SparkNotes: Much Ado About Nothing: Act V, scenes iii–iv Much Ado About Nothing Act V, scenes iii–iv → Act V, scenes i–ii Act V, scenes iii–iv, page 2 page 1 of 2 Summary: Act V, scene iii Early in the morning, at the tomb where Hero supposedly lies buried, Claudio carries out the first part of the punishment that Leonato has ordered him to perform. Claudio has written an epitaph, or death poem, celebrating Hero’s innocence and grieving the slander that (he believes) led to her death. He reads the epitaph out loud and hangs it upon the tomb. He solemnly promises that he will come and read it here at this time every year. Everyone then goes off to prepare for Claudio’s wedding to Leonato’s niece, the supposed Hero look-alike, which is to occur that very day. Summary: Act V, scene iv Meanwhile, in the church, Leonato, Antonio, Beatrice, Benedick, Hero, Margaret, Ursula, and the friar prepare for the second wedding of Claudio and Hero.

We learn from their conversation that Margaret has been interrogated, and that she is innocent of conspiring with Borachio and Don John—she never realized that she was taking part in Don John’s treachery. Benedick is also very relieved that Don John’s trick has come to light, for now he does not need to fight his friend Claudio. Quietly, Benedick also takes Leonato aside and asks him for his permission to marry Beatrice. Don Pedro and Claudio enter, and Antonio goes off to fetch the masked women. While they are waiting, Don Pedro and Claudio tease Benedick about his love for Beatrice and about the fact that he will soon be married, although they do not know that he actually does plan to be married that very day. Hero, Beatrice, and the waiting women enter, all wearing masks. Claudio vows to marry the masked woman by his side, whom he believes to be Leonato’s mysterious niece. But when Hero takes off her mask, the shocked Claudio realizes that it really is Hero. Leonato and Hero tell him that now that Hero’s name has been cleared, she can figuratively come back to life and be his wife, as she should have been before.

The party prepares to go to the chapel to finish the ceremony, but Benedick stops everybody. He asks Beatrice, out loud and in public, whether she loves him. Beatrice denies it, and Benedick, in turn, denies loving her. They both agree that they are good friends, but not in love. But, laughingly, Claudio and Hero tell them that they know that isn’t the truth—and both whip out scribbled, half-finished love poems that they have found in their friends’ rooms and pockets, written from Benedick to Beatrice and from Beatrice to Benedick. Benedick and Beatrice realize that they have been caught red-handed and, giving in, finally agree to marry. Benedick silences Beatrice, for the first time, by kissing her. Claudio and Don Pedro begin to tease Benedick again, but Benedick laughingly says that he does not care—he remains determined to be married, and nothing he has ever said against marriage in the past makes any difference to him now. He and Claudio assert their friendship again, and Benedick calls for a dance before the double wedding.

Suddenly, a messenger rushes in to inform the company that Leonato’s men have arrested Don John in his flight from Mes-sina. They have brought him back to Messina a prisoner. Benedick instructs Don Pedro to put off thinking about the villain until tomorrow, when Benedick will invent fine tortures for him. In the meantime, Benedick insists that all must dance joyfully in celebrating the marriages, and he commands the pipers to strike up the music. Analysis: Act V, scenes iii–iv This final scene brings the play to a joyous conclusion, drawing it away from the tragedy toward which it had begun to move and letting everyone wind up safe and sound. Claudio and Hero are about to be happily married, as are Benedick and Beatrice. The deception has been revealed, and Don John has been caught and brought to justice. Everybody has made friends again, and the final dance symbolizes the restoration of order and happiness in a world that has been thrown into chaos by Don John’s accusation and Don Pedro and Claudio’s rash action. But in order for the play to reach this point, Hero must go through a symbolic death and rebirth, washing away the taint of the accusation of her supposed sin.

Claudio’s writing and reading of an epitaph at her tomb seems to create a sense of closure, in relation to his false accusation of Hero and her supposed death. He acknowledges his error in having accused Hero: “Done to death by slanderous tongues / Was the Hero that here lies” (V.iii.3–4). The song similarly pleads, “Pardon, goddess of the night, / Those that slew thy virgin knight” (V.iii.12–13). When dawn arrives at the end of the scene, and Don Pedro says, “Good morrow, masters, put your torches out,” we can literally see the plot emerging from darkness (V.iii.24). It is now time to attend the wedding meant to release Claudio from his guilt for Hero’s death. From darkness and pain, the story now returns to daylight and happiness. The emotional dynamics of the masked wedding must be complicated, and many readers wonder why Hero still loves Claudio after what he has done to her. The story can be read as one of real love that has been tainted by misunderstanding, paranoia, and fear but that has miraculously ended happily.

