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Treatment of female characters in Shakespearean play
Portrayal of women in Shakespeare's work
Shakespeare's portrayal of female characters
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Recommended: Treatment of female characters in Shakespearean play
In this Shakespearian play, Beatrice’s character drastically changes because she was heavily influenced by her peers. To begin, Beatrice was a very witty woman who loved to use insulting and mean words when speaking to or about Benedick. An example of this is when they are at the masquerade ball and Beatrice and Benedick are dancing together. Beatrice knows that she is dancing with Benedick so she starts insulting him knowing it will hurt him, calling him a dull fool, outrageous and a few other insults. This is dramatic irony because Beatrice knows that it is Benedick under the mask but he doesn’t know that she knows who he is. Near the beginning of the play, Beatrice asked the messenger, “I pray you, is Signior Montanto returned from the wars or no?” Montanto …show more content…
However, once Beatrice’s friends start to get into her head, she thinks that he has feelings for her and she changes. Beatrice becomes a more loving person and shows her love for Benedick. At one point in the play, Beatrice writes a love letter to Benedick. When he receives this letter from Hero, her true feelings are exposed and her friends see that she really does care for him now. To add, in Beatrice’s soliloquy she states, “And Benedick, love on. I will requite thee, Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand.” Ursula and Hero convinced Beatrice that Benedick had feelings for her. In this quotation, Beatrice was explaining how she changed and how she loves him now. As Beatrice leant about Benedick’s love for her through her peers, she changed herself to be more loving towards him. Additionally, as a result of Beatrice being a witty woman, she was strong and independent too. In the play, Beatrice explained to Leonato that she was very happy and blessed without a husband. She was very picky about getting one and had specific characteristics that would make for a good or bad
...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.
The difference between Beatrice,Benedick,and the other two Claudio and Hero though is that, these two are very headstrong characters with a different outlook on love, but have very much love for one another. Benedick believes in just being a bachelor and spending the rest of his life messing with as many women as he pleases, well as for Beatrice she believes there is no man good enough and willing to show her the love she wants so she much rather be left alone. But the fact that they honestly want to believe what they say is what makes this get way more interesting. What they don’t know is that they are going to soon become curious trying to figure out what they truly feel for one
Benedick and Beatrice both benefit from the deceit that they encounter. At first, both are enemies in a battle of insults and wit, until they are each fooled into thinking that the other loves them. When Benedick hears that Beatrice is supposedly attracted to him, he thinks that it is “a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it: knavery cannot, sure, hide itself in such reverence” (111). Little does he know, Leonato, the "white-bearded fellow," is also in on the joke (111). Benedick starts to admire her when he is aware that Beatrice might actually be attracted to himself, as well. She is also astonished when she first hears that he loves her. However, when Beatrice comes to terms with their affection, she hopes "Benedick [will] love on... And [she] Believe it better than reportingly" (134). In other words, she falls in love with Benedick as soon as she believes that he, too, is fond of her. They each start to fall in love with one another under the pretense that other was hiding their affection from them. Now that they are both in love, they start to open up to each other and prove that the deception they endured was worth it in the end.
Throughout Act one and two, Benedick repeatedly says that he will never love a woman or get married. At some stage in the duration of the play his mindset changes. In the end he is head over heels in love for Beatrice whom he once quarreled with habitually. The turnabout in his behavior was brought about by the deceiving Claudio and Pedro who indirectly told Benedick that Beatrice loved him.
Throughout this play Beatrice keeps saying what she would do if she were a man. In this scene Beatrice asks Bene*censored* to kill Claudio because he is a man. She may love him, but at this point she is only trying to persuade him to help her, she is not thinking about her love for him. The way that this scene is set up gives Beatrice the upper hand, because she knows what she wants (Bene*censored* to kill Claudio) and what she feels (perhaps the beginning of a love for Bene*censored*, but more likely, a strong desire for revenge).
Beatrice's courtship with Benedick greatly contrasts with the courtship of Hero and Claudio. Hero gladly and willingly submitted to marriage, and she accepted the role of the relatively powerless woman. In contrast Beatrice chose her submission after openly criticizing the institution of marriage.
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...
Beatrice is, without a doubt, one of the strongest female characters that Shakespeare ever came up with in his time of writing. Shakespeare shows, through Beatrice, how every woman should act in an era where only the men were even able to have control. In this era, or the renaissance time, no woman had free will; they were always told what they could and could not do, as well as, who they were to marry. In the play “Much Ado About Nothing” Beatrice has many qualities but the ones that stand out the most in the play are: her independence, her feistiness, and of course her openness to defy male subjection.
