Explain how Shakespeare portrays men and women and relationships in Much Ado about Nothing

Throughout the play Claudio feels insecure in the relationship with Hero, they hardly ever talk and Claudio is quick to believe Don Johns deception that Hero is unfaithful to him. ‘Beauty is a witch whose spells can turn loyalty into passion. This happens a lot, but it didn’t occur to me that it would happen to me. Goodbye then, Hero.’ Men in Shakespeare’s time had a fear of a woman’s beauty and feared becoming emotionally dependent on their power. Although Shakespeare used the relationship between Claudio and Hero to portray the attitudes of the Elizabethan time, whereby men were strong and dependable, and women were portrayed as weaker and reliant. Extreme shyness underlines Claudio and Hero’s traditional relationship. Hero’s beauty and romantic ideal of love strikes Claudio’s heart. ‘Can the world buy such a jewel?’ he asks before proclaiming that ‘she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on’ and promising ‘I would scarce trust myself...if Hero would be my wife.’ By comparing Hero to a jewel, Shakespeare shows the utter admiration Claudio has for Hero. Shakespeare has also used the metaphor of a jewel in Romeo and Juliet, where there was also a sense of admiration, ‘Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear’.

The relationship between Benedick and Beatrice is, however, not a traditional relationship. They both seem unable to commit to each other but by the help of their friends Benedick was convinced that Beatrice had feelings for him. His feelings for her changed from his feelings at the start of the play and he misread her comments to him. Benedick’s relationship with Beatrice is established in the play from the first meeting of the pair. When Beatrice says ‘I wonder that you will still be talking, Signor Benedick, nobody marks you’ the audience may have been shocked by her daring manner, as at this point in the play they do not know of her history with Benedick.  However Benedick responds quickly with ‘What my Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?’ By this it shows he is teasing her age, her insignificance and it indicates that they are evenly matched. Benedick and Beatrice share a very turbulent relationship, both constantly sparring with each other and trading insults. For example in Act 1 Scene 1, the character of Beatrice shows her hatred towards Benedick by using petty comments such as ‘A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours’ meaning that Beatrice would rather be a squawking bird than an animal like Benedick. The character of Beatrice with her feisty attitude and ‘ahead of her time’  way of looking at relationships with men, could be likened to Queen Elizabeth 1, who was on the throne at the time when Shakespeare wrote this play. From the first scene of the play, the audience receives a sense of the characters’ defiant wit and attitude and Shakespeare is careful to point out the unspoken history between Beatrice and Benedick. Beatrice is a proud woman who feels insulted by the way Benedick had treated her in the past.  In her very first line, ‘I pray you, is Signior Montanto returned from the wars or no?’ she addresses Benedick as ‘Signior Montanto’, suggesting he is a ‘macho’ man by using a play on words with sexual connotations. From this gesture, Beatrice is perceived as a fiery, outgoing character which would have been alien to the Elizabethan audiences as the norm would have been for a woman to be like Hero’s character.  The character of Beatrice would have been added for a comical effect.  

Through the portrayal of the main characters, Shakespeare has written a play which although deemed a comedy, has a dark and sinister side, but which ends happily. In the play Shakespeare writes about the four values; wit, virtue, honour, and love. Wit, being cleverness and intelligence, is shown through both the characters of Beatrice and Benedick. Virtue and honour are portrayed through innocent Hero, a character who does not sin, yet gets the most extreme punishment. Love is the universal theme, running through the play and targeting almost every character. All four Shakespearean values fit in with the characters and the plot of Much Ado about Nothing.

It is very evident that the play is packed with emotions and feelings rather than a structured storyline in a conventional play. However, the apprehension of every event seems to add suspense and tension to the whole play, overwhelming the audience with every type of emotion. The major “ado” or complication of Much Ado springs from Claudio’s accusation of Hero on the basis of a misconception, a trick, a nothing. The minor “ado” is the deception which unites Benedick and Beatrice at the point that Claudio and Hero separate. In conclusion, Shakespeare has succeeded in writing a play with no real meaning or relevance, but which has every aspect of a successful Shakespearean play.