Much ado about nothing: Benedick and Beatrice - Essay Example

Much ado about nothing: Benedick and Beatrice Beatrice: Beatrice plays the role of Leonato’s niece. Leonato happens to be the governor of Messina. Hero, Leonato’s daughter, makes friends with Beatrice, her cousin. Although the two of them are bosom friends, yet they compliment each other when compared with respect to behavior. Hero maintains the image of a silent, simple and respectful young girl. On the contrary, Beatrice is verbose, complicated to deal with and sardonic in her attitude. However, somewhere inside, Beatrice is a very sensitive person who is moved by slightest displays of emotions, and is indeed, a very honest and kind hearted young lady. She is indeed, straight forward and righteous in her manner. When this trait of her personality dominates so as to suppress her intrinsic kindness, she sounds witty and challenging. It is in fact, her straight forwardness that reflects in her repartee. Also, she is naturally blessed with a very good sense of humor that helps her shower Benedick with clever witty statements that sound so appealing to the reader. An analysis of the way Beatrice generally interacts with Benedick almost throughout the play tells the reader that she is a good observer and always remains present minded. With her unusual intelligence and wisdom, she always makes an effort to make fun of Benedick in any way she thinks she can, though, somewhere deep inside her heart, she retains an ocean of love for him. In fact, she had always been in love with Benedick, though Benedick had never felt himself as intimate with Beatrice as to accept her as his life partner until the play nears ending. Despite Benedick’s cold response to her, she could never help change her feelings for Benedick, though apparently she always wears an attitude that would show that she is least concerned about Benedick. In fact, her immense love for Benedick is quite related to and is the fundamental cause of the witticism with which she deals him. As they say, apathy is not lack of conflict. It is indeed, lack of feelings. Wherever there is a conflict, there is either love or hatred. One party expects the other to behave in a certain way. When the second party does not come up to the expectations of the first one, conflict develops. In other cases, conflicts reflect love. One argues with another individual because he/she wants to exchange views, feelings, thoughts and words with him/her. Likewise, Beatrice always argues with Benedick because she wants to talk to him, judge him as a person, know him better, and thus, love him more, though her ego does not allow her to express her love for him because she had her offer denied by Benedick once. Also, being the niece of a wealthy governor and having brought up in a rich family, it would have contrasted with her standards if she ever lost to Benedick. However, once she discovers Benedick loves him and is only tentative to tell her this, she openly accepts him as her life partner because she is too sensitive as well as sensible to choose otherwise. Benedick: Benedick is a courageous lord, who visits Messina after wars. He is initially determined in the play that he will not get married just like Beatrice, in fact, this is a trait common between Benedick and Beatrice that both are determined not to get married unless they find the right partner for themselves. Benedick always indulges in lengthy, witty arguments with Beatrice. However, in his heart, he also tends to explore the personality of Beatrice by arguing with her. Even his friends notice that his arguments with Beatrice are meaningful and have a purpose behind them. Benedick openly accepts Beatrice as his right partner as he hears Don Pedro and Claudio’s discussion about Beatrice’s interest in him. By heart Benedick is a very kind person. He works with an intention to benefit others. Benedick has a very good sense of humor. He tells his friends that he is ready to go to the farthest point of world for a task, as ordinary as fetching a toothpick, in an attempt to part ways with Beatrice, but he is fed up of arguments with Beatrice (II.i.229-235 cited in SparkNotes). However, after reading the play, the reader remains skeptical of whether Benedick suddenly develops love for Beatrice or else, has remained in love with her for a long time and has never expressed it. This is because Benedick usually remains busy in working for the benefit of others. In his social activities, his personal concerns remain relatively undiscussed. Benedick certainly devotes himself wholeheartedly to Beatrice. This is evident from the fact that he challenges Claudio upon the consent of Beatrice for Claudio’s unjust allegations over Hero. Benedick and Beatrice intrinsically, share similar personalities. Many of the traits of their behavior are similar. Both are verbose, argumentative and fight for the right cause. Just like Beatrice condemns Hero’s insult and looks at it as injustice to women, Benedick also makes all possible efforts on his part to declare that Clausio’s accusation of Hero is far from right. In fact, it is the similarity of character that tells that Beatrice and Benedick are meant for each other. Why Benedick and Beatrice first remain at odds with each other and later realize the validity of their relationship? Benedick and Beatrice are people of ego. Both are very strong in their assertions and tend to justify their statements with reasonable arguments. With their wisdom, both of them tend to outshine each other, and try to prove that they are better than each other. Both of them are very choosy in developing relations. For the sacred institutions of marriage, each of them wants to be sure that he/she has not taken a decision that would make him/her repent at a later stage in life. However, both have a liking for each other that they keep from expressing because of their ego. A wise reader can tell that Benedick, like Beatrice, loves her from the start. A person as wise as Benedick can not suddenly choose someone as his life partner. He must have judged her over a long period of time. He considered her worth marrying from the very start and was only waiting for her approval. Therefore, after judging each other through witty arguments, both approve each other for marriage. Works cited: Shakespeare, William. Much Ado about Nothing. BiblioBazaar, LLC. 2007. “Much Ado About Nothing: Analysis of Major Characters.” SparkNotes, LLC. 2010. Web. 2 Dec. 2010. Read More