Claudio And Benedick Foil

Words: 496
Pages: 2

Ram Mohan once said “ Two people of the similar nature can never get along, it takes two opposites to harmonize.” While reading the play Much Ado About Nothing by the famous William Shakespeare, he uses many character foils in the play to show the opposite character traits of two characters. The two characters that Shakespeare contrasts the most are Claudio and Benedick. In this play a young gentleman named Claudio returns from war and falls in love with a beautiful girl named Hero. They soon decide to get married but, Claudio has been falsely informed by Don John who plays the villain in the play that Hero has been disloyal and cheated on Claudio. This creates a huge conflict in the play that Claudio shames Hero at the wedding and soonly regretting …show more content…
For instance, Benedick shows the character trait of astuteness, and he gives a lot of thought into his opinion before making any accusations, such as when he made sure that the rumor of Hero being disloyal was true. For instance,when Leonato thought Hero should die after being framed for what Don John said. Leonato said “ Death is the fairest cover for her shame that wish’d for.” (Shakespeare 69) Right after this incident Benedick could sense something was wrong so he said “Sir, sir, be patient. For my part, I am so attir’d in wonder I know not what to say” (Shakespeare 70). These two examples show us that Benedick doesn’t believe what Claudio has said to Hero because he knows how loyal and honest Hero is,he thought Leonato should have evidence before taking any action.
In conclusion, the constantly changing relationship between Claudio and Benedick has influenced the conflict by creating more tension between the two characters. After Claudio believes what Don John said about Hero being disloyal, Benedick becomes very angry with Claudio and later challenges him to a duel. Overall, throughout the book, Claudio and Benedick go back and forth in their friendship, but their differences end up bringing them together in the