Treatment Of Women In 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

Much Ado About Nothing, though a critically acclaimed play, seems to be truly a fuss of trivial details and sexist thinking. The title fits the play itself, in the sense that it is a case of a great amount of nothing, which perhaps can be assumed to be a mistake on William Shakespeare's part.

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

Throughout the play, women are used as a means to showing off male honour. Women are defined in connection with men, such as wife, mother and daughter. Therefore, Hero is addressed by characters as “Leonato’s Hero, your Hero, every man’s Hero” and “the old man’s daughter”. With the image of jewel, women are like the property of men which can help boast male honour. As Hero possesses the socially desirable qualities, such as beauty, modesty and chastity, Leonato once says that Hero is “mine I loved, and mine I praised, and mine that I was proud on”. Owing to having Hero as Leonato’s daughter, Don Pedro even lauds him as an “honourable father”. When Leonato misinterprets that Don Pedro eyes on Hero, he considers it extremely honourable. To him, it is even like a dream. Put it simply, Leonato’s male ego hinges on both Hero’s own qualities and her attraction to Don Pedro with high social status.

Shakespeare uses both Claudio and Leonato to represent the males of the time and the honor code they were held to. Claudio is in no way held to the same pre-marital expectations as Hero, which, at the time, was the case for all men. For instance, when Hero is accused of being with a man prior to her marriage, no one questions what man and, quite frankly, no one cares what man. Shakespeare also shows how men are judged and given honor based on how their women act. When Leonato learns of the accusations his daughter receives on her wedding day he scolds her and says,

Drama text, Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare is a romantic comedy revolved around marriage, dishonesty and love. In 2007, the original play had been interpreted and adapted into a new film text; Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare Retold. This new film version is an adaption for the modern audience who’s views around love and marriage have changed since Elizabethan times. Brian Percival ‘Retold’ the original play, first published in 1623 by reinterpreting it into his own understanding of modern society with the focus of women’s roles nowadays. Whilst doing this Percival has maintained many of Shakespeare’s intentions.

            Hero does not get a chance to mull over the idea of Claudio as a husband.  Even the audience knows little about her going into the now famous “shaming scene.”  Details about Hero’s virtues and personality are purposely left out, partially to satisfy the dominant male perspective in the play, but also to give more clout to the heinous claim that Claudio makes during the wedding.  The reactions of Hero’s father and others indicate that a woman’s virtues are only as good as a man says they are.

Men and women’s honour play a very important role in William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and in the times of the Elizabethan era. Throughout the play characters are faced with situations destroying their honour and they will go through many obstacles to restore their honour. Some of the characters are not controversial men and woman and do not always live up to certain ideals that define an honourable man and woman. In the opening scene, Shakespeare introduces the concept honour when Leonato, governor of Messina, asks the messenger whether people have died in the recent battle. The messenger replies, But few of any sort, and none of name. (1.1.7). This is an indication that honour is of high importance to the people in Much Ado About Nothing. Shakespeare shows the honourable woman through the character Hero.

  Much Ado About Nothing raises many important issues concerning the institution of marriage. Perhaps Shakespeare's purpose in writing this play was to question the existing approach to relationships and marriage. Shakespeare reveals the faults of the process through the characters of Hero and Claudio and also Hero's father, Leonato. Shakespeare also may be suggesting an alternative approach to marriage and relationships through the characters of Beatrice and Benedick.

The humiliation caused to Hero in the event would be inconceivable to an audience at the time, being accused of adultery would no doubt ruin a woman’s reputation and therefore create difficulty for her when finding a husband; especially for a woman of high status such as Hero. Claudio is being presented as a potential threat at this part in the play, contrasting with the gallant war hero we were first introduced to. This emphasizes how bitter and sinister Claudio has turned, consequently reminding the audience by irony that is he only interested in wealth and status when marrying Hero. Claudio’s shallow fickleness plays into the villain’s hands. Shakespeare uses the threat of Claudio to generate further anxiety in the audience and concern for Hero’s welfare. This scene shows the men of the play coinciding with each other in their response to the defamation of Hero. Don Pedro personally insults Hero during the commotion of this scene, “to link my dear friend to a common stale,” he suggests here that he believes her status has been lowered by what she has supposedly done and rendered her ‘common’. This personal attack on Hero which has come from someone who shouldn’t really be involved advocates the idea that she is isolated in a patriarchal society in which men group together to defend male interests. Hero’s reputation is being publicly ruined here, and at the time this would have ruined Hero’s life and her

by using it as a comic device, but also to sort out situations so that

 Much Ado About Nothing is one of William Shakespeare’s best comedies and love stories.  What is not to like about a play that is hilarious, romantic, and has a happy ending?  In this play the foremost and most intriguing character is Benedick, a man who is a devout bachelor and who does not believe he will ever find the perfect woman; --because perfect is exactly what he must have.  This may seem to be a harsh and pessimistic outlook on life, but the way Shakespeare brings this character to life portrays Benedick as a funny and caring man who really is not that certain about what he wants for the future.  Benedick’s counterpart in the play is Beatrice who is an independent woman

One of the most intriguing characters from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing must be Beatrice. An intelligent, well-spoken (and, perhaps more interesting, outspoken) young woman, she is an almost exact opposite of her cousin, Hero. What makes Beatrice so different than what one expects of a woman during Shakespeare’s time? Why did Shakespeare decide to make her such a strong female character? It begs the question of what women were actually like in the Tudor era, and if she was really so radical a character.

Much Ado About Nothing explores many themes but we are going to mainly focus on the different roles of men and women in society as well as the establishment and maintenance of their honour. The play represents the injustice against gender roles in society and the inequality between men who have pressures in terms of expectation and the women who are portrayed as naturally unfaithful. Honour plays a big part in this play as it means that people earned the respect and nobility in their society. The illustration of gender and honour is clearly shown when Claudio disrupts the ceremony by shaming Hero of what he saw last night and blames her as an impure disgrace.

To David Underdown, the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century should be described as a period that involved a “crisis in gender relations” (Underdown 1, Eales 1) With that said, Shakespeare had been writing and/or staging the bulk of his works during this period of crisis. In both Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing he explores, and by doing so challenges, the centuries notions of proper masculine and feminine behaviour. One, and if not the most, notable disputes that Shakespeare makes with his characters in these two plays is that of wit and intelligence; Women, who were generally regarded as the less intellectual gender are shown in these plays to have great wit and can manipulate language to their advantage. Adversely, Don Adriano De Armado and Costard exhibit their lack of anything of the sort. Furthermore, Dogberry (Even if he qualifies as a purely comedic character) realizes the importance of eloquence and intelligence in man and yet puts forth anything but. Another testament to adverse gender roles is in the fact that women are seen to be in positions of control with regards to their relationships (i.e., the princess, Rosaline, Beatrice) and this control over their male counterparts is a means for power. As previously stated, the women are in practical control over their relationships, but they also seem to be in emotional control. The men let their passions take over, which the reader will later see was something to be avoided regarding their