Hero does seem to love Claudio still, and they are joyful at being reunited. Claudio’s amazement, awe, and wonder at finding Hero still alive may serve to wipe out any last traces of resentment or anger on either side. 1 Beatrice Beatrice Bookmark this page Manage My Reading List Beatrice is one of the most delightful characters in all of Shakespeare — certainly one of the most talkative and witty. She is likely to touch a responsive chord with many readers and playgoers today in light of current social ideas that encourage greater equality and self-assertiveness for women than has been traditional for women of the Western world. The traditional woman of the Elizabethan period, especially of Beatrice's class, is better represented by her cousin Hero — the naive, chaste, and quiet young woman of whom Beatrice is extremely protective. Beatrice is as cunning and forward as Hero is naive and shy. Beatrice often interrupts or speaks her mind without concern about decorum. Her first line interrupts the conversation between Leonato and the messenger and is loaded with sarcasm and bitterness. Throughout the play, she is very clever with words, displaying considerable intellectual faculty as well as a natural ability for humor.

And her way with words is sharpened when the object of her humor is Benedick. Beatrice's unexplained bitterness toward Benedick is displayed right from the beginning. Then we begin to realize she has been hurt by him. Still stinging from past experiences with him, now she greets him with scorn, wariness, and anger. Eventually we recognize that desire and affection for him are still buried within her. She has learned to use humor and insults to disguise deeper emotions. Yet, when she overhears Hero describing her faults, she is surprised at how she is perceived by others: "Stand I condemned for pride and scorn so much?" She vows to abandon her habits of contempt and pride, and also to let herself love Benedick openly. Before Beatrice can express her true feelings to Benedick, she may find it so difficult to change her habits of scorn and insult that she has physical symptoms of discomfort: "I am exceeding ill. . . . I am stuffed. . . .

I cannot smell." Finally in a moment of high emotion during which she rages over the deception against Hero, she is also able to tell Benedick that she loves him — first tentatively, then without constraint: "I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest." Yet at the end, she must have her last hesitation — joking or not: Benedick: Do not you love me? Beatrice: Why no, no more than reason. And when she finally agrees to marry him, she has her last little gibe on the subject: Beatrice: I would not deny you. But . . . I yield upon great persuasion, and partly to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption. Has Beatrice changed over the week or so of the play's time-line? At the very least, her tongue is not so sharp and belittling; at best, she has let herself love and be loved — a miraculous change in such a strong, independent woman. The Ale-House Jester and the Wit of Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing The Quarrel of Benedick and Beatrice From A memorial volume to Shakespeare and Harvey . ed. by A. C. Judson.

Austin: University Press. On the average modern reader the quarrel of Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, II, 1, makes no exceptional impression. It seems little more than a renewed attack in the war of wits between the two which the reader has been following up to this point. Beatrice is accused of borrowing her jests from A Hundred Merry Tales, and retaliates by comparing Benedick's wit to that of the "prince's jester." Why is Benedick, who takes Beatrice's seemingly more bitter taunts in good part, roused to such wrath at this? The blow to his mere vanity as a wit does not seem to explain sufficiently the effect on him, nor does the view that the sparring of the two here simply brings to a climax the rising anger of Benedick. Such an interpretation is not true to the spirit of the play or to the emphasis laid on the passage in the development of Shakespeare's plot.

For it is immediately after this � after Benedick in recounting the quarrel to Don Pedro has declared that he would not marry Beatrice "though she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed" � that Don Pedro proposes what is characterized as "one of Hercules' labours," to make the two antagonists fall in love with each other. The truth is that the quarrel has lost for modern readers the force of its meaning; its richness in suggestion for Renaissance readers and hearers has faded out. Beatrice's taunt is not a last straw for the already nettled Benedick, but a most outrageous insult. In order to understand Benedick's feeling that Beatrice has been guilty of an unpardonable insult, one must understand the exceptional value set by the courtly classes of the Renaissance upon a wit that represented humanistic culture, and the absolute condemnation of certain types of jesting. At an early period in the Renaissance, humanists began to formulate a doctrine of true wit, or wit that belonged to the ideals of courtesy and consequently differentiated the man of true virtue or distinction from the vulgar. 1 Schoolboys as well as courtiers were trained in the types of jests appropriate to the man of culture.

2 Even rhetorics like Wilson's Arte of Rhetorique dealt with the matter as a phase of Renaissance education. Wilson classified types of jesting that were to be avoided, and distinguished "betwixt a common jester, and a pleasant wiseman." 3 But to true or cultured wit the Renaissance gave the highest approval. Some early humanists like Sir Thomas More were esteemed as highly for their wit as for any other quality. The stress laid on wit by the courtesy books has led some students to find the source of Benedick and Beatrice in the greatest of the courtesy books, Il Cortegiano, as translated by Sir Thomas Hoby. 4 It is more probable, however, that Shakespeare was merely sharing the Renaissance passion for wit, and in portraying his witty characters like Biron and Rosaline, and Benedick and Beatrice reflected simply the witty conversation affected by English gallants and ladies at Elizabeth's court and among those who imitated the customs of the court. Lyly's Euphues and his plays, as well as other novels and plays of the last quarter of the sixteenth century, illustrate the vogue.

