Look at the Characters of Benedick and Claudio and their feelings of love towards Hero and Beatrice, respectively. Which relationship has the greater chance of success?

Authors Avatar

Look at the Characters of Benedick and Claudioand their feelings of love towards Hero and Beatrice, respectively. Which relationship has the greater chance of success?

By Bethany Edwards

Maan is a tragi comedy with the main plot revolving around the love interests of the two couples, Beatrice and Benedick, Hero and Claudio.

The play is set in Messina Italy and begins as the men are returning from war as victors. Love and romance are ver much in the air, given that both sexes have been deprived of each other’s company for a considerable amount of time. As the play develops, we see how the 4 lovers are very different as individuals as is each of their views on love.

Our first impressions of Claudio are not that of a man who takes love very seriously but one who considers it to be another hobby used to take up the time especially now he has returned from war. ”But now I am returned, and that war thoughts have left their places vacant, in their rooms come thronging soft and delicate desires, all prompting me how fair you Hero is.” This tells us two things about Claudio, that he has based his feelings for Hero purely upon physical attraction because he is describing how lovely she is without actually having engaged in conversation with her and that he perceives love as a hobby. His main priority was fighting in war, now that he has returned from his duties he needs something to occupy his time and he feels love is on the cards. This shows Claudio to be very immature and shows that he doesn’t take love seriously. Claudio’s feelings for Hero are very superficial and shallow as he decides he is going to marry her the moment he sees her. He uses the phrase “in mine eye” to indicate that he thinks she is beautiful, again basing his feeling upon physical beauty not personality. Claudio asks the opinions of his friends several times “tell me how thou likest her”. This shows us that Claudio needs a lot of reassurance and needs to be given confidence in his opinions. He seems to be extremely gullible and easily lead. It is apparent that his friends opinions on Hero matter to him and we get the impression that if his friends disapproved or didn’t like Hero he would be easily swayed into being put off the idea of marriage. It seems that he puts his social stature before his feelings for Hero. Another substantial reason for Claudio’s motives for marriage are expressed when he asks Don Pedro “Hath senior Leonato any son, my lord?” and Don Pedro replies “ no child but Hero, she is his only heir.” This means that if Claudio marries Hero he will inherit all her father money, another reason why Claudio would want to marry Hero but not for romantic reasons. Claudio also portrays his immaturity on many occasions in the play, which shows that he is evidently not ready for the commitment marriage entails. He asks Don Pedro arrange the marriage and proposals, I feel that if he loved her enough he would at least ask her to marry him in person and not get his friend to do it for him. During this period in the play we also hear Leonato telling Hero to agree if Don Pedro asks her to marry him, as getting married was a filial duty. Hero and Claudio hardly converse at all in the play and they are not aware of the others personality I do not think this is a good basis for a relationship of any kind.

Join now!

The first impressions of Benedick are totally contrasting to those of Claudio. The first time Benedick is mentioned is when Beatrice refers him to as “senior montanto”; she asks, “is senior Montanto returned from wars or no?” This shows 3 things, one that Beatrice is interested in the well being of Benedick, that she already knows of him and that their relationship is of a comical genre because of the nickname she chooses to give him. It also gives us an insight into the character of Beatrice. She is probably one of the strongest characters Shakespeare has ever written. She ...

This is a preview of the whole essay