Benedick and Beatrice use their wit as a form of flirtation, but what is more important is that both of these characters are significant and noticeable because of their voices and their abilities to speak up for themselves and others. Beatrice confronts and is confronted by various male and female characters throughout the play and Shakespeare makes it very obvious to readers that Beatrice will always have something to say and will always use her voice. She confronts Claudio, Antonio, Leonato, and Benedick, just to name a few characters, and she does so without any hesitation. Beatrice, like Benedick, chooses to talk, she will not remain silent. Benedick is easily the male reflection of Beatrice in that he is also willing to confront and be confronted by any of the other characters. Throughout their dialogues with various characters, both Benedick and Beatrice consistently use the words “tell” and “speak,” and it can be argued that these words are the embodiment of Beatrice and Benedick and separate characters as well as a couple. It is also important to note that unlike Hero and Claudio, Beatrice and Benedick have voices both privately and publicly, such as when Beatrice made jests about Benedick during the masked ball. The uncertainty of whether or not Beatrice knew it was Benedick under mask further fuels the argument that Beatrice will say what she wants publically, if she does not recognize Benedick, and privately, if she does realize it is
Benedicks whole attitude towards love starts to change when he starts to come around Beatrice. Benedick was the first of the pair to confess that he was in love. He confessed that he was in love after Beatrice invited him in for dinner. Beatrice was willing to give up love for Hero’s reputation and Benedick was willing to giving up his friendship with Claudio over Beatrice’s love. Beatrice expresses approval of the good lord for alliance as she says “I may sit in a corner and cry heigh-ho for a husband”(2.1.311-313). In this quote Beatrice expresses that she will never get a husband unless she cries for one. She thinks that a husband would come to her if she cries for one. Hero met her husband because he walked in with Don Pedro and
We are reading a book called much ado about nothing, by: william shakespeare. It tells a tale of how one can play a trick on the minds of many. Some of these people include benedick and beatrice, both whom have high strung personalities. They both despise each other in the beginning, but their relationship start to unfold and grow as they become attracted to one another.
Beatrice and Benedick both are some strong-willed individuals. They both don't see their sales married. Benedick signifies this several times throughout the play. He reveals his hatred towards marriage as he exclaims , Benedick: “ Is't come to this? In faith, hath not the world one man, but he will his cap with suspicion? Shall I never see a bachelor of 3 come again? Go to my face, and thou Wilt needs Thursday neck into a yoke, where the print of it, and sign away Sundays”. ( 1. 1. 193-198). This quote means that he doesn't see himself ever becoming a married man, he is also explaining why he doesn't want to get married. Also, Benedick describes that that marriage turns
In act II scene III Benedick is duped by Don Pedro, Claudio and Leonato as he eavesdrops on their conversation of how Beatrice is so madly in love with him, which was an absolute lie. Benedick falls for the trick. After he hears what they say he has his own moment to himself to make sense of what he just heard. Benedick exclaims, “They say I will bear myself proudly if I perceive the love come from her. They say, too, that she will rather die than give any sign of affection. I did never think to marry”(2.3.229-231). Benedick is saying that he is so unaware by the obsession she has for him although it did make sense now that he thinks about it hard enough. He thinks she is a cold blooded lady, that was why he never thought to marry her. Beatrice is tricked the same way. Although, it is by Ursula and Hero. After Beatrice falls in their web of lies in act III scene I, she goes on the same rant. Beatrice passionately says, “...Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand. If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee”(3.2.119-120). Beatrice is exclaiming that if he has tamed her bitterness and unpleasantness then maybe she should show him some sort of happiness and be a bit more sweeter to him.
Beatrice is weeping because her cousin was betrayed by Claudio, and Benedick comes in to comfort her. After they finally admit that they love each other, Benedick asks if there is anything he can do to prove his love: “Come bid me do anything for thee” (IV.i.277). Beatrice replies, “Kill Claudio” (IV.i.279). She asks him to murder his best friend for her, at first he refuses, but then Beatrice describes how she yearns to be a man so that she can avenge her cousin: “I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving”(IV.i.307). Beatrice is rebelling against a society that tries to control women. She yearns to be heard and taken seriously in a male dominated society. Benedick asks her, “Think you in your soul that the Count Claudio hath wronged Hero?” (IV.I. 310-11) The remarkable part about this scene is not only that he wants to know what Beatrice truly believes, but that Benedick genuinely listens to her answer. In the wedding scene, Claudio completely ignores Hero and continues to insult her, but Benedick does not ignore Beatrice. Since she believes that her cousin is wronged, he vows, “I will challenge him. I will kiss your hand, and so I leave you: by this hand Claudio shall render me a dear account” (IV.i.313-14). Benedick agrees to make Claudio pay for what he did to Hero because he loves Beatrice, and if she claims that her cousin is wronged, then her cousin was wronged. Beatrice’s word goes
Shakespeare makes sure that Beatrice comes off as a woman who is not afraid to speak her mind to anyone. This is portrayed in the beginning of act one, when the mail messenger comes to announce that the soldiers are on their way to Messina. They start a conversation about Benedick and he tells Beatrice that Benedick is a "lord to a lord, a ...