Tag Archives: Beatrice

Hearing between the lines

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Rikki

In the final act of Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare’s contrast of two sets of lovers comes to a head. “Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably,” Benedick says to Beatrice. Contrary to Benedick’s claim. the road to Beatrice and Benedick’s union, when compared to Hero and Claudio’s, is decidedly smooth. What are a few sharp words compared to public humiliation, feigned death, and resignation of suicide? This is one of the wonderfully universal and timeless elements of Shakespeare’s writing. Shakespeare has his characters say one thing and display another. We are told that Claudio is honorable and yet he behaves in an unprincipled manner. We are told that Benedick is unquestionably a bachelor and then he changes his tune so dramatically that he agrees to duel his best friend at his lover’s behest. We are told that Margaret is “just and virtuous” and then, two short scenes later, we see her trading phallic jokes with Beatrice’s lover (5.1.305). Again and again we hear Shakespeare’s characters deceive themselves and others with that commodity that Shakespeare himself trades in. While the most immediate effect is comedic, the lasting message of contrasting words and evidence speaks to a larger message about patterns of human behavior. Again we see the relevance of the reception of a Shakespearian play. That the audience is expected to hear the play, asks that they listen and piece together verbal clues. In offering this exchange with his audience, careful listening for comedy and romance, Shakespeare also trained his audience to pull apart the speech of everyday life. The Elizabethan version of “leap frog,” Shakespeare provided educational entertainment, teaching his audience to hear between his lines.

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Startling Suddenness

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Mary Iannone

In class on Wednesday, we spoke about Benedick and Beatrice’s apparent sudden change of heart regarding their feelings for one another.  When Benedick “overhears” Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato discussing how Beatrice is mad with love for him, and Beatrice “overhears” Hero and Ursula speaking of Benedick’s own love for her, they immediately say they find themselves able to love one another.  But just as these apparent changes of heart reflect obvious long dormant feelings for each other, there are other instances of suddenness in Much Ado that are reflective of other characters’ own personality traits.

One somewhat concerning example is how easily Claudio is willing to believe that Hero would make a fool of him by having relations with another man.  With no proof or prior suspicion, Claudio immediately takes Don John at his word when Don John speaks of Hero’s alleged infidelity.  We spoke in class about how old we suspect each character to be, and I think this naivete proves that Claudio cannot be anything but a young teenager.  

Claudio is also buying into this sense of bravado that we have seen from many of the other male characters, perhaps in an effort to seem like his older fellow soldiers.  The men have many times referred to how they would rather die than be made a cuckold, with frequent references to having a woman make them wear (metaphorical) horns.  So when Claudio hears what Don John has to say, he is so afraid of being made a cuckold himself that he cannot see clearly enough to give Hero the benefit of the doubt. 

The fact that Margaret, the servant, poses as Hero during this tryst also proves that Claudio doesn’t even really know his fiancee that well – even from a distance, one would think that a man would know the woman he supposedly loves.  I believe he is just so afraid of being made a fool of that he already begins planning how to shame her back (the later scene that he makes at the wedding altar) before he even sees this show Don John has put together for him.

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