The relationship between Benedick and Beatrice can be interpreted as genuine regardless of the comedic nature of the play by the portrayal of them both being mirror images of each other when Benedick describes himself as having ‘cold blood’ and Beatrice refers to herself as having a ‘hard heart.’ The parallel structure demonstrated in this scene adds to the element of the genuine underlying feelings they have through the use of dramatic irony as the audience can identify connections and similarities between the two that they seem unaware of, this can be seen as a comedic element but their feelings are still rendered as genuine due to their matching personalities which suggests that they would be a jubilant match. As well as this, the continuous references to their objection of marriage, such as Benedick claiming that if he were to be married they may ‘pluck off a bulls horns and set them in his forehead’ and Beatrice saying she ‘could not endure a husband,’ can be seen by the audience as Beatrice and Benedick covering up the feelings for each other which lay beneath their ‘merry war’ of conflict. However it can be argued that the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is superficial due to its comedic element of gender reversal in Beatrice as women at the time did not have this attitude and mainly remained seen and not heard, any sort of banter from a woman was unexpected and misunderstood as shown by the Messenger taking Beatrice’s sarcasm literally when she refers to Benedick as ‘Signor Mountanto.’
In contrast, the relationship between Claudio and Hero can be seen as superficial because of the excessive language portrayed when Claudio describes Hero as the ‘sweetest lady,’ the use of the superlative makes what Claudio is saying seem over the top and cliché considering he has only seen Hero and not even exchanged words with her. This illustrated Claudio and Hero’s relationship as superficial because, unlike Beatrice and Benedick, it is not built on the solid ground of actually connecting with each other but only on a visual basis. This is supported when Claudio refers to Hero as ‘soft,’ ‘delicate
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