Benedick And Beatrice In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

Words: 1726
Pages: 7

Love is one of the most essential elements in Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing.. Benedick and Beatrice are two main characters in the play, both are very strong opinionated people that clash when it comes to love. Benedick and Beatrice play very strong dogmatic characters who both believe that falling in love will lead to a complete loss of self and possible heartbreak. Due to this, throughout the play their relationship is put on hold, and continuously deny their feelings for each other. Shakespeare presents their act of stubbornness though the obligatory act of marriage and due to their similar personalities this is cause of their familiar act of immaturity. As the play unfolds both Benedick and Beatrice continue being argumentative …show more content…
Shakespeare uses deception in this scene to bring Benedick and Beatrice closer together. Benedick’s stubborn insistence to know how beatrice truely thinks of him easily portrays to the audience of his own love he has for her. Benedick appears at the masked ball to anonymously confronts Beatrice knowing it was the only way to find out her true feelings, knowing she would never admit her feelings to him. However, Beatrice realises who he is and tricks Benedick, insulting him once more, ‘He is the prince’s jester, a very dull fool’. Benedick expresses an unexpectedly strong reaction to this comment, declaring that Beatrice’s words hurt him. Benedick’s feeling of hurt could be interpreted that he is revealing his sensitive side to the subject and how she talks of him …show more content…
The act of deception can be seen when during the scene of Benedick’s soliloquy where he describes his idea of a perfect woman; he describes Beatrice without realising, although appears obvious to the audience, this act indicates a turning point of Benedicks relationship with Beatrice in the audiences point of view. Benedick’s overall opinion and general view on women has become less aggressive, as he doesn't mention his fear of betrayal, and when describing his perfect girl, he describes personality, not looks: he explains she would be ’rich’, ‘wise’, ‘virtuous’, ‘mild’, ‘noble’, and then goes on to say that ‘her hair shall be… of what colour it please God.’ This note of humour within the play hints that their relationship will not change entirely although will progress and become more light