Beatrice however is completely the opposite of Hero. She is highly articulate and uses her wit constantly to attack romantic love. Shakespeare portrays Beatrice as a strong and independent feminist. From the very beginning of the play, she starts of by insulting Benedick, which immediately contrasts to Hero’s quiet romantic character. She soon makes it clear in Act II scene I that she doesn’t need a husband, “Just, if he send me no husband for the blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening. I could not endure husband.” However, despite the fact that Beatrice displays an image of herself as a woman who does not need to follow the expectations of an unmarried daughter in her social circle and get married. Her view soon changes when Hero and Ursula’s plan to get her and Benedick together make her vulnerable to love. In Act II scene I, the play focuses upon her antipathy towards marriage, and men as marriageable propositions. She clearly enjoys the company of men, but as a ‘kinsmen’ and friends rather than lovers. However, her determination to live unmarried is a source of amusement to her companion rather than a sign of shame. But despite the fact that Shakespeare portrays Beatrice as a woman who has a strong mind of her own, she appears to be quite vulnerable and less cynical towards love as soon as she is encouraged by other characters as we can see in Act III scene I. In this scene the plot to match Beatrice and Benedick is taken over by Hero and Ursula. When Beatrice overhear the two women sympathising Benedick for being so in love with such a woman as Beatrice, with her hard heart making it impossible for any man to have their love for her returned, while criticising Beatrice’s scathing attitude towards marriage at the same time. She immediately steps out of her originally cynical character, which had been so objective to love and instantly opens herself up to the sensitivities and weaknesses of love. This become more apparent towards the end of Act IV scene I, in this scene Benedick and Beatrice both claims their love for each other and it is in this scene that we see a great change to Beatrice’s character. For example, “I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest”. And so although Beatrice is portrayed by Shakespeare as a character who is cynical towards and love rather than a romantic character like Hero, she is still able to change under the influence of other characters. However, even when she has changed her views on love, she still seems to be slightly unsure. This can be seen at the end of Act IV scene I, when Benedick refuses to kill Claudio for her, she immediately says that his love for her isn’t true as can be seen in this next quote – “I am gone though I am here; there is no love in you.” From this example we can see that Beatrice seem to think that love is so overwhelming that if Benedick truly loved her then he will kill for her and if he doesn’t then love is truly as false as she originally thought. And so throughout the play of Much Ado About Nothing Beatrice is portrayed as a character who stands for the right of women. She questions the conventional role played by women, which is to be taken for granted by men and stands out as a character of conviction and is overall an unforgettable heroine in the context of Shakespearean love stories.
Since Much Ado About Nothing is a romantic comedy, the primary focus is obviously on love and marriage. However, even though love and marriage was a major idea in Elizabethan England, Shakespeare presents to us different views and perspectives on the matter through the two female characters. From the two main couples in this play we can understand their different views on commitment throughout the play and because of this the audience is able to learn what Elizabethan England expected from young women and what women were really like. And so it is of paramount importance that Shakespeare portrays the characters of Hero and Beatrice so differently and allow them to each contribute dramatically to the play in their own ways. During the period of Elizabethan England, marriage was a very important matter to people especially of high status. Usually it was the father’s decision as to whom he gave his daughter to and is was seem as a shame if the daughter interfered with any decision made about her marriage. And so the audience are able to sense this through the way Hero is portrayed throughout the play. Although Hero does not contribute dramatically to the play very much, her presence is very important as it presents the way a model daughter was like in Elizabethan England. And so it would have been a great shock as well as shame for Leonato and the Shakespeare’s audience when the fact that Hero has lost her virginity before marriage is revealed. From this we can get ideas on how the Elizabethans handled virginity especially before marriage. Which is sort of ironic because it is amazing to see how someone who is as dutiful as Hero being praised and considered to be proud of by her father but when Claudio humiliates and embarrasses her in front of all the people attending their wedding because he believes that she has been unfaith. Leonato quickly changes his views on Hero and immediately jumps to the conclusion that he wanted her dead as a result of the shame she has caused him. We can also tell from this the role of the women in deciding her fate and whom she marries. However despite the way the Elizabethans treated marriage, Shakespeare portrays Beatrice in a very different way. Unlike Hero, Beatrice can be seen to contribute dramatically greatly to the play, especially on the subject of marriage. And we can see this through the relationship between her and Benedick. They both have similar negative attitudes to romantic love and although they both know it is important to get married they both appear to want their individuality. We can see this from a quote from Beatrice during Act II scene I “just, if he send me no husband; for which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening. Lord, I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face I had rather lie in the woollen” However, it is important that Shakespeare portrays Beatrice in the way that her character is because it is only through her strong personality that the play can benefit from her dramatic appearances and also the audience are able to see how ridiculous the Elizabethan expectations of marriages were.
