In Shakespearean plays, women are shown as dynamic individuals with potent messages about moral norms and just rights. Shakespeare presents his understanding on the “essence” of femininity through a character known as Beatrice in his play titled Much Ado About Nothing. Beatrice developed her façade that is presented in the beginning of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing through, what is referenced as, past experience. Beatrice left her façade behind and expressed her true self through Hero and Ursula’s cunning trick that taunted her to supposedly marry Benedick. To begin with, Beatrice’s true self is a vulnerable one revealed through Hero and Ursula where she immediately is bound to the weaknesses and sensitivities of love. It would be more understandable if Beatrice in turn questioned these accusations with a harsh tongue. Beatrice may be rash with the concept of love, but she does so to …show more content…
In Act 3 Scene 1, Beatrice is overwhelmed with the thought of people judging her proud and scornful ways. Beatrice addresses this revolution by agreeing to leave her past self behind and seal this newfound affection with Benedick. Beatrice’s view of rejecting a man who will rule her with an iron fist is quite independent. In this case, Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing suggests Beatrice was once in love with Benedick, but his title of lord and soldier of Padua negatively effected their relationship. In addition, Beatrice’s previous relationship with Benedick, as suggested by the play, developed this harsh semblance. This is the Beatrice introduced in the beginning of the play that immediately is categorized as brusque. Beatrice’s harsh characteristics are revealed to Benedick and the readers about men in her society. This is evident through her speech in Act 4 Scene 1 when she defaces all of the men in her society, specifically pointing fingers at Claudio for smiting her cousin
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Show MoreBenetrice Though Beatrice and Benedick may be different, they are more similar than you may think. The conflict between Benedick and Beatrice is that they are too stubborn to realize that they are in love. This is resolved by Beatrice being told Benedick loves her by Hero and she realizes that she loves him too. In Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, Beatrice is a foil character to Benedick, by which Benedick’s irrationality is illuminated through Beatrice’s reasonability; thus, interminably influences the conflict in the plot. Beatrice and Benedick are distinct, for Benedick is dull-witted and Beatrice is which affects the plot by making Beatrice and Benedick insult each other and act rudely to one another.
He is foolish for putting up a town notice to challenge a love god, and he is selfish for taking advantage of a jester. Through lines like these, Beatrice is quickly revealing her hate for Benedick, but staying true to her character, she only does so whilst speaking in a tongue of
Those who succeed in finding true happiness are compelled by pure love, not by a desire for outside approval, like Dr. Jekyll, or a fear of being perceived a certain way by society, like Antigone. Love engenders a fundamental shift away from superficiality in which individuals successfully ignore society and other outside influences. In Much Ado About Nothing, Benedick and Beatrice embrace their love for each other and address the systemic misogyny and societal norms restraining their relationship. As Benedick falls “horribly in love with [Beatrice],” his maturity and growth drive him to acknowledge his privilege as a male in the patriarchal society, choosing to use his privilege in a constructive way to uplift and defend Hero (Shakespeare 2.3.237). As he risks his noble status to defend a woman, Benedick displays his newfound indifference to society’s perceptions and norms.
Can this be true? Stand I condemned for pride and scorn so much? No glory lives behind the back of such. And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee” (Ado 3.1.106-111). Beatrice seemed astonished to hear Benedick is in love with her because she has a reputation for being stubborn, disdainful, and unapproachable.
While they are conversing, Beatrice plainly states that she wants Benedick to “kill Claudio...a villain, that hath slandered, scorned, dishonoured [her] kinswoman (Shakespeare 74-75).” Beatrice makes very bold actions, and she is not afraid of doing so. This shows how Beatrice and Hero are foils of each other because Hero takes actions that are safe and pleasing to others, while Beatrice does what she wants and doesn’t care about what others think of her actions. Another example of this occurs during the Masquerade Ball. Beatrice talks with Don Pedro and is quoted to have said, “My cousin tells him in his ear that he is in her heart (Shakespeare 27).”
