How Does Shakespeare Present Beatrice In Much Ado About Nothing

Shakespeare uses many different ways to portray the character Beatrice throughout the play ‘Much ado’. Beatrice is an extrovert character and shows that she is not afraid to express her feelings to other characters and the audience.

Shakespeare portrays Beatrice as a lady how subverts from the stereotypical behaviour that is expected of her. In act one, scene one you see what and outgoing, self-assured and vociferous character Beatrice really is. When introduced, you see the relationship between Benedick and Beatrice is fierce and entertaining to the audience. When Beatrice insults Benedick with ‘scratching could not make it worse an ‘twere such a face as yours were’ suggests that Beatrice is an opinionated character that does not allow

Beatrice has a very sharp tone to her insults and says them with pride. She shows signs of not being scared of the male characters making her appear robust to what anyone would say. Women who were outspoken in would face ‘public humiliation and shame’ . For a punishment women would have to face a mask that would be put onto their face to punish them for gossiping or being too outspoken, called a ‘brank’ or ‘bridle’ . This punishment was used up until the 1800’s and was a painful and humiliating experience for them. Realistically, if Beatrice was in the real world, she would have had to experience this because she is disrespectful to Benedick. This creates comedy because Benedick is portrayed as a man who will take insults and not punish Beatrice for what she said when realistically he should of suggesting that perhaps Benedick is portrayed as the stereotypical woman and Beatrice as the stereotypical man that was expected in that era. During Shakespearian times, Beatrice would have been played by a male actor and when she says ‘Oh, that I was a man!’ it makes the portrayal of Beatrice ironic because a man would have said it.

When Benedick hushes her with a kiss, you begin to see that perhaps Beatrice acted the way she did throughout the play because she craved male attention and affection. We understand that her behavior towards the male characters is so that she gains more attention for being independent but can being interpreted that she was just lonely. However, it could also be suggested that Beatrice’s aim of is go subvert from the stereotype to get Benedick’s attention and that she always loved him. When Beatrice says ‘I would not deny you’ we as an audience could interpret that as a way of her saying that she has always wanted husband. We could believe that Beatrice is a mirror image of the character Benedick because they both say that they do not wish to marry but when they express their love for each other, they are very convincing characters. In the end of the play, it could be insinuated that the comedic value of them getting together is very high because you see Beatrice lose her individualism that she sticks to throughout the play. We could believe that she actually uses her individual behavior to get