In the defamation scene, we are immediately inclined to think that Claudio’s love for Hero maybe false. Claudio’s way of dealing with his accusation against Hero is very cruelly made public in front of the entire wedding congregation, this may also be frowned upon by a modern audience as Claudio shames and degrades his wife-to-be and rejects her in a very humiliating, degrading manor. Claudio mistrusts Hero, and therefore rejects her as easily as he seemed to fall in love with her and believes and trusts Don Jon over Hero. Both a modern and Elizabethan audience will be able to see that this is not normal behaviour for a man in love, and it is through this and Claudio’s question at the wedding ‘Know you any, Hero’ that we can draw the conclusion Claudio’s love for Hero is only pretence. Claudio tarnishes Hero’s reputation by calling her a maid in a cynical manor; ‘Give me this made your daughter’, insinuating she is not a virgin. He continues to insult Hero, comparing her to a ‘rotten orange’, to the point that her own father wishes her dead ‘let her die’. Later on when discovering Hero’s death, he appears to show no remorse and is very fickle ‘I do embrace your offer, and dispose for henceforth of poor Claudio’, as he agrees to Leonato he will marry Hero’s ‘cousin’. This increases our condemnation of Claudio from a modern audience’s point of view.
After Hero’s callous treatment from Claudio both modern and Elizabethan audiences take pity on Hero. However modern audiences may also perceive Hero as being weak when discovering she is still willing to marry Claudio after the maliciously unacceptable way in which he treated her. It is highly doubtful that Hero could ever feel that much affection towards Claudio after she knows the hurtful way in which he once treated her. This therefore suggests that their relationship is not built on love, but instead the conventional relationship of the time.
In comparison, Benedick and Beatrice’s love is not built around these conventions and expectations, and is a rare example of a relationship of true love at the time. Beatrice is a complete contrast to her calm and demure cousin Hero, who only speaks to avoid being rude or when she has something to say compared to Beatrice who is outspoken, has a lot to say and is not afraid to say it, making her quite an unconventional character for her time. Beatrice is also intelligent and witty; ‘Signor Mountanto’, she says this when she is referring to Benedick, who at the time she despises at the beginning of the play. Signor Benedick holds Beatrice in equal measures of contempt. Neither of the characters can say a civil word to one another without exchanging spiteful, snide remarks. Benedick is described as a ‘pleasant’, ‘good’ soldier. However Beatrice describes Benedick as ‘less than a man’ and ‘a very dull fool’, Benedick later responds to this by saying he would rather ‘embassage to the pigmies than hold three words conference with this harpy’, referring to Beatrice, implying that she is grotesque. With the ongoing bickering between Beatrice and Benedick it appears unlikely that any loving relationship could ever exist between the two.
We are made aware that Benedick is cynical of love. He despises love presumably because he has never had it; he has never found a woman he could form an attachment with. When he finds Beatrice he is therefore frightened he will lose himself and become someone else and not be able to go back to his old ways; ‘prove that ever I lose more blood with love than I will get again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker’s pen and hang me up at the door of a brothel-house, for the sign of blind cupid.’, he also later insists that he ‘will live a bachelor’. Beatrice also expresses her indignant attitude towards love; ‘I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me’.
After the intervention of Don Pedro and Hero both Benedick and Beatrice begin to realise their true feelings for each other, and it is nothing to do with the typical expectations of marital matches of their time. Initially their love is a very private affair when they give into their love for each other Beatrice exclaims ‘I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest’ and in response Benedick says ‘Come, bid me do anything for thee.’ Unlike the elaborate language Claudio uses when he is ‘falling in love’ with Hero, Benedick really means that he loves Beatrice so much he would do anything for her, this is proven when he even agrees to kill his friend, Claudio, for Beatrice; ‘I am engaged ; I will challenge him’. A public confession confirms their feelings for each other as Benedick refers to Beatrice as ‘my Lady Beatrice’. By forming this relationship with each other it reinforces the fact that they are admitting to society about being wrong about each others characters initially.
Although the relationships between Hero and Claudio, and Beatrice and Benedick are different in their values and what they are based upon one being conventional and more materialistic the other being based around true discovered love, it could be argued that they were initiated in similar circumstances, both by the work of Don Pedro who acted as a ‘go-between’ throughout the play. Beatrice and Benedick are tricked into thinking the other is deeply in love with them by Don Pedro. However unlike the proposed union of two people who don’t know each other, like Hero and Claudio, the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is encouraged by a past relationship and therefore is done so in a genial manor. In turn their love for each other is also built on enjoyment of each others qualities.
Shakespeare deliberately chose two pairs of lovers that contrast so that we can distinguish genuine love from superficial love. Shakespeare shows the insincerity of Claudio’s approach to love and the subsequent flawed relationship between him and Hero. In comparison Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship is a lot more authentic, the relationship between the two is based on friendship and they therefore value each other as humans and not just as objects.
Words (including quotations); 1,486
Bibliography;
- Much Ado About Nothing-Penguin edition
- Much Ado About Nothing-York notes
- Class notes