Beatrice And Benedick In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

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Pages: 6

‘Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably’. To what degree is it credible that Beatrice and Benedick should end up marrying at the end of Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’?

Brought together by deception and disguise, Beatrice and Benedick are not the conventional archetypal lovers, yet their love story is still one to be noted. Deception plays a key role in bringing them to the point of marriage; as they first try to deceive themselves that they do not like each other, yet later we see them deceived into believing that the other person truly loves them and is hiding their feelings.

Despite trying to convince everyone that they will never marry, the two characters are predisposed to being tricked to fall in love with each other. As each of their trusted friends use trickery to convince one that the other is in love with them, Benedick says that ‘I should think this is a gull, but that the white bearded fellow speaks it’, whilst referring to
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“I have tried; I can find out no rhyme to ‘lady’ but ‘baby’ – an innocent rhyme; for ‘scorn’, ‘horn’ – a hard rhyme.” He deeply cares about what she thinks of him and he scrutinizes every word to make sure it is perfect for her. He is afraid of using the word ‘baby’, as this would mean he is wants to have children with her, and yet they are not even married. He also does not want to use the word ‘horn’ as he does not want to get married and become a cuckhold. He wishes that his relationship with Beatrice is perfect, and he does not want to lose her like he did in the past, where she gave ‘a double heart for his single one.’ Their past relationship together left them both opposed to marriage and they developed a dislike for the opposite sex, yet through their ‘skirmish of wits’ we can see how well they fit together, and that they have no real hate for each