Shakespeare creates a parallel between the two couples that dominate this play, and he makes the events surrounding their romances so exciting that it’s easy to forget about a bunch of anomalies that tend to appear. As Claudio despairs at Hero’s supposed unfaithfulness and Benedick admits to loving Beatrice, it seems natural for Don Pedro’s character to take a step back in the plot. After all, it’s not as though he has any sort of love connection in this play.
I think that Don Pedro is homosexual.
Hear me out. The heir of Aragon is unmarried, a most peculiar circumstance even when disregarding everything else. The continuation of noble lineage is essential during this time period for nobles, particularly in light of the fact that everyone has just finished a war. What if Don Pedro had died? Who would have succeeded him? Such questions are addressed and immediately resolved in noble families through arranged marriages. Of course, since we have no idea how old Don Pedro is, his status as an eligible bachelor is far from sufficient to support my suggestion. Perhaps he simply hasn’t had the chance to marry yet. However, other cues from the play allude to this as well.
For example, the play suggests that the young men who have returned from war have a hard time communicating with women. Claudio, despite his apparent fearlessness in battle, cannot summon the courage to admit to Hero how he feels. Benedick, afraid to be made into a cuckold, initially refuses to ever entertain the notion of marriage. Fear, in one way or another, explains why these two young men haven’t gotten married. It should also be observed that despite this fear, both of these men end up overcoming their misgivings, whether through their own actions or through an indirect agent (like how Don Pedro sets up Claudio’s marriage). However, there is no such explanation for why Don Pedro is single, and the play’s silence on this matter is deafening.
There are only two instances where Don Pedro acts like he is interested in women: during the dance (where he pretends to be Claudio, so he can woo Hero) and during a brief interaction with Beatrice (where he offers himself as a husband). While the mask obviously hides his identity from Hero, I don’t think it’s hard to think of the mask as Don Pedro’s heterosexuality. The interaction with Beatrice is strange, to say the least. No matter how you look at it, you can’t help but wonder: how can the Prince of Aragon be so casual about marriage? I mean, has he forgotten that he’s the heir? Beatrice, for all of her beauty, is too lowborn for Don Pedro (something she admits to through her refusal). You can argue that he was just being courteous, and that she recognized his offer as such, but something about the offer is just strange. Perhaps, because he is homosexual, he is only offering so that he can be seen making an offer to a woman, or perhaps he simply does not care which woman will be his wife . You can argue that Beatrice’s beauty implies he’s being quite picky, but he seems to be the only male in the play who doesn’t realize that how Beatrice is. Benedick, for all of his verbal sparring with her, admits to her beauty, and Claudio alludes to it indirectly by saying how Hero is the most beautiful in his eyes. Don Pedro’s lack of comment strikes me as a lack of…interest.
