Much ado about nothing

Hero is a modest and well behaved young daughter of Leonato the governor of Messina Hero, depicted as a virtuous and mild young woman proves to be loving, affectionate, and dutiful to her father, her cousin, and to her fiancé. Claudio describes her as a jewel, and in appearance she is fair, young, short, and dark-haired. She is referred to by other characters in the play as being gentle and modest but also dependent from her father in contrast with Beatrice.

Also the main thing included on the Shakespeare's writing is the women rights. Therefore the societies in England and Italy were dominated by mans, girls have to obey and do what their fathers and husbands say.

This is basically what happens in the story as well not to forget mentioning the fact that Claudio believed that Hero was not a virgin.

So he never trusted her, and if she really loved her, he should have accepted her the way she was and not giving her back to her father by saying "There, Leonato, take her back again" treating her as an object.

Therefore the two couples that I will compare show two contrasting type of love one of the heart love felt between Claudio and Hero and one of extreme distaste for the other shown between Benedick and Beatrice meaning that what is happening to this two couples is love but of course in different feelings and showed in different ways.

Beatrice and Benedick are never civil with each other, they never show it while Claudio and Hero are deeply in love and they show it.

This play contrasts the relationships of Benedick and Beatrice to the one that Claudio and Hero have, to bring out the theme of appearance and the reality.

However Benedick and Beatrice claimed that they don't have any interest in the opposite sex and never think about marriage in contrast with Hero and Claudio when they make an open declaration that is quite obvious to the audience and to the reader as well that they really are in love.

Therefore Benedick says "is loved of all ladies ......but truly he loves any......" while Beatrice in the other hand declares that she would rather "hear dog bark at a crow that a man swears he loves her......" this is where Shakespeare's uses animal imagery by comparing the humans with animals. And Benedick replying "God keep your ladyship still in that mind! So some gentleman or other......... Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher", also Benedick replying with an animal imagery too, by calling Beatrice a `parrot teacher` because she talk too much.

When Beatrice acknowledges her love for Benedick she declares that she is like an animal that needs to control her instincts and feelings "Benedick, love on /Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand."

Different from the other couple, Claudio declares that Hero is in his heart from the first time that he saw her. "In my eyes she is the sweetest lady that ever I look'd on." She fells in love with Claudio when he falls for her by saying that he wants her to be his wife "I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife?" meaning love with the first sight is always fortunate.

While Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into falling in love and they have so much in common therefore they are made for each other. In their relationship they hated one another, this is what brought them together and also their personalities were similar.

Benedick: "What my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?" in a way he is showing respect by calling her a lady.

Beatrice: It is possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick?

They both think that marriage was a "stupid institution" and they were both against marriage.

Beatrice and Hero as cousins talk about their lovers and Beatrice denying at the beginning that she doesn't like men she said "How tartly that gentleman looks! I never can see

him but I am heart-burned an hour after" saying that she can't stay without Benedick and whenever she sees him she ignores him and afterwards, she says that she is heart burned so she definitely feels something for him no matter how they show it.

Another contrast between the two couples is that Benedick is keen to be a romantic lover while Claudio is the opposite he fails to be a romantic lover because he fell in love with Hero's outside beauty instead of her inside beauty. He also thought that the outside look is more important that the inside look but always had it wrong.

Beatrice also shows how you can use love in a dangerous way while Claudio's love for Hero seems a very strange one when it can only be rekindled by her death meaning that she's is mostly seen as an object not a person in the eyes of Claudio this happens when Friar Frances tells Hero that she must pretend to die for Claudio to love her again. She is compared to a price whose value has not been fully realised, different from Beatrice and Benedick were they finally admit their love for each other.

The play also introduces the theme of deception. Hero ignores Claudio's words and she accepts him as her husband, even though he called her "rotten orange" and agreed to marry other girl. Hero and Claudio are first brought together by Don John dressing up as Claudio while Benedick and Beatrice's relationship also starts in deception were they both claim as I mentioned before that they are not interested in the opposite sex through Don Pedro's plan of deception were careful conversations are staged so Benedick can overhear Don Pedro and Claudio talking about the undying love between Beatrice and Benedick and in the other side the staged conversation between Margaret and Ursula talking about the sonnet that Benedick wrote to Beatrice and is overheard by Beatrice.

At the end of the play Hero and Claudio are together after the break that they had, apparently he saw her with another bloke and telling her that she was being unfaithful. But they were finally together by conveying the theme of love once again in the play.

Although Benedick and Beatrice at the end of the play they still use "word - play" in their exchanges were Benedick means what it says by telling Beatrice that he loves her. He calls her "sweet".

Finally at the end of the play the mood of the play returns in comedy even though Beatrice and Benedick make jokes the audience can easily seen that they love is true. Claudio and Hero's love seems less serious in comparison and more about the restoring Hero's reputation than any true feeling.

However as the conclusion I would like to say as the all Shakespeare's play this has a happy ending too when a double wedding happens both couples get married.

Perhaps that most importantly Hero's innocence is justified and also the public interpretation of appearance is everything when Hero's name is disgraced and she is guilty evens thou in the public eye.

This all happens in Act 5 scene1 when in these scene much of the drama play is resolved and there is a sense of the world which is been turned upside down and this sets up the theme of regeneration developed later with the idea of Hero's rebirth and all started from the beginning.

Reference:

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xMuchAdo.html#Much%20Ado

http://www.gcseguide.co.uk/much_ado_about_nothing.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Much_Ado_About_Nothing

Text book: Oxford School Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing

Iris Bazi Much Ado about nothing

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