In Shakespeare's early comedies there is a great elaboration of the various types of wit current in the age, and his characters, along with those of his contemporaries in general, observe with a fair degree of consistency the laws of decorum in the use of types of wit and humorous language. We have the raillery and mockery of the courtly class; the plays upon words, antithetical retorts and logical fence; the hyperbole, the conceits, the far-fetched similes and metaphors of its love poetry. Nearest to wit of the courtly type and often not easily to be distinguished from it, is the wit of the page, with his perverse logic, his impudent mockery, and his shrewd waggishness. Dromio of Syracuse and Speed illustrate the type best in Shakespeare, though they have a stronger tinge of the clown than Lyly's pages. More clownish still is the type of wit seen in such servants as Dromio of Ephesus and Launce, with their soliloquies and droll narratives interspersed with reports of conversations � characters akin in wit to the vices of the older drama.

But to the Elizabethan the most degraded of all forms of wit arising from conscious effort was that of the professional fool, or jester, who in his worst form was known as the ale-house jester. Theoretically the wit of any of these less favored classes would have been disgraceful in a courtly person, marking him as an inferior in culture and social standing. 5 In Elizabeth's court, where gallants and ladies constantly paraded their wit and even pages revealed the same passion, the professional jester and the pure simpleton do not seem to have found an important place. Their function had not altogether died out, however. Some fools were retained in noblemen's houses, 6 and the old jest books, whose tales were often grouped around the names of jesters of Henry VIII's court, were exceedingly popular among the common people. Some of these stories set forth the jests of people of rank, but all were condemned by the courtly and cultivated at the end of the sixteenth century. The accusation that her jests were stolen from A Hundred Merry Tales was in itself an insult that Beatrice was not slow to resent.

She repaid the insult with overflowing measure, however, when she not only called Benedick "a very dull fool" but added a turn that gave mortal offence. She described him unmistakably as the ale-house jester. "Beatrice � Why, he is the prince's jester: a very dull fool: only his gift is in devising impossible slanders: none out libertines delight in him; and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villany; for he both pleases men and angers them, and then they laugh at him and beat him. . . . Benedick � When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say.

Beatrice � Do, do: he'll but break a comparison or two on me; which, peradventure not marked or not laughed at, strikes him into melancholy; and then there's a partridge wing saved, for the fool will eat no supper that night." The ale-house jester had been condemned earlier in the sixteenth century, as by Wilson in his Arte of Rhetorique, but by the end of the century he was one type of professional jester that was almost universally condemned and in the most indignant terms, particularly as one who misled young gentlemen, nobles, and princes. His jests were not mere second-hand tales and more or less stupid retorts; they were scurrilous, degraded, and vicious � "villany," as Beatrice declares. His attraction lay in the sharpness of his raillery and abuse, and his was a studied art to amuse young men to their own damage and to the profit of this new type of professional parasite. The most exhaustive picture of him in his most detestable phase is given by Jonson in Carlo Buffone of Every Man Out of His Humour.

Carlo represents in his main traits the buffoon as condemned by Aristotle and the ale-house jester as condemned by Wilson and other humanists. Jonson's character apparently reflects, also, the most famous of the actual jesters representing the type at the end of the sixteenth century, Charles Chester. All the vices ascribed to Benedick as the "prince's jester" are scathingly rebuked in the figure of Carlo. Though less complete than Jonson's, there are also a number of illustrations of the type before Shakespeare. Nashe's picture of Chester in Pierce Pennilesse illustrates all the points of Beatrice's sketch, the slanders of the jester, the prince's laughing at his scurrility and yet beating him in anger, the "breaking of a comparison" as a feature of his art.

Nashe condemns not only the jester but the keeper as well: "It is a disparagement to those that haue any true sparke of Gentilitie, to be noted of the whole world so to delight in detracting, that they should keepe a venemous toothd Cur, and feed him with the crums that fall from their table, to do nothing but bite euery one by the shins that passe by. If they will needes be merry, let them haue a foole and not a knaue to disport them, and seeke some other to bestow their almes on, than such an impudent begger." 7 Shakespeare himself had used the type before Much Ado. When in Henry IV he represented the youth of Henry V, who according to old stories was given to wild company, he changed the picture of a young prince who was merely an associate of robbers in The Famous Victories of Henry V into that of a young prince misled by an ale-house jester. The age readily understood such an association, for men were seeing it and condemning it, as I have pointed out.

Shakespeare does not, however, make the prince who developed into his ideal king the patron of a mere scurrilous, railing parasite. The jester who exercises his wit to procure meals from Prince Hal is made the most subtle and genial humorist of all literature. But the essential basis of the sketch must not be forgotten. Falstaff gets his meals by his jesting; his jesting is frequently raillery and abuse; and his abuse of the Prince is rank enough to justify Hal, if he had been so disposed in beating him as other ale-house parasites are represented as being beaten when they went too far with their patrons. Further, a large amount of Falstaff's wit is in the nature of the "absurd comparisons" which are stressed so fully by Nashe and Jonson, and are imputed to Benedick by Beatrice. It is worth noting that in spite of the sharp distinctions drawn between true wit and unworthy railing and in spite of the great pride in wit revealed among the cultured like Benedick and Beatrice in the Renaissance, both Benedick and Beatrice betray an unusual sensitiveness to the charge of grossness in wit.

