How does Shakespeare convey men and women’s relationships and attitudes to love, sex and marriage in contemporary society in Act IV scene I of Much Ado About Nothing?
Contemporary society in Shakespeare’s time treated marriages between the wealthy and privileged as largely business transactions. It was very much a patriarchal society; women were very weak and powerless. Fathers used their daughters as assets to bargain with as long as they were virgins. If daughters happened not to be virgins they were seen as worthless and insignificant. They would dishonour their family and disgrace themselves.
This was not just a question of abstract morality. Titles, wealth and therefore power were passed down through the pure bloodline. If the mother had not been a virgin on marriage then the identity of the father of the first child could be in doubt. Bastards could not inherit under the law and were not treated as equals. They were also seen as a threat to legitimate heirs. Shakespeare conveys this in his portrayal of Don John as scheming, jealous, cruel and cowardly. These attitudes however only applied to those of importance in society as we see from Shakespeare’s portrayal of Margaret, Hero’s servant. The fact that she was playing around and flirting with Borachio was behaviour that the audience of the time would have expected. She was never going to be the mother of an heir so her virginity was unimportant. In this society love was rarely a consideration in marriage; daughters were born possessions of their fathers and then passed on to be the possessions of their husbands.