William Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing - Essay Example

This is also true in Much Ado About Nothing, particularly for the immature Beatrice and Benedick, two of Shakespeare's wittiest and most likable characters. While in the company of their friends, Beatrice and Benedick usually have a clever joke to tell, but when their friends are in need, they offer compassionate and loyal support. However, because they are proud and used to being in control, both Beatrice and Benedick pretend that they do not want a loving relationship with a member of the opposite sex and especially not with each other.

Leonato, Beatrice's uncle and the governor of Messina, makes clear that the two seem incompatible: "There/ is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick/ and her; they never meet but there's a skirmish of wit/ between them" (I.i.61-64). So, Beatrice and Benedick hide their common but true love by denying that it even exists; as a result, their friends' interference will be vital to the couple's discovery of the hidden truth. Beatrice does not need a disguise to win the freedom to be assertive.

Rather, she is free to express herself and is not used to submitting to the authority of others. In fact, at the start of Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice explains to Leonato and Hero, her cousin, that Hero will be the only woman submitting to the will of a man: It is my cousin's duty to make/ cur'sy and say, "Father, as it please you." But yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow,/ or else make another cur'sy and say, "Father, as it pleases me."