Mary Lamb remarks in regard to Benedick, "There is nothing that great wits so much dread as the imputation of buffoonery, because the charge comes sometimes a little too near the truth." Benedick in reflecting on Beatrice's charges says, "The prince's fool! Ha? It may be I go under that title because I am merry." But the hesitation about the worthiness of his wit is only momentary; he immediately ascribes such an estimate to the "base, though bitter, disposition of Beatrice," and expresses afterwards nothing but indignation at the charges brought against him as a wit. Beatrice is forced to hear a similar estimate of her wit, though she is accused merely of pride and scorn, not of "villany." when Hero and Ursula are baiting her in III, 1, knowing that she overhears, her raillery is condemned, and with a kind of poetic justice she is accused of transforming men with the absurd comparisons that make up a part of her picture of Benedick as an ale-house jester. "Why, you speak truth. I never yet saw man. How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featured.

But she would spell him backward: if fair-faced, She would swear the gentleman should be her sister; If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antique. Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed; If low, an agate very vilely cut; If speaking, why a vane blown with all winds; If silent, why, a block moved with none. So turns she every man the wrong side out And never gives to truth and virtue that Which simpleness and merit purchaseth." In answer to this indictment Beatrice soliloquizes, "What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true? Stand I condemn 'd for pride and scorn so much? Comtempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu! No glory lives behind the back of such." As a matter of fact, though courtly wit was sharply differentiated from all that savored of scurrility and clownishness, much of the wit of Lyly's courtly characters and of Shakespeare's in the plays up to and including Much Ado is of the railing and personal type.

The conventional treatment of heroines in Italian novelle and in the fiction of all Elizabeth's reign presents them as unapproachable and scornful of all wooers, and their scorn is best expressed in their wit. The convention is conspicuous in Love's Labour's Lost. But, at the end of the century, new developments in the idea of what was allowable in wit are very clear. Not only does the satire on the absurd similes or comparisons that appear in the accounts of Chester, of Falstaff, and of Carlo Buffone, and in the accusations against Benedick and Beatrice seem to have received fresh emphasis, 8 but the scorn and pride of the unapproachable court lady was also going out of fashion. When Beatrice is being lectured into love, Ursula remarks, "Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable," and Hero replies, How does Shakespeare present the relationship of Beatrice and Benedick in "Much Ado About Nothing" and how has Kenneth Branagh interpreted this in his 1993 film version?

- GCSE English - Marked by Teachers.com How does Shakespeare present the relationship of Beatrice and Benedick in &quot;Much Ado About Nothing&quot; and how has Kenneth Branagh interpreted this in his 1993 film version? Extracts from this document... Introduction How does Shakespeare present the relationship of Beatrice and Benedick in "Much Ado About Nothing" and how has Kenneth Branagh interpreted this in his 1993 film version? "Much Ado About Nothing" is a comedy. Shakespeare's comedies often involve tragedy, betrayal and love. They always have a happy ending, often with a marriage. Beatrice and Benedick's relationship is supposed to be the sub-plot, as Hero and Claudio's relationship is the main plot in this play. However, Beatrice and Benedick's relationship seems much more interesting. As it is so unconventional and humorous, people who watch this play follow their development more closely. Shakespeare connects Beatrice and Benedick through echoes and links. Their names are actually linked; Beatrice's name means 'she who blesses', and Benedick's name means 'he who is blessed'. The insulting names they call each other also echo.

She calls him "Signor Mountanto", suggesting that he is proud and arrogant, and he calls her "Lady Disdain", suggesting that she is contemptuous and scornful. Their personalities are very similar, since both are extremely confident and outspoken. At the time this play was written, these characteristics were very unconventional. ...read more. Middle The audience find unconventional characters so much more interesting because they are different from everyone else. The fact that Beatrice and Benedick have different views in comparison to everyone else's just suggests further that they should be together. Shakespeare fluctuates the control in the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick. At the ball, Beatrice has the upper hand because she knows that the man behind the mask is Benedick. She now has complete control and can say whatever she likes about him because he will not reveal himself. She calls him the "prince's jester" and a "very dull fool". However, later on, Benedick offers to travel extreme distances just to get away from Beatrice, who he calls a "harpy" in front of a lot of people. He now has the control because he has the power to humiliate her in public with his ridiculous and hyperbolic statements.

Shakespeare fluctuates who has the control because he wants to make them appear equal and the same. The relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is presented by Shakespeare as something the others can be amused by. In Branagh's film, the director makes the audience laugh and cheer at them whenever one of them throws an insult. ...read more. Conclusion As soon as Beatrice says, "Kill Claudio", the music stops to emphasise the words. Beatrice paces, throwing furniture and making extreme gestures with her hands. She shouts with frustration and Benedick has to restrain her at various points. However, at the end of the play, Shakespeare shows how the love between Beatrice and Benedick is fully restored. They only agree to marry each other backhandedly, after making excuses, like for "pity" or "to save your [Benedick's] life". In the Branagh film, there are cheers and applause from the crowd when Benedick kisses Beatrice. This happy ending is complete and ends with a marriage, a common feature in Shakespeare's comedies. It is a satisfying ending for the audience, as Beatrice and Benedick are finally together.

