The Transformation of Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing

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The Transformation of Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing

In "Much Ado About Nothing" Shakespeare manages to transform Benedict

from a bachelor to being in love with Beatrice. Shakespeare does

extremely well to make this change of character seem believable as it

such a big one. Shakespeare does this by using key scenes to gradually

reveal the true relationship between the two. This transformation is

especially interesting as at the beginning of the play he argues with

Beatrice and declares he will always be a bachelor.

In Act I Scene I when the visitors arrive in Messina, Benedict appears

to be an arrogant, patronising womaniser. In this scene Benedict has a

merry war with Beatrice and from lines like "In our last conflict four

of his five wits went halting off" and "You always end with a jade's

trick, I know you of old" from Beatrice it seems like the two have

previously met and there is some history between them. In this war of

words we see the arrogance of Benedict when he says to Beatrice "I am

Lord of all ladies, only you excepted". From this opening scene we can

see Benedict's character and it is obvious he is not scared to speak

his mind or give an honest opinion, no matter how harsh it may be. An

example of this is when Claudio asks Benedict if he finds Hero

attractive and Benedict replies ?I can see yet without spectacles, and

I see no such matter?. We also see from this merry war that Benedict

enjoys entertaining his friend and one possibility could be that he

doesn?t change as the play goes on, maybe he loved Beatrice the whole

time and he had been hiding it behind his humour.

When Benedict poses as so...

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In Act V Scene IV, Benedict?s transformation is complete. He says that

to Leonarto ?Your niece regards me with an eye of favour. And I do

with an eye requite her?. Benedict does seem to return to his true

self, however his love cannot be hidden when Claudio and Don Pedro

arrive. Even when Benedict proposes to Beatrice he says he takes her

in ?pity?, this shows that even though he is no longer a bachelor, he

is still as patronising as he was at the beginning of the play and he

has not lost any of his wit. Beatrice continues this merry war by

saying ?I yield upon great persuasion?#?. In Benedict?s final

soliloquy he talks about marriage. ?I will think nothing to anyone

that the world can say against it?. This shows that Benedick has

finally accepted marriage and his love for Beatrice. He is no longer a

bachelor.

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