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In Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Benedick undergoes a great attitude change. At the beginning of the play, Benedick is a presented as a skilled swordsman, but also a man with an immature, misogynistic demeanour and an aversion to marry- he viewed it as a burden and a mistake rather than something that he can actually find enjoyment and true happiness from . At the end of the play, his attitude changes, and he suddenly becomes a more sensible man and an eager bridegroom; Benedick loses his aversion to marry or love and lets his hatred of women go. Shakespeare conveys Benedick as misogynistic at the start of the play. This is shown during a conversation Claudio and Benedick have on the former’s feelings for Hero. Claudio starts with …show more content…
However, at the end of the play, Benedick submits to Beatrice at the end of their confessions. The change in his ways his shown in the quote ‘Enough, I am engaged; I will challenge him. I will kiss your hand, and so leave you. By this hand, Claudio shall render me a dear account. As you hear of me, so think of me. Go comfort your cousin’. Before realising that he was in love with Beatrice, he was very argumentative with Beatrice, and wouldn’t listen to her. This quote shows that Benedick is so in love with Beatrice that he would do anything for her to be happy, even if it means that he has to kill Claudio, one of Benedick’s good friends; he is giving in to her wishes, and will allow himself to commit crimes for her. When Benedick says ‘Claudio shall render me a dear account’, Benedick is saying that he will make Claudio pay for what he’s done- he is showing a sensitive and sympathetic side to Beatrice. The phrase ‘Go comfort your cousin’ has an underlying message; Benedick is telling Beatrice to not worry and that he will take care of it, making a change from the arrogant, rowdy man at the beginning of the play. Benedick’s attitude towards love, marriage and women changes drastically throughout the Much Ado About Nothing. Benedick transitioned from a smooth-talking swordsman to a sensible man who no longer harboured an aversion to marry. Benedick no longer regards marriage as something to be averted or something that is a burden or mistake, instead finding that he would do anything for one woman. Benedick is also no longer misogynistic, and became a changed man by the end of the
He is very sure of women and makes it known to others that he would prefer to remain a bachelor for the rest of his life, rather than marrying a woman. Beatrice in a way is very similar to Benedick, she is also very intelligent and witty. She seems to have more of a fiery nature which seems to hide most of her true feelings. She challenges men, which would seem quite. insulting to a Shakespearean audience as it would not be expected of an Elizabethan woman.
In addition, this relationship illustrates the "cuckold" fear that is very pertinent during Shakespeare's time. Claudio is easily wooed into believing Don John's fabrication about Hero's infidelity. Since women were considered possessions, this infidelity is the ultimate betrayal and a mortal wound to Claudio's self esteem. In reality, Hero had remained the chaste and virtuous model of the Elizabethan woman. Source: Hays, Janice. "Those "soft and delicate desires": Much Ado and the Distrust of Women". Lenz, Carolyn Ruth Swift, Greene, Gayle, and Neely, Carol Thomas Ed., The Woman's Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. University of Illinois Press: Chicago, 1980.
The Transformation of Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing. In "Much Ado About Nothing" Shakespeare manages to transform Benedict. from being a bachelor to being in love with Beatrice. Shakespeare does extremely well to make this change of character seem believable as it such a big one.
Benedick’s Change of Heart by the End of Act 2 Scene 3 of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
In the first scene, Beatrice talks to a messenger and Leonato. Shakespeare makes it instantly seems as if she and Benedick do not to get along, when she calls him "Signor Mountanto", which is very rude and suggests that he has a 'big head'. Even though she refers to Benedick in a negative manner, it is interesting that she mentions him before she mentions anyone else. Shakespeare shows this first sign of interest in a fairly subtle way; yet she obviously cares about him by asking if he has returned from war, this clearly being her first line of thought. In the first scene, before Benedick, Claudio, Don Pedro, Don John enter, Beatrice mentions Benedick many times, again showing that she really does think about him and is curious to know how he is. At the ...
In the play of `Much Ado About Nothing', Beatrice is portrayed as a witty and strong willed woman who talks a great deal, appearing determined not to marry. However, Don Pedro concocts a plot that brings her together with Benedick and they marry at the end.
