As Beatrice approaches Benedick, he completely falls for the trick and thinks that Beatrice loves him. “I do spy some marks of love in her” seems to be a more welcoming and warm sentence than his cold and miserable remarks in the previous extract. “You take pleasure then in the message?” Benedick is trying to coax Beatrice to admit that she loves him and thinks that her cold remarks are just covering up her real love for him. “If I do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not love her, I am a Jew. I will go get her picture.” He is far more considerate and caring than he was before and insults himself instead of other people.
Before being gulled, Benedick said to Claudio, “Go to i’faith, an thou wilt needs thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it and sigh away.” He contradicts himself and explains his past behaviour by saying, “I have railed so long against marriage. But doth no the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.” Benedick is matured now and is past his youth; his ‘appetite altered’. The two quotations are very different because the first is about marriage being like a punishment that you walk into; in this, he uses imperatives and bitter phrases. The second is explaining himself and how his way of thinking has changed; in this, a rhetorical question makes what he is saying more persuasive.
Benedick changes his mind because he realises that deep inside he loves Beatrice; something he could only find out when he ‘knows’ that Beatrice loves him. Don Pedro, Claudio and Leonato (especially Don Pedro) are aware of this, which encourages them to gull Benedick. They use exaggerated lies like, “Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beat her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses – ‘O sweet Benedick! God give me patience.’ ” Leonato is involved in the scheme, which makes it more believable because Benedick respects him whereas Don Pedro and Claudio are his comrades. Hero is mentioned in the gulling, which confirms that Beatrice must love him because her and Hero are very close. Deep inside, I think Benedick wants to change his views and the gulling helps him open his true self up.
On the surface, Benedick seems to be a proud, sexist “professed tyrant” yet he really is a kind and sensitive character when he thinks of Beatrice. “By this day, she’s a fair lady” says he and the impression an audience gets of him is that he is determined to put on a manly and proud front, yet inside he is quite soft and a little bit naïve. Shakespeare cleverly uses dramatic irony because Benedick and Beatrice are antagonistic from the start, but everyone knows that they secretly love each other deep inside.
