By my troth, niece thou will never get thee a husband if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.
However, Don-Pedro finds Beatrice to be a ‘pleasant-spirited lady’ and doesn’t see the shrewd and witty side to her.
In faith lady, you have a merry heart.
Her shrewishness is an exaggeration of an innate quality and her intention not to marry is not taken too seriously by the other characters. Beatrice is seen as an independent woman with a strong personality. Her masculinity and wittiness are seen as a sexual challenge to Benedick. Deep down he admires her.
She would have made Hercules have turned spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make the fire too. Come, talk not of her. You shall find her the infernal Ate in good apparel.
In the masked banquet scene, everyone has hidden identities which allows all the characters to be different. Beatrice and Benedick engage in conversation but his disguise makes it impossible for him to defend himself which gives Beatrice the upper hand. This scene shows that appearance is different from reality but the spitefulness makes it more comical.
Why, he is the Prince’s jester, a very dull fool; only his gift is in devising impossible slanders. None but libertines delight him, and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy.
In the stages up to the marriage of Hero and Claudio, Beatrice doesn’t get involved with all the formalities. This shows that she was considered to be an equal to the men as all the women usually prepared everything for the marriage ceremony.
Beatrice almost mocks Hero’s duty to her father and tries to advise Hero to be more independent.
But yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another curtsy and say, ‘Father, as it please me.’
After the terrible accusation thrown at Hero, Beatrice wants to challenge Claudio. Benedick is not suitable for revenge but Beatrice rejects him physically until he does what she wants him to do.
Kill Claudio.
She is very dominant and, in a sense, controls Benedick. She is clever in how she talks to Benedick. She is very demanding and takes advantage of his love for her.
Enough, I am engaged; I will challenge him. I will kiss your hand, and so I leave you.
Beatrice criticises Benedick and the other men for being too verbal in their challenges with one another.
But manhood is melted into curtsies valour into compliment and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too.
Beatrice seems to have ‘tamed’ Benedick rather than the other way around. Usually in a relationship of those times, the men took control of the women.
However, Beatrice seems to lose her sharpness and wittiness after the accusation of Hero. Margaret, on the other hand, has become more like Beatrice.
Ever since you left it. Doth not my wit become me rarely?
This suggests that behind the strong character of Beatrice there is a soft spot. She is upset for her cousin and her reputation because she has been shamed in front of all her family and friends.
Shakespeare has used Beatrice’s’ character for the comedy and wit, but towards the end of the play, it is taken away from her. In a sense, she becomes more ‘tamed’ towards the end. She still has her witty charm unlike Hero.
Hero, who is first mentioned as a ‘modest young lady’, is the typical, submissive, dutiful daughter that you would find in Elizabethan society. Her name fits perfectly with the stereotypical Elizabethan heroine, ‘Hero’. This suggests that Shakespeare is being quite ironic, as she isn’t really the heroine of the play.
When Leonato is misinformed by Antonio that Don Pedro is going to propose to Hero, he tells her what her response should be. He reminds Hero of her duty. If Don Pedro should propose, she must accept.
Daughter, remember what I told you. If the Prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer.
Hero was the perfect daughter. Modesty to the Elizabethans was shown by bashfulness, silence and blushing. Hero was exactly this. She makes brief contributions to conversations when talking of Claudio.
He is of a very melancholy disposition.
The quotation in question shows the difference between Beatrice’s’ position to Hero’s. The question was addressed to Hero but Beatrice answered abruptly. If Hero were to talk with such wit and cheek as Beatrice, then she would have been seen as an outcast and most probably be rejected by her family. Beatrice, however, is allowed to show such character as she has no male dominating her life like Hero'’ father does to hers.
Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be over-mastered with a piece of valiant dust?
Here, Beatrice argues that men control women. She is mocking their role in society.
Hero seems to be content with her role, she accepts it.
I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my cousin to a good husband.
This shows in that society that women who did modest things would get good husbands.
Even when the announcement is made of Hero and Claudio’s marriage, Hero doesn’t speak openly. They haven’t spoken to each other heart to heart. It’s all about appearances and how sexually attracted they are to each other.
I’ll show thee some attires, and have thy counsel which is the best to furnish me tomorrow.
She is so modest that her reaction to Claudio’s accusations are restrained. She shows no violence or shouting. In a sense, her silence at this point is a positive thing. At the beginning, her silence was very negative because she was being suppressed by the men.
Her ‘arranged marriage’ was quite different to that of Beatrice and Benedick, who had known each other and wanted to get married. Elizabethans would think of this as being quite radical and most probably disapprove of. Today, this is seen as ‘normal’. Shakespeare has many conventional women in his plays and Beatrice breaks that mould of being a traditional woman in society. He presents women in a positive light. Shakespeare does reinforce this representation in the play in the character of Hero and how Beatrice changes. He is challenging this conventional role of women; for example, Beatrice controls Benedick in the relationship. In that sort of patriarchal society, the women would usually conform eventually. Beatrice has this strong, intelligent, witty and sharp character that slowly just fades away towards the end.
I think Shakespeare has used this contrast of Hero and Beatrice for comical purposes to show that there were women like Beatrice.
In Shakespeare’s England, courtship was not the prolonged and romantic affair it is now. The young folks did not make and unmake engagements as they pleased, without consulting their parents. The etiquette of betrothal was almost as formal and rigid as that of marriage is today.
Today, women are more like Beatrice the ‘normal’ female, independent and sociable.
