Gender Roles In William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

This essay is an exploration of the play Much Ado About Nothing, and the gender roles involved in the deceit and trickery that transpire and develop throughout the story. As gender is one of the main themes in the plot, identifying the expected gender roles of the characters, and how the contrast between characters highlights these expected roles. In Shakespeare 's time, known as the Elizabethan Era, men and women’s roles and expectations were starkly different. Elizabethan women, no matter what social class, were inferior to men. A female’s role in the family was to get married so they could increase their family 's wealth and power and to produce heirs. Men, on the other hand, had all of the power within a household. Males were expected

They are consistently brought up throughout the entirety of the play, especially when it comes to Benedick getting married. He himself declares that “if ever the sensible Benedick bears [marriage], pluck off the bull’s horns and set them on [his] head” (Shakespeare), allowing the reader to better see into his mind and thoughts on marriage. Clothing also becomes a symbol to show that Benedick is in love, Claudio telling that “[Benedick even] brushes his hat o’ mornings” to impress Beatrice (Shakespeare). Looks are the only means to determine a woman’s worth (Myhill). Claudio bids Hero goodbye calling her “…most foul, [yet] most fair…” (Shakespeare), declaring that even though Hero is beautiful, she has ruined her beauty with her betrayal, and he now cannot see her as he once did. No one is safe from these changing feelings in the play. Even Benedick and Beatrice went from not being able to be in the same room to being “…the sweet [youths] in love…” (Shakespeare). Looks also helped to prove Hero’s innocence when Friar Francis “[noted] of the lady…a thousand blushing apparitions…a thousand innocent shames…” and were alluded to when Hero’s father (Shakespeare), Leonato, attempted to further

Italy, a lot of the plays written were set in Italy. This play has a

sons are my brethren, and, truly, I hold it a sin to match a kindred"

Beatrice and Benedick, however, in much contrast to Hero and Claudio are the ideal couple who are both equal in the relationship. Beatrice is an opinionated and stubborn woman who will have no one if she doesn't have the one she wants, which she makes clear throughout the play by refusing to marry lightly and by the conversation in Act One between her and Pedro. She chooses

There are several ways in which an author can show favor toward some sort of social change, and Shakespeare seems to advocate a social change in one of his plays, Much Ado About Nothing. While he does seem to agree that the original way of marriage works, Shakespeare seems to favor the idea that the decision of whether on not to wed should belong to the man and woman who want to get married and not to the man and the father of the woman. In order to showcase this idea, Shakespeare uses heavy contrast between the two main couples.

Much Ado About Nothing presents a picturesque love story between two characters that meet us as individuals full of hate, and leave us as an inseparable pair. These two characters are Benedick and Beatrice and act to us as sweethearts who have fallen deeply and passionately IN love in a way that we would all fantasize over- slowly, and then all at once. Their relationship in Shakespeare’s play has been presented through their matching characteristics, the way they speak and the way the language has been written to show their affection, the events that occur to push them together, other people influencing a bond, the connections between how Shakespeare has presented love in his other plays and finally the different versions of this

She throws away her old self, stating "Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu!"(3.1.109). She also choses not to be so protective of her independence and declares love for Benedick, claiming "I will requite thee, Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand"(3.1.111-112). However, the true change in Beatrice does not show until the first church scene in which Claudio publicly humiliates Hero. Beatrice shows deep concern for her cousin Hero, the first time in the play where Beatrice shows concern for another. She is the first to claim Claudio is a liar and declare "on my soul, my cousin is belied!"(4.1.145). Beatrice then proves once again that she is a better person by demanding justice for Hero is met. Through Benedick, Beatrice plots to right the wrong and asks Benedick to "Kill Claudio"(4.1.290). It is in this scene as well that Beatrice, proving a complete turnaround in behavior, confesses to Benedick that "I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest "(4.1.287-288). This shows Beatrice transforming from someone who would scoff at marriage and love, declaring things like "I may sit in a corner and cry heigh-ho for a husband"(2.1.312-313), to someone who easily embraces love from the person she once mocked. But such a dramatic change is seen in her love as well.