The future for Beatrice and Benedick seems like a 'happily ever after' ending. They agree that they are "too wise to woo peaceably", and from there, it is presumed that they will move on with a loving relationship. In Branagh's version, positive music begins at the end of the film. There is a repetitive melody, possibly suggesting that Beatrice and Benedick's relationship is ongoing and for eternity. All the characters then begin to dance in circles, maybe representing eternity, wedding rings and therefore, marriage. These themes echo the themes of the play. Hannah Wood 04/06/2007 ...read more. The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Much Ado About Nothing section. Found what you're looking for? Start learning 29% faster today 150,000+ documents available SparkNotes: Much Ado About Nothing: Analysis of Major Characters Analysis of Major Characters Themes, Motifs & Symbols Beatrice Beatrice is the niece of Leonato, a wealthy governor of Messina.

Though she is close friends with her cousin Hero, Leonato’s daughter, the two could not be less alike. Whereas Hero is polite, quiet, respectful, and gentle, Beatrice is feisty, cynical, witty, and sharp. Beatrice keeps up a “merry war” of wits with Benedick, a lord and soldier from Padua. The play suggests that she was once in love with Benedick but that he led her on and their relationship ended. Now when they meet, the two constantly compete to outdo one another with clever insults. Although she appears hardened and sharp, Beatrice is really vulnerable. Once she overhears Hero describing that Benedick is in love with her (Beatrice), she opens herself to the sensitivities and weaknesses of love. Beatrice is a prime example of one of Shakespeare’s strong female characters. She refuses to marry because she has not discovered the perfect, equal partner and because she is unwilling to eschew her liberty and submit to the will of a controlling husband. When Hero has been humiliated and accused of violating her chastity, Beatrice explodes with fury at Claudio for mistreating her cousin.

In her frustration and rage about Hero’s mistreatment, Beatrice rebels against the unequal status of women in Renaissance society. “O that I were a man for his sake! Or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake!” she passionately exclaims. “I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving” (IV.i.312–318). Benedick Benedick is the willful lord, recently returned from fighting in the wars, who vows that he will never marry. He engages with Beatrice in a competition to outwit, outsmart, and out-insult the other, but to his observant friends, he seems to feel some deeper emotion below the surface. Upon hearing Claudio and Don Pedro discussing Beatrice’s desire for him, Benedick vows to be “horribly in love with her,” in effect continuing the competition by outdoing her in love and courtship (II.iii.207). Benedick is one of the most histrionic characters in the play, as he constantly performs for the benefit of others. He is the entertainer, indulging in witty hyperbole to express his feelings.

He delivers a perfect example of his inflated rhetoric when Beatrice enters during the masked ball. Turning to his companions, Benedick grossly exaggerates how Beatrice has misused him, bidding his friends to send him to the farthest corners of the earth rather than let him spend one more minute with his nemesis: “Will your grace command me any service to the world’s end? I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on. I will fetch you a toothpicker from the furthest inch of Asia . . . do you any embassage to the pigmies, rather than hold three words’ conference with this harpy” (II.i.229–235). Of course, since Benedick is so invested in performing for the others, it is not easy for us to tell whether he has been in love with Beatrice all along or falls in love with her suddenly during the play. Benedick’s adamant refusal to marry does appear to change over the course of the play, once he decides to fall in love with Beatrice.

He attempts to conceal this transformation from his friends but really might enjoy shocking them by shaving off his beard and professing undying love to Beatrice. This change in attitude seems most evident when Benedick challenges Claudio, previously his closest friend in the world, to duel to the death over Claudio’s accusation as to Hero’s unchaste behavior. There can be no doubt at this point that Benedick has switched his allegiances entirely over to Beatrice. Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon Of all the main characters in Much Ado About Nothing, Don Pedro seems the most elusive. He is the noblest character in the social hierarchy of the play, and his friends Benedick and Claudio, though equals in wit, must always defer to him because their positions depend upon his favor. Don Pedro has power, and he is well aware of it; whether or not he abuses this power is open to question. Unlike his bastard brother, the villain Don John, Don Pedro most often uses his power and authority toward positive ends. But like his half-brother, Don Pedro manipulates other characters as much as he likes.

For instance, he insists on wooing Hero for Claudio himself, while masked, rather than allowing Claudio to profess his love to Hero first. Of course, everything turns out for the best—Don Pedro’s motives are purely in the interest of his friend. But we are left wondering why Don Pedro feels the need for such an elaborate dissimulation merely to inform Hero of Claudio’s romantic interest. It seems simply that it is Don Pedro’s royal prerogative to do exactly as he wishes, and no one can question it. Despite his cloudy motives, Don Pedro does work to bring about happiness. It is his idea, for instance, to convince Beatrice and Benedick that each is in love with the other and by doing so bring the two competitors together. He orchestrates the whole plot and plays the role of director in this comedy of wit and manners. Don Pedro is the only one of the three gallants not to end up with a wife at the end. Benedick laughingly jokes in the final scene that the melancholy prince must “get thee a wife” in order to enjoy true happiness (V.iv.117). The question necessarily arises as to why Don Pedro is sad at the end of a joyous comedy.

