At the beginning of the play the men Don Pedro, Don John, Claudio, Benedick, Leanato and Antonio return from war, from the onset the play focuses on Beatrice and Benedick, as the two central characters. Beatrice is portrayed as a strong female character that speaks her mind, this is different because in the time period this play is set men were seen as more superior than women. Both Benedick and Beatrice are the comedy characters in this play that tend to argue a lot. When Beatrice hears that they are arriving back in Messina she immediately shows interest in Benedick ‘I pray you, is Signior Mountaintop return’d from the wars or no?’ However at this time this is only portrayed to the reader, as soon as Benedick arrives in the scene Beatrice starts to argue with Benedick she has sharp remarks as if she has thought them up and planned what she is going to say. For instance:
‘What my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?’
‘Is it possible Disdain should die, while she hath such meet food to feed it, as Signor Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to Disdain, if you come in her presence’
When Benedick says this to Beatrice he is implying that she is old because in this time, if you were old you would have had to be married. When Benedick says this it fires up Beatrice who instantly replies with a catty remark. Both Beatrice and Benedick tend to feed off of each other’s comments, the fact that Benedick mentions Beatrice’s age implies that she is old and single which at this time was quite unacceptable. Beatrice and Benedick have a tendency to outwit each other. Benedick puts pressure on Beatrice because of her age, however not much pressure is put on Beatrice to get married because she does not have a father figure so she is freer than most even though Beatrice lives with Leanato he has no say over her life because she is only Leonato’s niece.
At the opening of the play the relationship between Hero and Claudio is quite distant when he arrives from battle he reveals to Don Pedro how he feels about Hero, ‘No, I pray thee speak in sober judgment ’ nevertheless in this time period there were arranged marriages therefore no matter how much Hero and Claudio liked each other if Hero’s dad Leanato wanted her to marry the prince Don Pedro, she would be pressured to do so. Hero is portrayed as being the innocent, pure and quiet girl. Claudio seems to be shy because he allows Don Pedro to woo Hero for him at the masked ball ‘and I will break with her, and with her father’. This suggests that Don Pedro is going to interfere in Claudio and Hero’s business by talking to her at the masked ball.
With Leanato having Hero gives him the right to choose whom she should marry, the perfect candidate would be Don Pedro because he is in the right class he is the prince.
Hero was like the exact replica that women were expected to be during this time. Hero was beautiful, a maid, gentle and pure.
In the wedding scene the way Claudio lashes out at Hero is quite outrageous, if he loved Hero then why would he lash out at her without giving her a chance to explain. The way Hero reacts to this shows that she is in complete awe over what is happening to her, this was meant to be her wedding day the most memorable day in her life. Claudio only acts this way because of what he thinks he has seen in her bedroom window, Don John the evil brother of Don Pedro has blinded him. The way Claudio reacts to this was wrong he could have confronted Hero in a different way by talking to her before the ceremony actually began, this would cause less embarrassment on Hero and on her father. The way Claudio reacts could have been caused because he is love with her so much that he is shocked by what she has done to him, he feels that she has betrayed him even before they are married.
Leonato’s reaction at this time is very justified during the time period of ‘Much Ado’ women who were not pure or a ‘maid’ as they were called, was frowned upon. Leonato had only one daughter that was Hero, so he had always looked after her, to the city Messina Hero was seen as the perfect girl, but know that she had been accused of such an unfaithful thing the town looks down on her and pities her. In a way Leonato should not have said what he did to Hero, How could he just take sides? This was probably because men were seen as far more superior; obviously Leonato would believe what Claudio is saying but why?
Beatrice and Benedick are totally different from Hero and Claudio, they have a propensity to argue with each other which in some ways shows that they hate each other but also shows that they like to be around each other and have silly little arguments, their relationship seems to be based purely around social pressures, the only reason they really fell in love is because of what they have heard people saying, personally their relationship may not have blossomed if they had not overheard people talking about their relationship and how each of them likes one another.
Hero and Claudio have a more stable relationship they seem more loyal and look as though they would have a monogamous relationship with each other. Which is based more around true love than any thing else. They don’t seem to engage in too much conversation in the play, but even so it is still quite clear to the audience/ reader that they are very much in love.
In the wedding scene to a modern day audience they may feel that the actions were uncalled fore; a father may feel more companionate towards his daughter and more sympathetic, and would perhaps try and defend his daughter by shouting at the person making the accusations towards the daughter in question.
However a father of the Shakespearean time may say that the actions of Leanato is justified, nevertheless this is only because during this time when women were going to get married they would have had have been maids so to speak. If women were accused of not being a maid then obviously this would devastate the father and the guests so the father would lash out at the daughter because usually women did not marry if they were not maids.
In my opinion the way Leanato flew at Hero automatically assuming that she had slept with another man was quite shocking because you would think that Hero would be more important to him and so he would hear her side of the story but no, he just kept on shouting at her calling her names and saying things that you would never imagine a father saying to his daughter during such a horrible time.
“O Fate! Take not away thy heavy hand; Death is the fairest cover for her shame that may be wish’d for.”
This says that Hero’s father is so disappointed in her that he would even suggest let alone say that she should die because of what she has done, although it may have been something terrible during this time, this sort of reaction and thought was quite harsh to even suggest death upon his own daughter because of lie without even hearing her side of the story, there is really no need.
A father now would not even say or think such a thing, they would try to calm her down and listen to what she has to say, fathers would not just start wishing death upon her because of a false accusation.
In conclusion to the essay question I think that in some ways the play does relate back to social pressures and true love.
Claudio and Hero are seen as characters that are truly in love with each, they are put across as the perfect couple, Claudio is shy and Hero s just perfect someone that all men admire. In the play Hero and Claudio’s relationship is somewhat unknown up until a certain pointy where Claudio tells the Don Pedro that he loves her.
Claudio and Hero compared to Beatrice and Benedick are totally different; Beatrice and Benedick are the two comedy characters that seem to have had a previous relationship with each other but never really talks about it. They tend to argue which maybe is used to hide their true feelings about each other, however Beatrice and Benedick don’t really seem to like each other until they over hear the others talking about how each of them are interested in the other, this sort of plays as social pressure, a pressure used to make two people fall in love.
During the play Benedick is continuously talking about Beatrice’s age and why she is not yet married this could be used against her in order for to start thinking about marriage. Beatrice and Benedick seem to have been pushed in the right direction but this was the only factor that actually made them fall in love with each other.
As for Claudio and Hero they were already in love with each other but this stands to question, if they were really in love wouldn’t Claudio have believed that Hero would not betray him and wouldn’t he try to hear her out. This could prove that they were not totally in love with each other but just together for the sake of having a relationship.
However this could just be because he is so shocked at what he thinks he has seen that he just rages out with anger and doesn’t even think to stop and ask her.
Therefore compared to Beatrice and Benedick, Hero and Claudio’s relationship is based more heavily on true love than social pressures. Whereas Beatrice and Benedick seem to have a relationship based around social pressures rather than anything else.
