Beatrice and Benedick are perfect for each other and everyone can see it when they talk to each other or about each other. Family and friends can see the chemistry between
Even though she and Hero are close, they are not much alike. While Hero is polite, quit, respectful and gentle, Beatrice is feisty, cynical, witty and sharp. Although Beatrice is outspoken and seems hard she is vulnerable. Once she hears Hero talking about how Benedick is in love with her she opens herself to the sensitivitis and weaknesses of love. Unlike Hero who is will do anything her father asks and will agree to an arranged marraige to marry anybody that her father picks, Beatrice refuses to marry because she feels that she has not found the perfect man for her?
She thought the situation was unjust and wants to rip Claudio to pieces for it. Hero, in contrast, just says “ Is my Lord well, that he doth speak so wide?” ( Shakespeare 154). In contrast to beatrice’s reaction, Hero asks Claudio is he is feeling alright. After that she proceeds to faint, pretend to be dead, and marry Claudio in the end.
Claudio, Hero and Don Pedro all realize how perfect Beatrice and Benedick are together and so they set up a plan to deceive the two of them into falling in love. Don Pedro comes up with the plan to be having Benedick eavesdropping on Don Pedro, Leonato and Claudio chatting about how much Beatrice is secretly in love with Benedick. Just as they expected , their plan goes off without a hitch. After the group is done talking and they all leave, Benedick comes out of hiding and start talking about what he just heard and realizes that he is in love with Beatrice. “I will be horribly in love wit her.”
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).”
Relationships based on love, like Benedick and Beatrice 's, have a strong foundation that will stand the test of time since they are rooted in love. Benedick and Beatrice 's relationship showed that love and friendship being involved in a relationship is both healthy and necessary. True love involves more than just the physical attraction Hero and Claudio experience. Without being able to relate to a person on an intellectual and emotional level, there 's no way the relationship will be able to overcome any problems. Despite Beatrice’s request for Benedick to challenge Claudio and Hero’s shame weighing heavily on them, their relationship still prevailed.
The love this couple shared was, in my opinion, the only true love in the entire play. The cousins, who are best friends, wish only happiness on the other. Meaning, they want what is best for each other. Hero, who finally gains a fiancé, wishes the same fate for her cousin; so she goes along with Don Pedro’s manipulating scheme and plans to convince Beatrice that she is in love with Benedick. The largest example of their philia love, is Beatrice’s response to Hero’s public humiliation.
Beatrice had also tried to write a poem professing her love to Benedick. They are so compatible that they had the same idea to profess their love. In Shakespearian times, the man could just choose a wife to marry, they did not have to be compatible. In a modern context, people in relationships have to be compatible, making Beatrice and Benedick an ideal
Her determination to tame her pride for Benedick is shown when she says “Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand. If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee to bind our loves up in a holy band. For others say thou dost deserve, and I believe it better than reporting” (3.1.117-122) The “tame my wild heart” depicts that if Benedick truly loves her, she will return that love by easing or casting away her pride and sharp-tongue for Benedick. In favor of Benedick, Beatrice will be kind to Benedick to the extent that her kindness will be shown through the act of marrying.
It is an intrinsic battle that takes place over the course of the play, but comes to a head during the concluding moments, in which Claudio is deceived by his apprehensions of marriage into rejecting Hero, showing that perhaps he prides his honor above the love he so freely professes. Hero is placed in the uncomfortable position of being rejected by nearly everybody she cares for, necessitating that she fake her demise and be reborn as a new woman, resurrected from the grave and cleansed of the impurities she was accused of. Benedick and Beatrice have both pledged never to find love, and therefore must remove the guises behind which they labor- for indeed, both characters desire love, but hide their wish for fear of being rejected. In each instance, past beliefs must be discarded in the name of securing future happiness, which causes consternation in each individual. In the case of Benedick, he is forced to challenge his best friend to a duel in order to win the hand of his lover- an appendage of the central conflict, which is the inner battle between love and personal reservations which takes precedence over life and death (at least for the Christ-figure maiden
However, due to their lack of trust, suspense is built to sustain a plot. Just as the problem arises quickly, the complication is resolved just as simply with the marriage of the young lovers. Throughout the play, the relationship between Beatrice and Benedict serve as a comedic relief. There snarky replies are well crafted such as Benedict’s view on Beatrice’s replies: “she speaks poniards, and every word stabs: if her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her; she would infect to the north star.” In the final act, audience find compassion that Benedict and Beatrice hate relationship settles to a love relationship.
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).
Here, we would again see how Claudio does things without thinking at all. He does not realize that getting married to someone he does not even know could be disaster He was not even sure if he loved this girl and he was willing to live with this girl for the rest of his life. All he knew was that she was a copy of Hero and for him that was all that mattered. This just shows that Claudio's love for Hero is so shallow and that his attraction towards Hero is just on the physical level.
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.
Claudio’s relationship with Hero is immature because Claudio only loved Hero for her beauty. When Claudio arrived at Leonato’s home, he quickly fell in love with her without even meeting her. He told Benedick about his feeling towards Hero, hoping that she is as sweet as he imagined her to be. In the text it says, “In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that I ever looked on. I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife.”