Perhaps his exchange with Beatrice at the masked ball—in which he proposes marriage to her and she jokingly refuses him, taking his proposal as mere sport—pains him; perhaps he is truly in love with Beatrice. The text does not give us a conclusive explanation for his melancholy, nor for his fascination with dissembling. This uncertainly about his character helps to make him one of the most thought-provoking characters in the play. More Help Much Ado About Nothing MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING ACT V SCENE i Antonio must calm down Leonato, who is having a fit about the soldiers and the shaming. During an encounter with Don Pedro and Claudio, it is Leonato who must calm down Antonio, who challenges Claudio with insults: "Come, follow me, boy; come, sir boy, come follow me. / Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence" (V.i.83-84). Don Pedro says to Leonato, My heart is very sorry for your daughter's death, But on my honor she was charged with nothing But what was true and very full of proof. (V.i.105-107) "The enjambed line ...

is richly ambiguous, allowing for the phrase 'charged with nothing' to linger in the ear of the audience, before it is capped by the legal certitude of apparent 'truth' and 'proof'" (Garber 381). Benedick enters, seeking out Claudio, and when Don Pedro and Claudio try to goad him into his usual witty banter, he nobly sticks to his intent of challenging Claudio. His resolve ennobles him; he means business and he does not waffle depending on his audience -- he is true to Beatrice's commission. "You are a villain," he tells Claudio. "I jest not" (V.i.145-146). He tells Don Pedro, "Your brother the bastard is fled from Messina. You have among you kill'd a sweet and innocent lady" (V.i.190-192). Dogberry and his men haul in the criminals and all is revealed, despite Dogberry's bungled enumeration system, one probably inspired by Arundel's libels against Oxford (Ogburn and Ogburn 504; Anderson 169).

Borachio admits, "What your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light" (V.i.132-134). In other words, "What culture could not compass, the dumb luck or instinct of the unlettered brings to light" (Goddard, I 279). Leonato rubs this in: "I thank you, princes, for my daughter's death; / Record it with your high and worthy deeds" (V.i.268-269). He tells a crushed Claudio that he cannot bring back Hero, but that he should marry another cousin of hers who looks like her (Patty Duke?) and is heir to both her father Antonio and Leonato too. (Odd punishment, if women are still considered commodities!) Dogberry takes his goofy leave. Claudio submits to his punishment.

SCENE ii Benedick is in agony because his love texts are not going well: in loving, Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of pandars, and a whole bookful of quondam carpetmongers, whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse, why, they were never so truly turn'd over and over as my poor self in love. Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried. I can find out no rhyme to "lady" but "baby"....

(V.ii.30-37) [Neither can Elton John, "Tiny Dancer"; Whitney Houston, "I'm Your Baby Tonight"; Lil' Romeo, "My Baby"; N Sync, "Just Got Paid"; Shaggy, "Angel"; that piece of moronic crap "Butterfly"; Queen, "Sweet Lady"; John Michael Montgomery, "Dream On Texas Ladies"; Neil Diamond, "Brother Love's Travelin'"; etc., etc.] Benedick recognizes that rhyme words can chime dark and inappropriate notes, and, "No, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms" (V.ii.40-41). Beatrice enters and the two exchange good-natured barbs. Benedick notes that "Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably" (V.ii.72). Beatrice haughtily alludes to his considering himself wise, to which he replies: If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the bell rings and the widow weeps....

Therefore it is most expedient for the wise, if Don Worm (his conscience) find no impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet to his own virtues, as I am to myself. (V.ii.77-86) If the extraneousness of this odd passage weren't enough to alert us, consider the Don Worm reference: Don = Count = Earl; Worm = Ver. It's another passage alluding to the obliteration of identity and the leaving behind for posterity a "monument" -- ubiquitous Shake-spearean concerns. Ursula summons the couple with news that all has been revealed regarding the Hero plot. SCENE iii Claudio must every year sing a solemn tribute to Hero at her tomb. Here's the First Annual Hero Deathfest Saline-a-bration. Claudio's penitance, like his fit at Hero, also is public. A confrontation with death before the final happiness is typical in Shakespeare. "The Hero whom Claudio maligned is dead, never to revive. Out of the illusion of her death a new Hero emerges not only in herself but in Claudio's heart and imagination.

And so the illusion turns into the fact, and looking retrospectively we see there was no deception" (Goddard, I 274). SCENE iv All is set up for the big revelation and when Claudio's new bride is brought forth. "Which is the lady I must seize upon?" asks Claudio (V.iv.53) -- so he's still a dolt! Hero emerges. Leonato sort of explains, "She died, my lord, but whiles her slander liv'd" (V.iv.66). The two young lovers are reconciled immediately, which would be almost comic if the prior events were not so brutal. We can excuse them only insofar as these idiots are so young, if cast properly. So, Hero "marries the feckless Claudio, but she is just too young to know that there is nothing to him" (Bloom 347). Is this play sufficient comedy? The end in joy should also involve a return to normal, a restitution. But here? An ironic ending only?

