Hero And Beatrice In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

The play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare addresses the feminist and patriarchal values of Elizabethan society in the 1600s. Using the contrast between two females characters: Hero and Beatrice, he shows the relationship between how outspoken females are and their power status within a patriarchal society. Shakespeare’s agenda for this play is to spread a pro-feminist movement in a society that doesn’t accept women as equal to men. Hero, who rarely speaks during this play, is considered to be the ideal woman (conforming to their current day standards); while Beatrice, confident and very outspoken is considered obnoxious and unattractive. The two characters sit on opposite ends of the spectrums. On one end, Hero has her life ruled
Through a feminist lens, we understand Beatrice has to take on male characteristics - freedom of speech, primarily - in order not only to gain respect, but also to obtain a power status that is equivalent to men. However, where males are depicted as eloquent and intelligent people, Beatrice is introduced as a foul-mouthed individual. The first lines spoken by her are insults and criticism upon a returning soldier, Signor Benedick. She goes on to call him her “uncle’s fool”, saying he “subscribed for Cupid and challenged him / at the bird-bolt”. These types of names coming out of a lady’s mouth would’ve shocked not only an Elizabethan but also a modern audience, and gave off a very poor first impression. Furthering this bad image we have of her, Beatrice seems to confess her love to Benedick only to manipulate him to kill Claudio in revenge for wrongfully accusing her cousin. Beatrice is attempting to gain male characteristics by planning a murder but, not being physically strong enough, she had to ask Benedick to complete the deed for her. After he denies g her, Beatrice says, “You kill me to deny it. Farewell.” If we assume Beatrice as a feminist character, we can understand one of the main paradoxes in feminist theory: having to adopt male characteristics to become equal to them. Beatrice represents the internal conflict occurring in women’s personalities when
Looking at each character individually, Shakespeare seems to have contradicting views about feminism. However, when the characters are analysed together, we understand Shakespeare is using them in an ingenious way to fool the audience and not offend their societal values, while spreading a pro-feminist message. Hero and Beatrice represent the two ends of the feminist spectrum. Scenes where the two characters interact are crucial to analyse when looking at their relationship. One scene in particular is when Claudio denounces Hero and the whole town seems to be against her, her cousin Beatrice sticks up for her, even when her father doesn’t believe her. While Leonato tells his daughter, “Do not live, Hero do not open thine eyes”, Beatrice realises her “cousin is belied” and with the help of the friar, convinces Leonato of Hero’s innocence. This scene is a perfect example of how the use of words is used by women to gain power. Hero in this scene is the victim; she doesn’t speak, and Beatrice comes to save her and convince her close friends she is, in fact, innocent. Another scene where the feminist character comes to help Hero is at the masked evening when Claudio reveals his love for Hero and Beatrice speaks for her. In Act II Scene I she tells her to, “Speak, cousin, or if you cannot, stop his mouth with a kiss / and let