Beatrice And Benedick In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

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The play of Much Ado about Nothing, written by Shakespeare is based upon deliberate deceptions, some malevolent and others benign. The deceiving of Claudio and Don Pedro results in Hero’s disgrace, while the ruse of her death prepares the way for her redemption and reconciliation with Claudio. In a more lighthearted vein, Beatrice and Benedick are fooled into thinking that each loves the other, and they actually do fall in love as a result. Much Ado about Nothing shows that deceit is not inherently evil, but something that can be used as a means to good or bad ends. Shakespeare starts his play with love that Claudio speaks for Hero, the passion and affection is shown by Claudio throughout the play even though in Act 3, there was deception…show more content…
Beatrice and Benedick are the mains characters in the play even though the play is based around Claudio and hero. Beatrice and Benedick are both extremely vibrant and although they are different in many ways, both in fact share similarities. They also seem to be the most modern characters of the play because neither of them to begin with like the idea of marriage. In the time of Shakespeare this would be an extremely unusual attitude, especially for a woman. Both demonstrate similar attitudes towards each other throughout the play, which fluctuates between love and hate. At the beginning of the play Beatrice and Benedick are shown to be quarrelling as they have been portrayed to do throughout most of the play, “a bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours”, such speech like this clearly indicates the hate which is exposed as Beatrice argues with Benedick, and he does not stand back on this and also responds in such nature of speech, “I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer. But keep your way, o’ God’s name, I have done.” In a response like this the suggestion of love hate relationship is undoubtedly pure, however some reader/ viewers can interpret this as just hate as there speech for each other can be exceedingly harsh, this then implies how the beginning of the play is opening with turmoil and disturbance between their…show more content…
In the same way at the start of Act 3 Beatrice is fooled into believing that Benedick loves her. This can be somewhat connected to the title of the play “Much Ado about Nothing” as In Shakespeare’s time, the “Nothing” of the title would have been pronounced “Noting.” Indeed, many of the players participate in the actions of observing, listening, and writing, or noting. When the women manipulate Beatrice into believing that Benedick adores her, they conceal themselves in the orchard so that Beatrice can better note their conversation. Since they know that Beatrice loves to eavesdrop, they are sure that their plot will succeed. Noting in the play is what can be shown to be the sort of resolution that can create happiness from turmoil and so it has some success in making Beatrice and Benedick believe that they have feelings for each
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