It seems that "so serious is the crack in the foundation of [this] society that the conclusion does not integrate all its elements, and the play ends on a somewhat discordant note" (French 131); the dark side of the play destabilized this society too severely. In any case, Benedick interrupts the celebration asking for Beatrice. They publicly denounce each other, but after some unsent love letters (notes!) are brought to light, they make faux excuses why they each agree to marry the other, pitiful attempts to "save face" (Asimov 558). Benedick says, "Come, I will have thee, but by this light, I take thee for pity" (V.iv.92-93). Beatrice responds, "I would not deny you, but by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion, and partly to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption" (V.iv.94-97). They kiss. it is those who sceptically question romantic attitudes who convince us that they have achieved the more enduring relationship.

(Wells 164) After all, "Beatrice" means "she who makes happy" and "Benedick" means "blessed," and Shakespeare could not have chosen those names accidentally. Beatrice will make Benedick happy and he will be blessed in her. (Asimov 559) Benedick reconciles with Claudio: "Come, come, we are friends" (V.iv.117). He insists that everyone dance before the ceremonies. Leonato, naturally, would rather make sure the wedding succeed this time first, but Benedick insists on the dancing. News that Don John has been captured yields only the insistence that Benedick will think up punishments tomorrow (a bizarre promise for wedding-night activities, and probably some punishment far exceeding his crimes, which, as one of my students pointed out, amounts to no more than telling some lies), unless by "I'll devise thee brave punishments" (V.iv.127-128), Oxford means creating plays (Ogburn and Ogburn 489).

But for now, we dance: "Strike up, pipers" (V.iv.128-129), and we end with celebratory music, which, as we know, is made up of a harmony of "notings." FINAL PERSPECTIVE Eva Turner Clark notes that A historie of Ariodante and Geneuora was presented before the Queen in February of 1582-83 -- the story from Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso" on which Much Ado is based. She treats the play as an allegory of historical events from the time, in which Don Pedro = Queen Elizabeth, especially in her authoritarian matchmaking capacities. Don John = Lord Henry Howard, brother of the executed Duke of Norfolk, perpetual conspirator, and kinsman of the Queen; recently released from prison and destined to return to prison within the year. Claudio = Sir Philip Sidney, who soon after the 1581 marriage of the "Penny" of his sonnets, turned his attentions to Frances Walsingham (but also a bit of Oxford too and his belief in the worst about Anne Cecil, seemingly based on Howard's slanders).

Benedick = certainly Oxford himself, probably often considered "the prince's fool" at court. Leonato = Lord Burghley. Antonio = Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State (and head of a sleazy spy network). Hero = Frances Walsingham, daughter of the Secretary, whose childhood engagement was an impediment in the Sidney match. Beatrice = Anne Cecil, whose estrangement from her husband would somewhat explain the vague pre-history between Benedick and Beatrice. (Clark 534-535) "Much Ado About Nothing is a study in the egotism of youth, its sentimental and romantic egotism in Claudio, its antiromantic and intellectual egotism in Beatrice and Benedick" (Goddard, I 277).

Despite it being a glimmering example of the romance comedy, the play contains also "a constant subtext of unarticulated pain and loss" (Garber 374).More abstractly, "Much Ado About Nothing is saturated with this idea of the power of Nothing (of the creative ingredient of the imagination, that is) to alter the nature of things for good or ill, for, as Shakespeare's History Plays so abundantly show, fear and hate, as well as faith and love, have the capacity to attract facts to them and so, temporarily at least, to confirm their own hypotheses" (Goddard, I 275). Much Ado About Nothing • GCSE Guide Login Much Ado About Nothing Compare Shakespeare’s presentation of the love between Claudio and Hero with that between Beatrice and Benedick. What does the play have to tell us about love and marriage? The love between Beatrice and Benedick is the idealistic love of Shakespeare and the love between Claudio and Hero is more realistic and physical. Actually there are contrasts and similarities in those two love stories in the play.

From the beginning of the play, Claudio realizes, after returning from war, that he is deeply in love with Hero and wants to ask her father for permission to marry her. The other couple, Beatrice and Benedick, works hard to give the impression that neither is the least bit interested in the other. Later on, a plan of showing Hero’s disloyalty of being succumbed to the amorous attentions of a man other than Claudio is worked out on the night before Hero and Claudio’s wedding. Finally, the two couples get married. First of all, Hero and Claudio’s relationship is based on first impressions, ignorance and wealth. On the other hand, Beatrice and Benedick’s love is based on mutual respect, love and true admiration. In the beginning of the play, there is nothing short of obvious attraction between Beatrice and Benedick. It appears as though they are reluctant lovers duped into a suspicious relationship. In the opening act, they already argue as lovers as Benedick says the words I, i. 107 ‘What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?’ This is obviously quite a tongue in rude question with undertones of attraction as is Beatrice’s reply I, i.

