Women In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
The idea of a female protector standing in for men is apparent in Much Ado About Nothing, where Beatrice takes on a similar role to Paulina. How ever emphatic her words are in defence of Hero, Beatrice understands that as a women she is severely limited in her influence. ‘If I were a man’, she says, ‘I would eat his [Claudio’s] heart in the marketplace’, but as it is, she can ultimately do little directly in support of her cousin except ‘die a woman grieving’ (4.1.321). Once again, the heroine is saved by her physical response, in the face of slander, and Hero blushes before she faints. In Renaissance literature, blushing is seen as a non-verbal indicator – like fainting – of a women’s honesty. In Bentley’s instructions to ladies, he associates ‘blush’ with the ‘steadfastnesse of… women’ (11). Moreover, Shakespeare’s poem, ‘A Lover’s Complaint’, features a weeping ‘pure
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Thus, Hero’s death lasts while ‘her slander lived’ (5.4.66). The value of women is thus determined by their purity, without which they are better off not being in society and, therefore, symbolically – if not literally – dead.
In Othello, however, both words and “gesture” fail Desdemona. Emilia champions Desdemona against her accusing husband, just as Paulina does for Hermione and Beatrice for Hero. However, Emilia pays the ultimate price for speaking out when she dies refusing to be silenced:
Moor, she was chaste; she loved thee, cruel Moor;
So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;
So speaking as I think, I die, I die (5.2.247-8).
Desdemona also dies, of course, even though she is indeed ‘chaste’. Her collapse on the bed is not enough to make Othello regret his actions, and a precedent for this has already been established by the original setting of Venice and its associations with the corruption of female appearance. For instance, Shakespeare’s contemporary, Barnabe Rich, wrote that women in Venice
Thus, Hero’s death lasts while ‘her slander lived’ (5.4.66). The value of women is thus determined by their purity, without which they are better off not being in society and, therefore, symbolically – if not literally – dead.
In Othello, however, both words and “gesture” fail Desdemona. Emilia champions Desdemona against her accusing husband, just as Paulina does for Hermione and Beatrice for Hero. However, Emilia pays the ultimate price for speaking out when she dies refusing to be silenced:
Moor, she was chaste; she loved thee, cruel Moor;
So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;
So speaking as I think, I die, I die (5.2.247-8).
Desdemona also dies, of course, even though she is indeed ‘chaste’. Her collapse on the bed is not enough to make Othello regret his actions, and a precedent for this has already been established by the original setting of Venice and its associations with the corruption of female appearance. For instance, Shakespeare’s contemporary, Barnabe Rich, wrote that women in Venice