In the beginning of the play Benedick is just another soldier with Claudio but is also known for arguing with Beatrice. He is constantly getting in to arguments with her and at the masquerade Ball she pretends to be somebody else to try to interrogate her. When he first arrives in Messina he says “Look, it’s my dear lady distain.” This quote represents the relationship in between Benedick and Beatrice. The relationship they have is one of hatred and anger. However when Benedick is in the Orchid and over hears Claudio and the others he falls in love with Beatrice. When he falls in love with Beatrice he wants to pronounce his love to her himself. AS soon as he sees Beatrice after he was tricked into loving her he started being nice to her and didn’t make fun of her. Benedick also says “Lovely Beatrice, I thank you for taking the pains to tell me that” This highlights his change of heart towards Beatrice and that he is willing to love her. This shows how Benedick was manipulated to love Beatrice by Claudio, Don Pedro and Leonato. Afterward When Claudio shammed Hero in front of everybody and left Benedick wants to help Beatrice clear Hero’s name. Benedick doesn’t believe that Hero cheated Claudio and wants to fix the situation. Also he convinces Leonato of the friar’s plan to clear Hero’s name by faking her death. Benedick even says that “I really
Beatrice’s dialogue with Benedick in Much Ado about Nothing establishes her control over him, dissimilar to the discourse between Katherina and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew. Beatrice’s first lines reveal much about her attraction to Benedick. “I pray you, is Signor Moun...
Benedick has been known to change his “best friends” multiple times, “Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother.” (Shakespeare 1.1.69-71). Benedick and his attitude towards his friendships can flip depending on the situation. The fact that Benedick will change friends and style all willy-nilly means something. He needs something stable in his life to hold him down to earth instead of trying to fill the empty void in his heart. When the time comes and Beatrice wants him to duel Claudio, he is willing, “ Enough, I am engaged. I will challenge him. I will kiss your hand, and so I leave you. By this hand, Claudio shall render me a dear account.” (Shakespeare 4.1.346-58). It is shocking seeing Benedick so willing to go after his “best friend” all for Beatrice and her love for him. He has now found something that can keep him grounded and down to Earth and he will do anything to keep things like that. Together with all of Benedick’s behavior he has gained experience and developed the one of the major themes power of love( and how it drives
Even though love and marriage was a major ideal in Shakespearean England, we can get views from Much Ado about Nothing which oppose this idea. From the two main ‘couples’ in this play we can understand their different views on commitment throughout and because of this we as readers and viewers can learn about each relationship separately and watch the thoughts and ideas change throughout the play.
Society in the16th century was highly structured. Women of the upper class were expected to be trophies for their husbands. The men were required to hunt, lead, and go into battle. If one chose not to follow these dictates, the rest of society would question, look down on, or even punish the deviant. The prominent author, William Shakespeare, placed this subject into comedy and tragedy plays with dramatically different outcomes. In Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare makes fun of stereotypical gender roles by establishing Beatrice and Lady Macbeth as the dominant characters over Benedick and Macbeth through imagery, dialogue, and character personalities.
Throughout Act one and two, Benedick repeatedly says that he will never love a woman or get married. At some stage in the duration of the play his mindset changes. In the end he is head over heels in love for Beatrice whom he once quarreled with habitually. The turnabout in his behavior was brought about by the deceiving Claudio and Pedro who indirectly told Benedick that Beatrice loved him.
This love story of Benedick and Beatrice, we are shown a love/hate relationship they have for each other. Beatrice doesn’t hold back as she verbally insults Benedick even prior to his arriving by stating “It is so, indeed: he has no less than a stuffed man: but for the stuff, ---well, we are all mortal”. () I can only laugh as this relationship is so witty, candid and such a play on words that are used as almost like a weapon. One has to question why there is such hatred between Beatrice and Benedick, because we know that he is a war hero and respect as such. I think Shakespeare wanted their bantering back and forth to almost be a flirtatious relationship, but neither wants to admit it how they truly feel. This deflection of real feelings is another example of deception that carries on in this play. Their verbal exchanges are harsh but in reality, the truth of their relationship is being hidden behind these words as though they were wearing masks. There is a strong connection between these two when Beatrice was exchanging words with Don Pedro about Benedict when she said “indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; 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”.
Shakespeare undoubtedly creates a coherent distinction between Beatrice and Hero, the two main female characters, in such a way that allows the audience to irrefutably note their differing dispositions. Hero, “a face without a voice” (Cook 8), is characterized by her passivity and inability to assert herself, whereas Beatrice, whose speech “might seem [like] a serious violation of Messina's conventions of gender” (Cook 7), is characterized by her witty and unconventional independence that ultimately delineates the sure separation between her and women of 16th Century Europe. Almost immediately, one can observe Beatrice's acerbic demeanor towards one of the main male characters, Signior Benedick. As the messenger is informing Beatrice...
The Elizabethan society in which Shakespeare lived during his life held a misogynistic ideology in high esteem. ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ was written in 1598-9, during a time when women were second class citizens compared to males and were considered to be inferior to males in every way. As soon as she was born, a female was her father's property until she was married off by her family when she then became her husband's property. A woman was expected to be seen and not heard, she was to be chaste and submissive. Women were uneducated and undervalued, they were not their own person.