Beatrice and Benedick portray the more experienced and cynical lovers. Their relationship is more realistic because they argue and bicker. They are both brought together by deception and when they are tricked into loving each other it doesn’t take long for them to change their ways. In the ‘gulling’ of Beatrice and Benedick their bad points and weaknesses are pointed out to them so they can change. They are both said to be scornful and that if Beatrice told Benedick how she felt ‘he’ll scorn it’ because he has a ‘contemptible spirit’. The qualities of the other person are also expressed to make them sound more appealing. Benedick is said to be ‘valiant’ and have a good ‘shape’, and Beatrice is said to be ‘wise’ and ‘virtuous’. When each person is told of these qualities, they both realise that they’re true and that maybe they are suitably matched after all. Similar phrases of trapping are also used; ‘she’s limed’, ‘he will bite’. These similarities show that they are well suited for one another.
In Act 2 Scene 3 and Act 3 Scene 1, when they have both been tricked, they are alone and they express their feelings in a soliloquy. In each soliloquy, Beatrice and Benedick say they will change and love each other; ‘I will requite thee’, but Beatrice is quicker to say she will change. Benedick’s soliloquy is written in prose and he worries too much about his reputation as a man and what his friends will think and say about him. He thinks they will mock him so he makes up excuses for his changes; ‘when I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I would live till I were married’. Beatrice doesn’t worry about her reputation and about people mocking her because she loves Benedick.
When Hero is humiliated by Claudio, Beatrice asks Benedick to prove his love by killing his noble friend: Claudio. By asking him to do this, it is as if Beatrice is testing Benedick’s love for her. When Benedick agrees to this it shows how much he loves Beatrice and what he is willing to do for love. In the play we also see Benedick trying to write poetry for Beatrice which is almost as if he has turned into a conventional lover. Beatrice and Benedick both agree that they are ‘too wise to woo peaceably’ because there is too much wit between them. In some ways they are opposite, but opposites attract. At the end of the play Beatrice and Benedick are no longer seeking to score points off each other but take delight in their playful banter. When they realise they are meant for each other Benedick says ‘I take thee for pity’ to which Beatrice replies ‘partly to save your life, for I was told, you were in a consumption’, but instead of carrying on the witty banter, they are more content and Benedick stops her with a kiss; ‘peace I will stop your mouth’.
In the exposition of the play we find out that Claudio is a charming young man who is heroic and brave; ‘doing in the figure of a lamb the feats of a lion’. Claudio, being the conventional idealistic lover, uses metaphorical language to describe Hero as a ‘jewel’ whereas Benedick thinks more realistically about love and women. Claudio saw Hero before he went to war but didn’t really notice her because he ‘looked upon her with a soldier’s eye’, but now he is back he is thinking more like a lover.
Even though Hero is in the scene, she doesn’t say anything which shows she is subservient, modest and passive and plays the dutiful daughter, unlike Beatrice who is outspoken and independent. When Claudio accuses her of being a ‘common stale’ she shows she is subservient by not defending herself. When Hero is in public she is passive but when she is on her own she is feisty and witty. Hero and Claudio’s relationship is formal and in public whereas Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship is playful but also private. Their relationship is defined by social expectation and constraint and Claudio who is the typical dominant male is influenced by his reputation.
When Claudio is tricked into thinking Hero is having an affair he doesn’t confront her about it, he decides to humiliate her in front of everyone because he is worried about his reputation so he wants to ruin hers. When calls her a ‘rotten orange’ and an ‘approvèd wanton’ she just acts confused instead of denying everything. When Claudio humiliates her at the altar, Hero doesn’t try to defend herself she just says ‘is my lord well, that he doth speak so wide’ which shows she is in disbelief.
When Claudio finds out that Hero was innocent and that he had “killed” her for no reason he mourns her because he feels guilty. At the wedding when he finds out Hero is alive she still shows signs of passiveness and is very quick to forgive him, unlike Beatrice who would have probably yelled at him.
The relationship between Beatrice and Benedick in the play is more evenly matched than that of Hero and Claudio’s where Claudio is the more dominant partner. In some ways, both relationships are influenced by reputation at some point: Benedick’s reputation for being a bachelor and Claudio’s reputation and how it influences his actions towards Hero.
