I believe that this play has a happy ending and not a sad ending. I understand it might not be a happy ending because Hero doesn’t say anything when they decide to fake her death and then make her marry Claudio again, who had humiliated her and slapped her in the face. The scene where Claudio and Hero are about to get married until Claudio humiliates Hero is tragic. Claudio goes completely off scale, first he is gullible into believing that Hero had sex with another man (Borachio) when it was Margret and he didn’t check with Hero after, his next mistake was to go on a full scale humiliation in the wedding rather telling her before the wedding or cancelling it. That was when the ‘hamartiu’ happened. In Don Jon’s point of view there is another sad part as his plan didn’t really work and it was all for nothing and this is the same for Borachio as they were in it together. So really in 2 scenes Claudio makes a few mistakes which were fatal.
It is a happy ending not a sad ending because of many reasons. One of them is that the way the play ended everyone was happy and cheerful, it was as if nothing bad had ever happened. Claudio and Hero were happy, so were Benedick and Beatrice. Even if Don Pedro didn’t get to marry I’m sure he was happy for the others. Leonato was happy, he was happy for the marriage and that her daughter still had her honour.
If he was happy I’m sure his brother and the friar are happy as they helped with the plan. The scene where Claudio goes and mourn for Hero’s death was a bit like a turning point. The audience know that it will be a happy ending and that Claudio will marry Hero (but the audience know this when Leonato and the others talk about it after Claudio and the others left). Leonato knows thing will get better when everything when Claudio agrees to marry his brother’ daughters
That is why I believe it is not a tragedy because most people were happy. It also ended in a happy way. Everyone was celebrating and dancing. Claudio was happy as he was forgiven, Hero was happy even though she didn’t get a say. Claudio and Hero were very happy together and it was a one off, so both of them are happy. Beatrice and Benedick are happy as they got married and it also showed when they wrote letters about each other.
Shakespeare wanted it to be a happy ending but wanted to put a twist so that the audience were always going to be curious. It was a comedy genre. It was a happy ending. He wanted us to see as a kind of tragedy but it was a happy ending. It was like there was to be a moral from the story. It was that you should stay true and think about thing that may harm others and also not to judge people from a few actions. Like when Claudio decided to humiliate Hero at the wedding when he could have talked to her before the wedding or go to Hero’s chamber and actually see it was her having sex with another man. When it was Margaret and another person. I would say it was like a happy, romantic comedy of what we were supposed to think when we left the theatre.
I don’t think we should feel outraged at how hero was treated. Also just going back to the point about the moral of the play. Claudio made a mistake and so did Margaret for not properly sticking up for Hero. We shouldn’t judge people for a mistake. For that reason I believe it is not a ‘tragedy’ of how it ended but as ‘happy’ ending. Hero didn’t get a say but it kept the audience on their toes of what she was thinking. How do we know if Hero was sad about this? She could have felt sad and angry because she had to marry Claudio, the same man who had humiliated her in the wedding. At the same time she could have felt happy and just a bit emotional that she could marry the person she loves and that he was sorry. When Claudio and Hero went for the second marriage, her faced showed that she had forgiven him and she looked genuinely thrilled. I don’t think we should feel outraged for Hero.