Other themes, which comes up in Much Ado About Nothing, is hour and pride, which we can learn through the relationship between Hero and Leonato. All the main characters have a strong sense of their own place in society and their actions are driven by a need to preserve this status. Status, power and wealth are very important social indicators, which is why the relationship between Hero, Leonato and Claudio plays a big part in the social significance of the play. Leonato is aware that he has power and is apart of a high social circle therefore he expects total compliance form Hero. And so he is honoured when his daughter would be marrying the Prince’s close friend. However when Hero’s virtue is questioned, Leonato’s sole thought is for the public arena of dishonour. “Why doth not every earthly thing?” His pride as Hero’s father is immediately damaged and this wounds him so deeply that he wished her dead. But pride is not taken too far as Beatrice and Benedick are able to learn to temper this in themselves. They learn to see pride as an unsafe matter and are able to dismiss it before they forfeit their happiness.
Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses imagery as well as a number of metaphors. Images are often linked to the theme of appearance and reality. The ideas of fashion disguise and masking as well as ideas about making mistakes, things not being what they seem, and language confusing the problem rather than clarifying the situation are all essential in a comical play. During the play, there is constantly imagery to do with dressing up as someone else. For example in Act II scene I when the men come in with masks on and also at the end of the play when Hero disguises herself as her identical looking cousin.
Shakespeare also uses poetic devices in the language he used in order to create atmosphere, mood and plot. This was partly due to the fact that the Shakespearian theatres were unsophisticated places. The language has hints of poetry by rhythm and rhyme, imagery by means of simile and metaphor, languages techniques such as alliteration. An example of a metaphor which Shakespeare uses is “Why, he is the prince’s jester: a very dull fool, only his gift is in devising impossible slanders…” Here Beatrice unwittingly complains about Benedick to the man himself. Her comparison of Benedick to a fool exemplifies her love of single life. Thus, much of the comedy of the play revolves about a transformation of her character into a hopeless romantic.
Shakespeare also uses dramatic irony to give the play greater appeal to his audiences. There are a number of evidences throughout the play, for example during the early chapters the audience witnesses the match making, to bring Beatrice and Benedick together, by the rest of the characters, while the two victims of love is left completely clueless. Dramatic irony is also used when Claudio and Don Pedro witnesses what they think is Hero’s debauchery while the audience is let on to the fact that Don John and Borachio has planned to stir trouble between Hero and Claudio. Another example is right at the end of the play, when the audience knows about the plan to marry Hero to Claudio as Hero’s identical looking cousin. Dramatic irony plays a great part throughout the book as well as to the theme of noting. It seems to by intended by Shakespeare to signal the importance of observation, spying and eavesdropping in the play; in addition to that he then uses the problems of illusion, deception and subjectivity of perception to examine the Elizabethan patriarchy
Shakespeare was born in early 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon in England. He was born to a glove maker and a family of eight, him being the third. Since, his father later became the town's mayor, Shakespeare was able to study in the local grammar school and probably hunted and played sports in the open fields behind his home. By 1592, Shakespeare was married with three children and living in London where he was busy acting in plays and writing his own dramas. After the plague, during which he wrote a number of famous poems, Shakespeare moved onto writing all thirty-seven of his credited plays some of which were performed in the Globe Theatre. After 1608, it appears he went into semi-retirement, spending more time in Stratford and creating only five plays before his death on April 23, 1616. Much Ado About Nothing was written in the middle years of Shakespeare's career, during the Elizabethan period. By then he had already established himself as a dramatist. The play has fewer elements when compared with some of Shakespeare's other comedies. The setting here is drawn to resemble the world of the Elizabethan nobles although the language can sometimes by pretty ordinary, despite the witty dialogue in certain scenes.