BEATRICE I wonder that you will still be talking, Signor
Benedick; nobody marks you.
BENEDICK What, my dear Lady Distain! Are you yet
living?
This negative and childlike attitude continues until each of their gulling scenes.
Moreover it is interesting to observe the ways in which they speak of and to one another and their approach towards love before and after they have been gulled.
At the beginning of Act 2 Scene 3 Benedick’s scorns love and the idea of marriage, “man is a fool when he dictates his behaviours to love”.
However after he has been gulled by his attitude towards Beatrice and the topic of love changes considerably. Only moments after having declared himself as something of a bachelor he announces with great elation that he will reciprocate her affection. “I will be horribly in love with her.” Here Benedick shows himself to be inconsistent and fickle.
Similarly before she is gulled by Hero and Ursula Beatrice speaks to Benedick in a brash, sharp manner “Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner” and again in a mere 3 lines of hers later she has changed her approach love completely, “Benedick; love on, I will requite thee”. This instinctive, capricious behaviour reveals Beatrice as emotional and unpredictable character. These gulling scenes emphasise Benedick and Beatric’s susceptibility to words and how in the world of Messina what is observed is assumed to be true despite alternative realities. Reliance on the appearance of a situation leaves one vulnerable to misjudgement and can detach a person from the truth.
Even though Beatrice and Benedick’s actions in these scenes can be regarded as “giddy” it is relevant to note that they both show the ability to reason a difficult or divisive situation. After Beatrice has successfully been gulled she shows that she is able to think for herself. “I believe it better than reportingly.” Her language here reflects composure as does the steady, regular rhyming of the text which has an ABAB rhyme scheme and is brought to a close with a Para rhyming couplet. This tight structured composition of language with its soft toned ending containing stressed constantans such as p’s and b’s depict Beatrice as an image of collected calmness.
Benedick shows great integrity and strength of character in the ……..?
Also in their defence, some will argue that the feelings of affection that Benedick and Beatrice display subsequent to their gulling has been felt by both throughout the play and it is only now that they have been voiced due to the denial of their true feelings. This can be put down to a previous relationship which is hinted at earlier in the play by Beatrice who says this whilst talking about her love for Benedick “once before he won it of me”
In light of this I feel that both Beatrice and Benedick show what can be referred to as ‘giddy’ attributes but are able to regain composure when necessary and practice reasoned thinking. This is further displayed by the way Beatrice and Benedick act when the rumour of Hero’s disloyalty is made public at the wedding in Act 5 Scene 1. Benedick in particular has very few lines whilst Claudio is accusing Hero, he is not jumping to any conclusions but taking in the different arguments from which he draws his own reasoned and diplomatic opinion. Beatrice too manages to deduce the truth in this scene through a impressive balance of reason.
It is this scene however that brings to light a certain character’s judgemental and fickle temperament. Claudio has already been portrayed to the audience as a shallow character through the way he spoke of Hero in Act 1 Scene 1 “Can the world buy such a jewel?” his use of the word “jewel” here shows how he values Hero for her ornamental beauty and not her character. We also know him to be weak in character, he readily believes Don John the bastard when he tells Claudio that Don Pedro has wooed Hero for himself in Act 2 Scene 1, here Claudio shows self pity and unfounded judgement of others, “friendship is constant in all other things save in the office and affairs of love”………
In Act 5 Scene 1 Hero is publicly disgraced and humiliated by Claudio. In Act 3 Scene 2 when Claudio learns of Hero’s alleged infidelity he accepts it as the truth without giving Hero a chance to tell him the reality of the situation, and when he challenges her publicly he will not accept her version of events. His actions are brash and presumptuous and his attitude bitter.
Leonato’s reaction to Claudio’s declaration of Hero’s infidelity is egocentric and disloyal. He too disbelieves Hero despite having no evidence, instead of consoling and defending her he verbally attacks her with venomous language, “Do not live, Hero, do not ope thine eyes”, “Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes” He is more concerned with his own Honour than the wellbeing of his daughter, his judgements are unfounded and cruel and if when Benedick referred to man as “giddy” he meant irrational and self-centred then here Leonarto is the epitome of giddy.
At the end of the play it is with great accuracy that Benedick reflects that “…man is a giddy thing” as events in Messina have proven. Shakespeare have developed the names whom we, at the beginning of the play, had very little judgement of into complex characters with fickle, changeable and emotional personalities. It is however I feel with immense irony that it is Benedick in particular who makes this comment as he towards the end of the play is the epitome of reason and through this emphasises the giddiness of other characters.
