Just Like Her Mother Analysis

According to Oxford’s dictionary, shame is a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior. Shaming others is something that many people do today to assert their dominance onto their peers by making them feel insecure about themselves. In both “Just Like Her Mother” and Much Ado About Nothing, both stories show a concurring theme on public shaming and how it fabricates various doubts and impacts on people, therefore bringing a new image to many characters. There is a visible chronological order in both stories from the shame to the impact and reactions it brings and finally the eradication of the false images created onto the protagonists.
Shame targeting is dominant in “Just Like Her Mother”,
From his observations, Claudio pushed Hero to the full extent of shaming and nothing to respond from the humiliation he has brought to her. Due to Don John’s plan of trickery, Claudio caught her “talk with a ruffian at her chamber window” (Much Ado About Nothing 4.1.90) in her room the day before her wedding. However it was Margaret, acting as Hero talking with Borachio, but Claudio did not know that and led to his rage building up. The next day, in fear of marrying her and bringing dishonor to himself, he meets Hero at the church’s altar, and instead of joining vows, he denounces Hero for her actions. Claudio tells Leonato, in front of everyone in the church of Hero’s affairs to show the spotlight on what she has done behind everyone’s backs. Don Pedro supports Claudio’s accusations, and they, together with Don John, accuse Hero of “[vanquishing] the resistance of her youth (4.1.45). He tells Leonato that he sends Hero back to Leonato again and the happy wedding transforms itself into a chaotic
Leonato, Hero’s father, and the town mayor had his daughter get shamed on her marriage, in front of important guests and family must have also been publicly humiliated. Hero’s loss of honour with her sexual relations will lose all her social standing, a disaster from which she could never recover in this time period. In addition, this loss of honor would poison the woman’s whole family. Anything that happens to such an influential and vital person to the town will be discussed, as when the type of children he raises engages in slanderous acts, eventually it will reflect back on himself as people in the town look up to the mayor. Leonato realizes this and he tries to leave his own daughter completely to die to rid the shame. Also, Claudio has instantly liked Hero from the beginning, as he compared Hero to the most precious jewel, by saying, “Can the world buy such a jewel?” (Much Ado About Nothing 1.1.165). This shows us that he wanted her for himself so much, but now his instant crush has betrayed him, leaving him with no one. This was the first girl he has ever liked, as Claudio is the boy that focused on fighting than love by doing in the figure of a lamb the feats of a lion (1.1.13-14). He was even saddened by the fact that Don Pedro was perceived to woo Hero from himself, solidifying the love that Claudio possess for