Fair And Foul Is Fair In 'Much Ado About Nothing'

Claudio slanders and publicly shames his soon-to-be wife, while Benedick believes that wasn’t the right decision. When Claudio hears news that Hero is cheating on him, he says, “If I see anything tonight why I should not marry her… I will shame her.” (Shakespeare, Page 50) He would rather openly shame his love than to talk through the problem. After the public humiliation, Benedick goes to talk to Beatrice saying, “Surely I do believe your fair cousin is wronged.”

But fare thee well, most foul, most fair, farewell; Thou pure impiety and impious purity, for thee I’ll lock up all the gates of love” (67-68.) This quote is another example of how cruel Claudio was to Hero at their wedding day, which was supposed to be a happy event. Claudio shows how malicious he can be by leaving her at the altar, in front of all her friends and family, publically shaming her in the process. It also shows how he tends to think the worst of those around him and his need to get even. This need to humiliate her shows he is really only considered with himself and his happiness.

"Fair is foul and foul is fair," The quote from the three witches, repeats throughout the play and is the basis of the many changes that occur between the characters. Macbeth's opening line reiterates this theme with, "So foul and fair a day I have not yet seen." He describes the day as foul because he had to kill so many men. But the day is fair because he feels triumphant and is rewarded.

Honour is both established and thus defended by the characters in Much Ado About Nothing. Men and women both do so by many means of social conduct, in various, different, yet similar ways. By men, honour is specifically related to being respected by others, having a sense of worth or rank, having a respectable status, suitable statements or promises made in one’s honour and having a fine sense of what is due, or right. Women embrace their honour to themselves, with chastity as a virtue of high consideration and having a reputation for such virtue, and maintaining a good name. Honour is shown as the primary reason for many of the actions taken by several different characters.

Have you ever met a person that may give off a "don’t mess with me" vibe but when you get to know them they're actually a nice person? Beatrice and benedick change from bickering and acting like they don’t care about each other to being in a relationship where they are able to come up with a plan to save the day. The play Much Ado About Nothing was written by William Shakespeare. The main characters are Beatrice, Benedick, Hero, Claudio, Don John, Don Pedro, and Leonardo. The play is mainly about the love relationships between Beatrice with Benedick and Hero with Claudio. In the play Beatrice and Benedick both prove that they can put aside their flirtatious bickering ways and be independent

Benedick and Beatrice are very important characters. This reason is, they there the opposite of Hero and Claudio. Benedick and Beatrice despise each other and have no interest in love. Until in (Shakespeare) Page 87, Benedict overhears Claudio, Don Pedro and Leonato, talk about how Beatrices love for him is abound. Soon Beatrice here's the same conversation from Ursula and Hero. After Claudio and Hero get married, they meet up and fall in love after some conflict. In Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, Benedick acts as the stubborn, no love in his heart character. Beatrice is the witty and quick counter part to Benedick. Through every act the opinion towards each other changes until they both fall for

He also has feelings of dislike towards Beatrice as she does for him. One big difference between him and Beatrice is that at first he does not support Claudio’s decision to pursue Hero, he thinks he should stay a bachelor not become a husband. Towards the end of the play you can see his support of the couple when he is upset at the wedding scene and tries to defend Hero’s honor by saying the Princes have “bent honor”. What causes this change is that when he hears Claudio, Don John and Leonato stated that Beatrice loves him he reconsiders her, love and starts to over analyze everything she says and

On the night of the masquerade ball, Claudio sees Don Pedro proposing to Hero. This then spikes jealousy, Don John then adds fuel to this fire of jealousy by telling Claudio that Don Pedro is proposing for himself and not for Claudio. This is the first sign of deception from Don John throughout the play, this deception leads to Claudio giving up on his love for Hero. “Thus answer I in the name of Benedick, but hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio. ‘Tis certain so; the princes wooes for himself.

It is until later where he begins to heal his relationship with them through understanding why they made that mistake in shaming Hero. At the end of the second wedding where Claudio and Hero finally get married, Benedick says to Claudio, “Come, come, we are friends: let us have a dance ere we are married… Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife”(Shakespeare 75). After understanding their mistake of shaming Hero, Benedick states to Claudio that they are friends again. He also shows remorse to the Prince as friends should do, and tells him to get a companion. When Benedick understands that Claudio and Don Pedro had been misled into thinking that Hero was cheating on Claudio, he puts his anger aside and makes them his close friends again. Also, after saying so to Claudio, Benedick notices the sadness that the Prince of Aragon is feeling by using the power of

This is due to the soldier side in Claudio, both needing the aid of his superiors and not knowing how to act in romantic situations and affairs. Don John takes advantage of this and after Don Pedro has proposed to Hero, on Claudio's behalf, and tells Claudio that “the prince (Don John) woos for himself”. Rather than acting responsibly, as a courtier would, Claudio becomes jealous and rants how “friendship is constant in all other things, save in the office and affairs of love. Farewell therefor Hero”. It is now when we see that a small lie is enough to make Claudio forsake his friendship with Don Pedro and his love for Hero, that we see that Claudio may not be the brave and honourable man we were first led to believe he

Don John deceives Claudio, Hero’s soon-to-be husband, into thinking that Hero has been unfaithful. Don John tells Claudio that he will see Hero’s infidelity in action that night. Claudio accepts Don John’s offer when he says, “If I see anything tonight why I should not marry her tomorrow, in the congregation where I should wed, there will I shamed her” (3.2. 109-111). Claudio is actually starting to give in to the lies spewing from Don John’s venomous mouth. Not everything is what it seems, especially with certain characters.

The love of Benedick and Beatrice is built on a weak foundation. In act four scene one, Beatrice and Benedick talk and they say, “Come, bid me do anything for thee./Kill Claudio./Ha! Not for the wide world./...I am gone though I am here. There is not love in you- Nay, I pray you, let me go.” In this scene, Beatrice says to Benedick that if he really loves her, he will kill Claudio because he hurt her cousin Hero. When Benedick refuses, Beatrice says that he didn't love her and that she doesn't love him.

Finally, the two pairs of lover’s completely juxtapose each other, Hero is almost like a possession to Claudio as he asks for Leonato to ‘take her back again’, Shakespeare presents love to being patriarchal in some case. On the other hand, Beatrice and Benedick are portrayed to be equals which is expected from love today but wasn’t at the time Shakespeare was writing - through Much Ado Shakespeare seems to subvert the conventions of love. Both pairs highlight how love is different for every individual but after all it all comes down to respect and care for one

During this first scene, it quickly becomes clear that he knows he feels something for Hero, but he is unsure of exactly what his feelings mean.  While talking to both Benedick and Don Pedro, Claudio describes his feelings as passion first (I.i.219-220), and then he says, “That I love her, I feel” (I.i.228).  Claudio’s lame profession of love for Hero mirrors the shallowness of his previous comments.

In the twenty-first century, stories of love being damaged by deception have become cliché. Tales in the current period of writing often display relationships being torn apart by lies and trickery, only to be repaired when the evil deeds are uncovered. However, this common theme appears in literature as far back as the Elizabethan Era. It is not surprising that William Shakespeare’s ideas would be recycled and modernized; he is the second most quoted source in the English language, only preceded by the bible (“William Shakespeare Timeline”). In one of his most famous plays, Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare conveys his idea that a person must be wary of others attempting to manipulate his life through the use of duplicity. Although