(Line180, Scene1, Act1)
They repeatedly put one another down because of their sex. Benedick proclaims the male gender as supreme, telling Claudio that he is ‘a professed tyrant to their sex’. Beatrice illustrates how she believes women to be the better sex by putting down a man’s love.
Beatrice and Benedick have been well acquainted for a long time. There is a suggestion from Beatrice that the two have been in a relationship before: ‘You always end with a jade’s trick. I know you of old’. When Beatrice insists that Benedick ‘…set up his bills here in Messina, and challenged Cupid at the flight…’ she describes a “battle” of love between herself and Benedick that she has lost. There must have been similar meetings and arguments between the two as Beatrice says ‘in our last conflict’. Evidence of this past relationship provides both a reason for the ‘merry war’ and perhaps that there may still be some romantic feelings between the two.
Beatrice and Benedick seem to hate each other yet they cannot stay away from each other. In the first scene, they seem to pay attention to almost nothing else but each other. The attraction between the two is apparent when Beatrice asks the Messenger: ‘I pray you, is Signor Mountanto returned from the wars or no?’ She is obviously worried about Benedick, although she follows this question with japes upon his character. If she does not care about him, you would expect the conversation to end with the messenger's answer, but instead Beatrice draws out the conversation, getting the messenger to praise Benedick by defending him. The messenger ends up showing Benedick to have all the manly virtues that people of Beatrice's class admire:
‘He hath done good service, lady, in these wars.’
‘And a good soldier too, lady’
(Line 39, Scene 1, Act 1)
The wit of their encounter fails to suppress the obvious chemistry between them. They make a perfect couple. They cannot dominate each other and so they intimidate each other. Their love thrives on conflict and tension and their affection is masked by their relentless bickering.
Beatrice’s concern for Benedick becomes more obvious when she says, ‘I wonder that you will still be talking, Signor Benedick, nobody marks you’. She was obviously listening intently to what he had to say; otherwise she would not have made a comment on his arrival.
Benedick and Beatrice are both keenly intelligent and like to exaggerate with flamboyant language. They insult each other with cutting, caustic phrases such as,
‘Scratching could not make it worse and ‘twere
such a face as yours were’.
(Line 101, Scene 1, Act 1)
Their duel of words shows that they are quick-witted and fast thinking, each determined to have the last word in the argument. One notable characteristic of their verbal attacks upon each other is the ability to extend a metaphor throughout. When Benedick calls Beatrice a ‘rare parrot-teacher’, Beatrice responds, ‘a bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours’. Benedick continues the reference to animals in his response saying, ‘I would my horse had the speed of your tongue’. It is as if each anticipates the others response and all they can think about is each other. Though the insults are biting, their ability to maintain such clever, interconnected sparring seems to represent existence of a strong bond between them.
Both Beatrice and Benedick have nicknames for each other which implies a love interest. He calls her ‘Dear Lady Disdain’ in a sarcastic manner and she nicknames his ‘Signor Mountanto’. Despite labeling her as Lady of Violent Dislike, Benedick is just bottling up his real feelings for Beatrice inside and acting tough on the outside. By giving him the name ‘Mountanto’, associating him with a fencing term that means an upright blow or thrust, Beatrice could be indirectly hinting that Benedick is brave and heroic. Alternatively, she may be suggesting something sexual.
To detect love between the two it is important to refer to what their close companions say about them. Hero, Beatrice’s cousin, immediately understands that Benedick is the man in question when Beatrice enquires of ‘Signor Mountanto’. She tells the messenger, ‘My cousin means Signor Benedick of Padua’. Leonato, Beatrice’s uncle, describes their relationship with an oxymoron, naming it a ‘merry war’. He says: ‘They never meet but there is a skirmish of wit between them’. Leonato tells Beatrice, ‘He’ll (Benedick) be meet with you, I doubt it not’. Leonato knows how Benedick will react upon meeting Beatrice and that he will get even. Their friends see through the banter to the affection that hides behind it.
When accused of being discourteous, Benedick seeks to boast to Beatrice when he says: ‘It is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you axcepted…for truly I love none’. He is showing that he is available but still loves none. Benedick must have feelings for Beatrice and it is obvious that they will soon fall in love from the way he is boasting about his luck with women to her.
In the first scene of the play, it seems clear that Beatrice and Benedick are greatly interested in each other. Although she complains about him and they have their first skirmish in the renewed war of wit, they are exchanging information that reveals their concern for the other's well-being. Beneath the insults you learn their interest in each other's affairs and their continued availability on the marriage market, while they affirm at the same time they will never marry. It is obvious that they will eventually fall in love as they only have each other on their minds and are interested in for more than witty banter. This quote from Act 3 of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ very aptly sums up the nature of Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship.
‘Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.’
So it appears there is an element of inevitability suggested by the word Cupid; Cupid being the Roman god of love and fate being in the hands of the gods.
Sehr Sarwar 10PF
[1336 words]