In Much Ado About Nothing, the relationship between Benedick and Beatrice develops throughout the course of the play. As their relationship develops from hatred to friendship to romance, these characters are forced to make sacrifices in order to make room for the new love in their lives. Benedick, in particular, makes a sacrifice out of love that shows the powerful impact of love on his life. Benedick’s willingness to sacrifice his friendship with Claudio for Beatrice demonstrates the emboldening, life-changing impact that love has on a person’s values and loyalties. Benedick’s loyalties completely shift from his fellow soldiers to Beatrice after he and Beatrice profess their love for each other.
Directions: Please type your entire synthesis essay on this document. Be sure to leave time to proofread your essay to avoid losing points for grammatical errors like capitalization. Gender Roles in society is used to label a specific gender to have one specific role. Men are supposed to be the dominant one to go to work all day and put food on the table. Meanwhile, the women are the ones staying home and caring for the children.
Shakespeare has a way of making his plays have a whole array of themes and perspectives to see the story from. One can argue that the main theme can usually be something along the lines of Love or Deception or even Honor. In particular, looking at Much Ado About Nothing, you can apply the same. I would argue that shakespeare chose to develop the theme of deception throughout this play. In particular, the way that Beatrice and Benedick end up falling in love is all thanks to deception.
Much Ado About Nothing. This quote by Beatrice was the point when she truly fell in love with Benedick. Interestingly, this line also showed Beatrice giving away her pride, and contempt, all in all suggesting that with pride love cannot
This is shown with their views on marriage. Hero is willing to marry whoever her father asks her too and when Leonato finds out that Don Pedro seeks marriage with Hero, he encourages Hero to marry and says to Hero, “Daughter, remember what I told you. If the prince does solicit you in the kind, you know your answer” (II.i.57-58). Beatrice, however rebels completely against marriage and says “If he send me no husband; for the which blessing / I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening” (23-25).
When most characters accuse Hero and Claudio mistreats her, Beatrice's main and overpowering conflict with the world gets revealed in its entirety. If Beatrice “were a man,” (4.1.331) she could have fixed the problem through efforts of her own. Beatrice had dedicated every action to live her life to give herself the opportunity to make choices on her own accord, but a male dominated society was still able to partially win in this scene. She has lost all control over her life and so has Hero. She still does not give up and attempts to regain control by using her intelligence to convince and manipulate Benedict into helping
When Hero and Claudio relationship fell apart from a very ridiculous reason, Benedick and Beatrice stayed strong by each other side. Beatrice even though always believe in the independent life now she finally admits to Benedick that she loves him when she states, “As strange as the thing I know not. It wee as possible for me to say I loved nothing as well as you, but believe me not, and yet I lie not, I confess nothing, not I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin. ”(4,1,283-287).
It was a set up marriage and she would just try to make the male proud. Relationships, in the modern day, are more egalitarian than they use to be. This allows Benedick and Beatrice to represent more of a modern time ideal couple, than Claudio and Hero. A great quote about relationships is “ Respect is as important as love in a relationships”
The audience may understand the concept of love and romance flowing within the characters because it was to portrayed that way but the critics would argue the fact that some of the characters like Beatrice and Benedick were made to fall in love with each other through deception. As simple as the characters were, the situations arousing in the play became more complexed as scenes passed by. What led to the trouble and chaos in the play also led to the solution in the end, when Claudio and Don Pedro were deceived into thinking by Don John that Hero was unfaithful. That very same idea also solved the problem in the end when Leonato, Hero’s father, deceived Claudio by making him believe that she is dead and that it is his duty to clear Hero’s name by reading out on her tomb and marrying the said niece who looks just like Hero. Again the plotting against own is present where the said niece turns out to be Hero and she comes back to life again.
Before Benedick and Beatrice decided to marry each other or start a relationship at all, they took a period of time to ponder their feelings and realize the best solution, something Claudio and Hero completely ignored. Once they decided to finally start a relationship, their joking nature didn 't change, displaying their friendship and love for each other as a main component that has not wavered. Even when announcing their relationship, a serious matter, Benedick joked, “But by this light, I take thee/ for pity”(5.4.92-93). It is obvious that Benedick does not actually think Beatrice is ugly, but their relationship is so strong that he can jokingly insult her. In contrast, Hero and Claudio had to remain respectful towards each other in order to not risk the marriage.