Comparing Men And Women In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing depicts the relationship between men and women during the Elizabethan Age. For centuries, many people have questioned the title of the play and claim it has to do with everyone making commotion about tragedies which turn out to be false, therefore nothing. Looking further into the play, the reader will notice that Shakespeare successfully exposes the dark, ugly truth about gender roles and inequality of his time. Viewing the play today contrasts the roles between men and woman from the past to present. Nevertheless, Shakespeare being a feminist and his complex view of love is what allowed him to create the greatest romantic comedies of his time. Shakespeare compares and contrasts the value of love through
From a historical standpoint woman used to be treated with little importance. From the Elizabethan period to today’s society the role of woman, the definition of true love, and marriage has all changed exceptionally. Beatrice represents what all women should be, independent and self-assertive. Many years have past and the individuals who have seen “Much Ado About Nothing” can easily contrast and compare the Elizabethan society to today’s. Balthasar a musician sings, “Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever, One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never. Then sigh not so, but let them go”(2.3 lines 64-71). What he is basically saying is that the ladies ought to accept men as deceivers and that men will always be horrible. Beatrice understands this concept quite well but ironically still marries Benedict. For Hero it is a different story, she fakes her death to embellish the feeling of remorse into Claudio but states that, ”One Hero died defiled, but I do live, / And surely as I live, I am a maid” (Act 5, Scene 4). Hero’s fake death was used to simply purify her name which goes to show just how different society was back