How does Shakespeare present the theme of love through the pairs of lovers in Much Ado About Nothing?
In the play Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare presents his views of love in quite a few different, and sometimes very contrasting ways.He uses well thought out and life like characters to explore his views on love and marriage, and especially uses Hero and Claudio to show the problems of love and relationships in those times.These views of love are presented using dramatic dialogue, and many different language techniques- including the use of imagery and comic context-all of which make a very intriguing and funny play.
In the play, there are two main pairs of lovers; Benedick and Beatrice, and Hero and Claudio. Shakespeare portrays Hero and Claudio as the obvious love-struck-couple, who fall instantly in love with each other. He presents Beatrice and Benedick quite differently,as a couple who are constantly fighting and who the intended audience wouldn’t necessarily put together, whereas now, in the modern society, we would pick up on the fact that they will fall in love. This not necessarily the audience Shakespeare intended; he may have expected that people, in those times, wouldn’t realise they were going to end up together, bringing the element of surprise into his play.
I think that the main view of love that shakespeare shows is that he believes love to be fickle; in the play people are passionately in love when only the day before they loathed each other. When Beatrice and Benedick fall in the trap that was by the prince,Leonato,Claudio,Hero and Ursula,they then believe that the other is in love with them. Earlier on,at the start of the play, Beatrice remarks to Benedick ‘ A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours’. She is saying to him that sh would rather be a bird than an animal like him; this is insulting him. It is clear from the way they speak that they have no respect for each other, neither any plans to be civil or courteous to one another. But, when the prince and the others trick them into believing that the other has fallen in love with them, they suddenly have completely different feelings about each other, as Beatrice then has a long monologue about her newfound feelings, and exclaims ‘ If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee to bind our loves up in a holy band’ .She has now completely changed her mind and has decided that she wants now to marry Benedick, when she has always made a point throughout the play of voicing her discontempt for marriage, love and Benedick. Her love is fickle; it wasn’t there and now suddenly she is claiming to be passionately in love- enough to want to marry- and changed her mind about benedick.
The Essay on Relationships: Benedick and Beatrice vs. Hero and Claudio
In the play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, the characters Benedick, Beatrice, Hero and Claudio all have very different relationships. Beatrice and Benedick have never been ... overhear Don Pedro and Claudio talking about the “undying love” for Benedick that Beatrice swears every night, and the staged conversation of Margaret ...
Benedick is an example of love being able to change people. He goes from being a bachelor, rude and cocky, to trying to be romantic, and attempted at writing Beatrice a poem, and then deciding he wanted to marry her. At the beginning of the play, Benedick makes clear to Claudio he strongly disagrees with him marrying Hero, and slanders marriage, telling Claudio and Don Pedro ‘And the fine is, for the which i may go the finer,I will live a bachelor’. He is determined to never marry, and be single for life. His love for Beatrice changes this, and he decides that marriage is a good thing that he really does want, even if it means he will be ridiculed for slandering marriage and then being wed to Beatrice. When Don Pedro is teasing him about being married, he tells him that he is very happy and doesn’t care what people say about him marrying. He then proceeds to say ‘Since i do purpose to marry, i will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it, and therefore never flout at me for what i have said against it’. He is telling Don Pedro that he doesn’t care what he said before, he thinks marriage is good and doesn’t want to hear anyone saying it isn’t, and if someone does tell him marriage is no good, he will pay absolutely no attention to them. Love has changed his perspective on marriage, and he now has a lot more respect towards women.
The Essay on Don Pedro Hero Play Claudio
Each of the main characters in Much Ado About Nothing is the victim of deception, and it is because they are deceived that they act in the ways that they do. Although the central deception is directed against Claudio in an attempt to destroy his relationship with Hero, it is the deceptions involving Beatrice and Benedick which provides the play's dramatic focus. Nearly every character in the play ...
Love brings Claudio mixed emotions; one of which being happiness. When Leonato gives his permission for him and Hero to be married, he is extremely happy and doesn’t know what to say- ‘Silence is the perfectest herald of joy’ He is so happy he simply cannot express himself. Hero makes him very happy and he believes to be in love with her when they first meet. Throughout the first 3 scenes of the play, he describes Hero in many ways that show he adores her; he describes her as a jewel to Benedick in the first scene of the play, after returning from battle. When he has permission to marry her, he completly gives himself to her- ‘I give myself away for you, and I dote upon the exchange’. He is doting-very fond- of her, and the idea of marrying her. His love for her is brought him great happiness.
Hero and Claudio’s love also brings great pain, for both of them. One of the, is abandoned and slandered at the altar, and has to fake her death, whilst the other is lead to believe he has been wronged, and then has to deal with the fact that his love has died because if what he said,which he finds out to be false accusations, which is even worse. Claudio is pained when he believes that Hero has cheated on him and lost her innocence (virginity) to another ,an before even being married. He gets upset and angry at their wedding, and publicly makes a fool of Hero. He is broken, and believes what Benedick says about women to be true, and tells Hero ‘ For thee, I’ll lock up all the gates of love, and on my eyelids shall conjecture hang’. Because of Hero, he has decided to stay away from love, and forever be suspicious of beautiful things, and see them as dangers rather than desires, so he will not be tricked again. Hero is also pained by love, as her father rejects her, and she is slandered when she knows she is innocent of her accusations. Their relationship suffers a lot in a short amount of time, and their love is tested.
The Essay on Compare Contrast The Love Between Claudio And Hero
Compare/ contrast the love between Claudio and Hero with Beatrice and Bene*censored*. Whose is Stronger? The lovebetween Bene*censored* and Beatrice was much stronger than the love between Hero and Claudio. One reason Bene*censored* and Beatrices love was stronger because the way Hero and Claudio got together was not true love. Another reason is that Bene*censored* and Beatrices relationship was ...
Lastly, love is presented as superficial; almost as if its not real. If you really loved someone, and you believed they had been unfaithful and impure, you would still be in love with them, and although you might be mad, if you found that they had died you would be upset. Claudio was only grieving Hero when he knew that she was innocent, he didn’t care that she was dead when he believed the accusations were true. ‘Not to be married,Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton’ is what Claudio explains to Leonato, when he tells him he no longer wants to marry Hero. He calls her a slut, and says that he doesn’t want to be married to her. Her honour is gone because if the accusations, and so is he, and his ‘love’. He later on agrees to marry another, to please Leonato, but if you were really in love with someone you wouldn’t agree to marry someone else hardly any time after, even if it was to earn back the friendship of someone. This is what makes me think his love for her was superficial- or that he loved her but wasn’t necessarily in love with her.
To conclude, it is evident that shakespeare had a lot of views about love, some positive and some negative, and he managed to include a lot of them in Much Ado About Nothing, and this makes it an excellent play. The play can be interpreted differently, and the meaning behind some of the scenes will change depending on the audience/readers.I believe that he is trying to show, especially common in the time that the play was written, that love was predominantly more about who your honour and your family’s honour and wealth, rather than about who you were as a person.