108-11 ‘Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feet it as Signor Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain if you come in her presence.’ This teasing, laced with clear regard and attraction, continues with more passionate infighting where their fascination for each other becomes more and more clear. Their words, which appear to be that demonstrating disdain, are words talked tediously by lovers who are confused and frightened of their attraction. Later in the same scene, we can hear Benedick says I, i. 217-24 ‘…But that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead, or hand my bugle in an invisible baldric, all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust none. And the fine is – for the which I may go the finer – I will live a bachelor.’ One theory of this is that by remaining a bachelor he somehow does not lose the male connection that he experiences with the other bachelors. Benedick admires Beatrice’s wit and quick tongue as this demonstrates she is far from being beneath him intellectually.

This is clearly evident in the fact that he respects his mother, for giving birth to him, thereby demonstrating his respect for women in general. It is also apparent that a woman should be more than just pretty, as he appears to disagree with Claudio’s fascination with the beauty of Hero. Benedick’s respect and high admiration for Beatrice is, at first, clouded by fear and confusion, not based only on her appearance, but on her soul and inner beauty. Being a confirmed believer in his own eternal bachelorhood, Benedick would not be persuaded from his convictions for anything less than a quick-witted woman of inner beauty. This is how he differs dramatically from Claudio whose first impression and regard is based merely on Hero’s beauty. In Act 2 Scene 3, Leonato, together with Don Pedro and Claudio make Benedick overhear them saying that Beatrice is madly in love with him but is just too embarrassed to let him know her feelings. In the meantime, Hero and Ursula contrive to let Beatrice hear them talk about how much Benedick loves her in Act 3 Scene 1. They also praise Benedick’s many virtues. Both Beatrice and Benedick are talkative and outspoken and full of wit.

As the play progresses, both try to hide their feelings for each other by verbal sparring. Benedick seems to be mature and has a good judgement. When everybody thinks that Hero has been unfaithful to Claudio, he remains skeptical as the Friar. After Hero’s disloyalty to Claudio, which is actually fake, had happened, Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship progresses from antipathy to falling in love with each other. In language, Shakespeare uses prose for the verbal battles between Beatrice and Benedick. When Benedick tells of his love in prose he leaves no doubt about the depth and reality of his feelings. Claudio, upon returning from battle, perceives Hero as the most beautiful creature in the world. He declares to Benedick, with no hesitation that he intends to marry Hero. What does he know of her aside from her external beauty? A wealth that with it comes power untold, that would be part of the package were Claudio to marry Hero. Somehow, both Claudio and Hero are prepared to fall in love and marry. The realization comes to him later and does nothing but make Hero a sweeter reward. Don John, the bastard, and his man Borachio try to break them up.

For the first attempt, Don John and Borachio plant the lie that Don Pedro II, i. 157 ‘swore he would marry her (Hero) tonight’. Claudio accepts the lie and prepares to give her up. After a certain time, Borachio persuades Margaret to flirt with him at Hero’s chamber window, dressed as Hero, at the night before Hero and Claudio’s wedding, while Don John lets Claudio, together with Don Pedro, overhear. Both Claudio and Hero are young and innocent. Claudio is easily led to believe in the disloyalty of Hero and Don Pedro in the hands of Don John and Borachio. The love between Claudio and Hero is actually a romance overshadowed by the passion of Beatrice and Benedick. Their love story gets progressively sadder and almost turns into a tragedy save for the final turn of events. Shakespeare uses verse to characterize Hero and Claudio. When Claudio speaks of his love in verse, it is conventional and convincing. Both sets of lovers undergo a change in the course of the play. Beatrice and Benedick accept love and marriage.

Benedick, who claims that it is hard for him to express true feelings with out wit, finally gives up words fro action and kisses Beatrice in the final scene. V, iv. 74 ‘Do not you love me?’ V, iv. 77-8 ‘Do not you love me?’ , ‘Troth no, no more than reason.’ . On the other hand, Claudio and Hero mature through their painful experience. In both cases, the lovers are asked to prove their love. Beatrice asks Benedick IV, i. 287 ‘Kill Claudio.’ Claudio is asked to marry Leonato’s niece, whom he has never known, to show his repentance and love for Hero. It can said that in the end both couples are more aware of their lovers’ inner beauty in one way or another. Claudio perhaps sees Hero as a person for the first time when he realizes her innocence. At the beginning, Claudio simply wishes to marry Hero based on her beauty, with the thought of wealth and power thrown in on the side. He has not acknowledged the fact that Hero is a person aside from her beauty and position. At the end, Hero perhaps sees Claudio’s inner beauty as well throughout all the turmoil.

Beatrice and Benedick, though always subconsciously aware of each other’s inner beauty, are made aware in a concrete sense when the end comes upon them. They began to understand the game they have been playing and see each other for who they are and as a result love each other even more. Beatrice and Benedick have true and honest passion, which they fought against diligently while Hero, and Claudio’s love demonstrated the shallowness of physical attraction.

Question: In Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ who does Beatrice agree to marry in the end?
Answer: Benedick