Much Ado About Nothing Pronouns

Much Ado About Nothing,

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s work Much Ado About Nothing, written in 1598, is possibly one of the greatest examples to examine the use of English pronouns in Shakespeare. Other languages such as French, German or Spanish, have always had different pronouns to indicate politeness, social ranks, formality, affection and solidarity as can be seen in the difference between the forms vous and tu in French, du and Sie in German, or tu and usted in Spanish. Even though the so-called ‘relevant’ pronoun no longer exists in English, nowadays it uses variable naming to express the relationships that exists between the speakers such as first names, titles, terms of endearment, last names, nicknames, etc. (Fowler, R. 1996). This essay will analyse the use of the already mentioned forms of address that existed in Shakespeare’s times

Benedick addresses Beatrice in a close and affective manner using the forms “sweet Beatrice” and the pronouns “thy” and “thee”. These forms could be considered as expressive of positive emotions like love, passion and affection, which are used to mark the discourse of intimacy (Culpeper, J. 2002). Although Beatrice is also confessing her love, she makes constant use of the you-form, which could be seen as an indicator of high formality and respect in order to keep the situation serious. Suddenly, when Beatrice asks Benedick to kill Claudio, the situation becomes more serious. Beatrice changes her attitude when Benedick denies her request, she is so infuriated that she wants to leave, but Benedick keeps his closeness. Hence the use of the first name, “Beatrice” and “sweet Beatrice” as a terms of endearment when she is consistent in her idea to leave as a result of her wrath. This form of address is avoided by Beatrice, possibly to establish distance because she expected Benedick to fulfil her