Beatrice and Benedick are indubitably the most interesting and well liked characters in the play. A bond is created between the reader and Beatrice and Benedick because of there realistic and pragmatic nature. The reader can relate to these two characters better than anyone else in the play.
Beatrice comes across as being witty, intelligent, energetic but lonely. We establish that from an early age she has been the orphaned cousin who seems to be on the outside of many things. However her position and character allows Beatrice a freedom to be extreme in a way that Hero cannot. From the opening scene we can see that the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is a complex one full of underlying truths.
Hero and Claudio’s relationship is based on first impressions, ignorance and wealth. On the other hand, Beatrice and Benedick’s love is based on mutual respect, love and true admiration. In the beginning of the play, there is nothing short of obvious attraction between Beatrice and Benedick. It appears as though they are reluctant lovers cheated into a apprehensive relationship. In the opening act, they already argue as lovers as Benedick says the words
Benedick: You are a rare parrot teacher
Beatrice: A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.
Benedick: I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer: but keep your way a Gods name. I have done.
Beatrice: You always end with a jades trick, I know you of old.
They engage in a not so ‘merry war’ in which the objective is to cast the biggest insult at the other
Not only does this extract show us that Beatrice and Benedick do not get on, but it also hints that Beatrice and Benedick have had a previous relationship. When Beatrice says: ‘I know you of old’ shows that maybe they were already lovers and something happened which caused them to part.
In Act two Beatrice describes her ideal man. Like Benedick, Beatrice isn’t that keen on getting married, her ideal man is impossibilities, she wants everything perfect. Unlike Benedick however Beatrice does not condemn marriage. She loves the idea that Claudio and Hero are getting and although she does not want marriage herself, however this will all change as the story progresses.
Although Beatrice appears to be heartless and critical, Beatrice is really very vulnerable. When Beatrice returns in Act 2 after fetching Claudio for Don Pedro, Benedick announces, in a hugely, extravagant fashion that he would rather be anywhere else than in the presence of Beatrice. He leaves promptly on Beatrice’s return on which Don Pedro states to Beatrice:
Don Pedro: Come, lady, you have lost the heart of Signor Benedick.
Beatrice: Indeed. My lord, he lent it me a while and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one: marry once before he won it of me, with false dice, therefore your grace may well say I have lost it.
This is another piece of evidence that shows us that Beatrice and Benedick were once more than just friends. Beatrice speaks of how she had Benedicks heart for a while, but lost it. There seems to be a sense of underlying regret and discontent in the fact that they are no longer together.
Beatrice reiterates in this scene her objective never to marry, however her attitude seems a little altered. An undeniable preoccupation marks her words as she watches the betrothal of Hero to Claudio:
“Good Lord, for alliance! There goes everyone to the world but I, and I am sunburnt. I may sit in a corner and cry ‘Heigh-ho for a husband!’”
Beatrice jokes, but it is difficult to ascertain how deeply she takes this matter. Don Pedro’s unexpected offer of himself to her in marriage also seems both flippant and serious, and Beatrice’s gentle rejection of him forces us to wonder whether she really does want to get married. Maybe Beatrice does want to get married but the man she loves hasn’t asked.
Towards the end of Act scene Don Pedro and Leanato hold conversation in which they praise Beatrice’s character, but also suggest that Beatrice and Benedick would make a suitable couple.
This paragraph shows that it’s not only the reader who thinks that the two should be together. Don Pedro and Leanato devise a plan to make the two of them fall in love, showing the manipulative and intervening aspect of the book.
Act 2 scene three is the turning point in the relationship of Beatrice and Benedick. Don Pedro, Leanato and Claudio commence in deceiving Benedick. They talk about how Beatrice is madly in love with Benedick, but dares not to tell him of her love.
The three men agree that Benedick would be stupid to turn away a woman as fine as Beatrice, because he presently seems unworthy of a woman like her.
When they go to leave, amazed Benedick begins to think.
He comes to the conclusion that he is actually deeply in love with Beatrice, and he will do everything to turn her love.
‘When I said I would die a Batchelor I did not think I would live to be married – here comes Beatrice: by this day she’s a fair lady, I do spy some marks of love in her.
It is interesting that like Claudio, Benedick is quick to say that he is love. However I think that the reason for this is Benedicks love for Beatrice is so strong that it only takes a few words for him to admit that he loves her. Claudio’s love for Hero seems rather hasty and unplanned as oppose to the history and likeness of character between Beatrice and Benedick.
The same can also be said for Beatrice.
The ploy that Hero and Ursula play upon Beatrice works just as well as the one Don Pedro and Claudio play upon Benedick in the foregoing scene, as Beatrice, just as Benedick does, decides to finish defy marriage and return her apparent pursuer’s love.
Like Benedick it does not take a lot for Beatrice to declare her love.. Margaret is sent to tell Beatrice that Hero and Ursula are speaking about her in the orchard. In the same way as Benedick, Beatrice steals in to eavesdrop on their conversation. They speak of Benedicks love for Beatrice, and of her scornful and proud nature.
Just as Benedick is moved to prove the talkers wrong, so Beatrice seems to be stirred to show that she does have compassion and a heart after all. When Hero says,
“Therefore let Benedick, like cover’d fire, consume away in sighs, waste inwardly. It were a better than die with mocks,”
Beatrice is enthused to rescue Benedick and also to attest that she is not pitiless enough to be as vindictive as Hero seems to think she is . She can love, and be loved.
Beatrice’s speech at the end of the scene resembles greatly that of a love sonnet, with the quatrains and rhyming couplets. There seems to be a lot of truth in the things that she says. She really does love Benedick, and her not wanting to marry was merely a front, so she didn’t have to face humiliation or rejection.
Shows that the plan has succeeded and the indeed have admitted there love for each other. There seems to be a lot of truth in the things that she says.
Throughout the play, Beatrice and Benedicks relationship is without doubt the most interesting. The complexity of it captivates the reader, as they want to know how there relationship turns out. The similarities of characters comically show the two are really meant for each other, but there both to stubborn to admit their feelings. The relationship of Beatrice and Benedick also contrasts to the relationship of Claudio and Hero.
Claudio, upon returning from war, looks upon Hro as the most attractive creature in the world. He declares to Benedick, with no hesitation that he intends to marry Hero. What does he know of her apart from her external beauty? A wealth that with it comes power, that would be part of the package were Claudio to marry Hero. Something which undoubtedly Claudio finds appealing and would help in clouding his judgement on Hero’s actual personality.
Somehow, both Claudio and Hero are prepared to fall in love and marry. They are young and hardly know each other which make the whole affair slightly implausible, compared to Beatrice and Benedick who are older and so adamant to marry, but who eventually show the stronger love. It appears that Claudio has fallen in love with Hero on looks alone. In the case of Benedick it is apparent that a woman should be more than just pretty, as he appears to disagree with Claudio’s fascination with the beauty of Hero.
Benedick’s respect for Beatrice is, at first, clouded by fear and confusion, not based only on her appearance, but on her character and vibrant spirit. An established believer in his own bachelorhood, Benedick would not be persuaded from his principles for anything less than a intelligent woman of inner splendour. This is how he differs dramatically from Claudio whose first impression is based merely on Hero’s beauty.
To me Claudio and Hero’s relationship comes across as a childish romance which although is supposed to be the main storyline, is over cast by the passion between Beatrice and Benedick.
Both Claudio and Hero are young and innocent. This shines through in a number of different ways throughout the novel. Hero
