Much Ado About Nothing - Characterization of Hero

because Don John, the bastard, tries to frame her and her fiancé Claudio. He hatches a plot to convince Claudio, that Hero is unchaste. Because of that, the innocent Hero is accused at her wedding day, in front of the altar, of sleeping around. She gets so nervous and faints. Hero is  declared dead and can only awake when her innocence is  proven Everything turns out good at the end, and they get married. In the following I will characterize Hero, a beautiful (1/1,171), young woman (1/1,278), who is dark-haired (1/1,157), small (1/1,157), and described as a "jewel" (1/1,165), "a modest young lady" (1/1,150), "the sweetest lady" (1/1,171) by Claudio. She is friendly and well-behaved (3/4,26) , and when she speaks she is mostly very factual and enlightening (1/1,33). But she can also be very cheeky (2,1,79-90) I have the impression Hero knows what she wants and does not let herself be influenced by others (3/4,6-11). She also knows exactly what she is talking about and is able to express herself very correctly in a calm way (4/1,76-80). You can see this as a weakness or as a strength. One thing is for sure, that she is very timid (4/1), because when Hero is accused at the alter of being unfaithful, she is not able to prove her innocence, turns red in the face (4/1,41) and just talks when she is asked. Before the wedding she is already quite nervous (3/4,23). She never throws a temper and is more docile, which probably makes it hard for Hero to enforce obedience. In 3/1, Hero also proves to be clever and witty, she has thought out a fabulous plan to trick Beatrice and seems to have talent to fool people. Also in this act she is very smart in what she says, to make Beatrice interested and to convince her of Benedick's love. In comparison to Beatrice, Hero plays an unspectacular role. She's the weaker one, the small, pretty, silent girl with the tragic fate, while Beatrice, probably the favourite of the audience/reader, fascinates them with her vivacious, humorous, witty charm. Beatrice presents the self-confident woman who never let's herself be pulled in to pieces and creates movement in the play with her ironical dialogs (with Benedick and all other characters). Mostly when Hero is speaking the play seems to be more tragic (except in (3/1)) and when Beatrice talks the action turns into a amusing comedy. Beatrice has a character which isn't quit as normal for a woman in this time and maybe that makes her more interesting. Although these two women are so different, they get along very well. They, help each other, trust each other and stand by each other, in all situations. The relationship between Hero and Claudio is unusual for our time, because they never really talk to each other, just at the wedding day, where Claudio accuses Hero (4/1) and in (2/1,285) / (2/1,292 Beatrice: "...My cousin tells him in his ear that he is in her heart."). Therefore it is not really sure if they love one another. Despite all of the rigmarole that is caused by Don John, Claudio wins Hero's love in the end and she quickly forgives him (Hero: "and when I liv'd, I was your other wife; and when you lov'd, you where my other husband." , (5/4,60)), besides it is intelligible that Claudio reacted in such a way. Shocking is just that her father doesn't stands by her in this situation, and believes Claudio. He even wishes the death of his own daughter (4/1,122), which shows that he doesn't really loves her. Customs and values are the  most important thing for him. Till the dilemma at the wedding day, he was always very proud of his daughter, and totally infatuated with her (4/1,135-137)  Leonato has to be a single parent because the mother of Hero is never mentioned. Still he did a quite good job in raising Hero to a worthy lady (1/1,209) that obeys him. Leonato even tells her in a nice way to marry Claudio (2/1,58-60), ((2/1,46) Beatrice: "Yes, faith, it is my cousin's duty to make curtsy and say 'Father, as it please you.'.") Altogether I have the impression Hero is a amiable person, and I'm glad that the play finds a happy end. Probably it is not that easy for many readers to accept the romantic relationship between Hero and Claudio. After all they have barely met before they fall in love with each other and decide to get married right away. But the idea of love at first sight was popular in Shakespeare's day. Romeo and Juliet, for instance, fall in love at first sight.