In this Shakespearean comedy ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ two similarly obstinate characters of Beatrice and Benedick are presented between the rather normal relationship of characters Hero and Claudio. Shakespeare presents Beatrice and Benedick’s obstinacy towards the rather obligatory act of marriage and also their particularly similar personalities that cause reason for their familiar act of squabbling; he does this whilst also presenting two characters that are completely interested in marriage and who are hardly intellectually capable of squabbling in a similar manner. As the play unfolds both characters remain combative with one another but as love becomes the better of them, they begin to reveal that somewhat secretive sensitivity

However, upon hearing of Beatrice’s love for him he is suddenly perplexed and it does not take him long to decide that he will give that affection back in return.  How easily persuaded Benedick is.  This may come from the way Claudio, Don Pedro, and Leonato (Benedick’s associates) depict Beatrice as the most wonderful woman in Messina.  They talk of Beatrice as if she were the most magnificent woman so that Benedick will do exactly what he does indeed do.  When Benedick hears of this he must be thinking of what he has said before about his desire for the perfect woman.  In his speech he says that “the lady is fair . . . / . . . And virtuous. . . / . . . And wise[,]” which is exactly what Benedick demands in the woman that he will choose to be his wife.  However, Benedick only believes these things about Beatrice because of what Claudio, Don Pedro, and Leonato have said about her.  They only said them to convince Benedick that Beatrice was deserving of him and that she loved him with all her heart.  They told Benedick just what he wanted to hear.  It is a scheme made of lies, but it works because Benedick is persuaded and begins to agree with what they have said.  By doing this he is already influencing himself to follow the opposite path from the one that he has adhered to for years.  Here he is already starting to fool himself into believing Beatrice is the one for him

Like many of Shakespeare's other heroes, Benedick has a comic and serious side. I think he combines everything Shakespeare seems to like in a character; he is amusing (his witty banter with Beatrice is where most of the humour in this play revolves around) and he is also able to laugh at himself- he takes in good humour like the teasing of his friends about his cynicism about matrimony. He is loving too, (an example of this is his poem to Beatrice) and also deadly serious is his love for her- he renounces his male comradeship to "kill Claudio" as she demands- he is prepared to give up his current, enjoyable way of life for her. He is also loyal to the prince, in that he despises Don John, but he is most loyal to the one he loves, something the majority of Shakespearean heroes personify (even those who go astray eventually return to their love- Romeo never wavers from his purpose in loving Juliet). His relationship with Beatrice is another ideal held up to us by the playwright. Beatrice chooses Benedick, she pleases herself, not her family, and as a result, their relationship is much more equal and evenly balanced. It is this relationship, and not the other, quite stereotypical romance, which Shakespeare makes the main thread of this drama.

We get to know Beatrice, Leonato’s niece and Hero’s cousin and the later love interest of Benedick. Beatrice is the complete antagonism of the Shakespearean era’s idea about women. She is unmarried, has no intentions to marry, she passionately hates everything what a woman is supposed to look like or do at her age. She is clever, strong-willed, talkative, witty, sarcastic and always ready to make fun of Benedick or to publicly mocking him.

Shakespeare, a humanist and a man of crucial perspective, concentrates on moral, political, and philosophical questions of universal significance; he strives to change the world. Shakespeare brought new-fangled realism in drama and took it to great height with profundity. His dramas have the rich diversity of humanity with the help of hundreds living, believable characters showing multiplicity in individuality. Even after centuries, the characters can be identified with their aspirations, their strengths and their failings, and sympathise with their moral dilemmas. He was a true human with true human experiences bringing humanist approach. Janet Suzman: “Shakespeare was a humanist in everything he wrote.*1 Shakespeare’s plays and poetry reveal

wit in a manner that is all too cosy. The irony is that, were it not

Manipulation in a relationship almost always ends badly. People lie, cheat and someone always ends up getting hurt. But what if it didn’t end that way? What if it actually helped a relationship? In William Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing, this is exactly what happens between the two characters, Beatrice and Benedick. Their relationship starts off with insults and banter, warding each other off like the plague. Though their friends and family see this and other subtle hints, and believe that the two are meant to be together. So, they devise a plan to bring them together. The first part was to trick Benedick into thinking that Beatrice loves him, but would die before she would ever say anything. This was to be done by Claudio, a fellow soldier, Leonato, Beatrice’s uncle, and Don Pedro, his superior in the war. Benedick would over here them talking about her, how she loves him, and all her good qualities, and they were sure he would fall for her; which he did. The second part was to do the same thing, only in reverse, to Beatrice. This part of the plan was to be performed by Hero, her cousin, and Hero’s waiting lady, Ursula. And Beatrice, too, fell for Benedick. At the end of the play the two marry. But was it right for Claudio, Leonato, Don Pedro, Hero, and Ursula to manipulate Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship? Many would say that manipulation, no matter the outcome, should not be used in any way in a relationship. But, being the friends and family of the