How and how effectively are women presented in 'Much Ado about nothing'?

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How and how effectively are women presented in ‘Much Ado about nothing’?

        In this essay I will give a detailed analysis of the language used by

both characters; Hero and Beatrice. I will comment and contrast the way in

which they speak to people of both the same and opposite sex, relating their

personalities to this.  I shall also refer to their relationships between

themselves and the male characters.

        

The first woman character presented is Beatrice, whose opening line

is an insult towards a man; giving an ironic name to ‘Signor Mountanto.’

Benedick is a character, with whom Beatrice often fights, professing disdain.

This is extremely unladylike and not the usual way women should have

behaved in Shakespeare’s days, as they should have been silent gentle and

submissive. She is the only woman character portrayed to be opinionated,

passionate, and witty, in Shakespeare’s time these kinds of women were

often frowned upon and evoked suspicion. The way that Shakespeare found

to explore this issue was by using comedy.

        Because of her personality, she has no time or use for men as she

admits that she ‘had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he

loves me’. This totally sums up Beatrice in terms of her attitude and her

emotions, claiming her heart is harder than Benedick’s; we later discover

this is not the truth.  Beatrice is shown to be a rebellious character because

of the way she mocks both her father and her uncle when they talk about

marriage. She is determined not to marry and advises her cousin to be

independent rather then marry someone her father chooses (if he happens to

be ugly),

 ‘It is my cousin’s duty to make curtsy and say, ‘Father, as it please you.’

But yet for all that, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another

curtsy and say, ‘Father, as it please me’.’

Subsequently, Beatrice is not afraid of being unattractive because of

her sharp tongue, and suggests that women should not be inferior to men and

men should not be so overpowering. ‘Not till God make men of some other

metal than earth! Would it not grieve a women to be over-mastered with a

piece of valiant dust?’ Beatrice is referring to Genesis in the bible where

man was said to be made of the ‘dust of the earth’. She may be expressing

her worries about marriage, describing it as a route to death and decay, as

dust has these connotations. Her understanding here could be corroborated

by her long speech about marriage, saying it is like a set of dances,

subsequently, ending in ‘sink into his grave’. It seems she is worried that the

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‘hot and hasty’ Scotch jig of wooing will end in the ‘cinquepace’ of

repentance.

        

         Although Beatrice often puts herself down, claiming she is not of any

worth, ‘Thus goes everyone to the world but I, and I am sunburnt’ meaning

she is unattractive literally because she was left outdoors too long and her

skin has browned (In Elizabethan times skin should have been white), she

still has a marriage proposal from Don Pedro. Instead of accepting she

denies him ‘your grace is too costly to ...

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