character, along with Borachio in the first part of the play. Later on in scene 1, the naïve Claudio inquires after Hero, and asks Benedick what he thinks of her.
This is part of her “merry war” with Benedick. Beatrice appears to loathe Benedick and vice versa; they engage in many “skirmishes of wit.” However, although Beatrice appears hardened and sharp, she is vu...
Both Beatrice and Benedick are strong-willed, intelligent characters, who fear that falling in love will lead to a loss of freedom and eventually heartbreak. This causes them to deny their love for each other and it is only through the machinations of other characters in the play that their true feelings emerge. When these feelings are finally acknowledged, both characters are changed, but the changes are subtle. They are neither drastic nor monumental.
In the beginning of the play, Benedick was very rude to all women and claimed that he would never get married. Not only did he argue with Beatrice, the governor's niece, but he also made fun of her cousin, Hero. Act I scene i Claudio, a young soldier, told Benedick that he was in love with Hero. Benedick responded by commenting on how Hero wasn’t good enough for Claudio: “Why i’ faith, methinks she’s too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise, and too little for a great praise. Only this commendation I can afford her, that were she other than she is, she were unhandsome, and being no
Beatrice is an outspoken woman in the play. Beatrice’s outspoken
Benedick was essentially doing it for happiness. He has been unexpectedly wrapped around Beatrice’s little finger and when he promised to not spill the beans, the secret stayed in solitude and Benedick didn’t want to disappoint his Beatrice. Since he had kept this proposal from his companion, that doesn’t mean Benedick was cruel or that he wanted to deliberately harm Claudio; it means he wanted what was best for him. Benedick also knew that Claudio had to travel through the land of distraught emotions before he could see Hero again. Benedick was to protect Hero’s scheme to prevent Claudio from lashing out on Hero for dishonesty.
She also insults Benedick directly to his face, despite his wearing a mask, when she says: “…he is the Prince’s jester, a very dull fool. Only his gift is in devising impossible slanders.” (II.i.131-132). Here, Beatrice insults the very thing that she and Benedick have in common: his cleverness and wit. She says Benedick cannot come up with anything clever to say and simply insults people, making him a boring joke of a man.
“He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that has no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that less than a man, I am not for him” (Shakespeare 39). As shown in this piece of evidence Beatrice's view towards men at this point in the play would have left her unmarried for the rest of her life, which was against Heros beliefs. Hero had the complete opposite opinion as shown,“God give me joy to wear it, for my heart is exceeding heavy” (Shakespeare 111). Heros views are quite different because she is about to do what Beatrice would have never thought to do in a million years, get married. This shows that Hero is over the moon to get married and just two lines before this she called her cousin a fool for not marrying.
...o asks Hero about Claudio she responds with: "So you walk softly, and look sweetly, and say nothing, I am yours for the walk, and especially when I walk away." (2.1.81-83). Beatrice is what a woman should be. A more modern view of feminism would have had Beatrice not only make her own decisions but follow through with them on her own. While Much Ado About Nothing seemingly questions the traditional gender roles of men and women in Messina through Beatrice's resistance to them, at the same time, the play decidedly ends Benedick saying, "Peace! I will stop your mouth" (5.4.96), silencing Beatrice with a kiss. Still, it cannot be denied that Beatrice, for a time, equates herself with men and the power they hold. Unfortunately, she gives in to love and in so doing, she relinquishes her independence and self-control in the male-dominated world of Much Ado About Nothing.
In Much Ado About Nothing, there are two main plot stories that are being shown. The love at first sight between the characters Hero and Claudio, and the set-up love of Benedick and Beatrice. Claudio and Hero are engaged to be married, but the wedding is ruined after Claudio sees what is supposedly Hero committing infidelity with one of Don John’s lieutenants.
Benedick discovers his true feelings for Beatrice. After Claudio and Hero’s failed wedding, Beatrice says to Benedick, “I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.” While Beatrice