Much Ado About Nothing

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Republic of the Philippines

Mindanao State University- General Santos City

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

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TRACING FEMINISM IN SHAKESPEARES MUCH ADO ABOUT

NOTHING

Submitted to:

Prof. Rebecca Jaud M.A

English 199 Shakespeare

Submitted by:

Anthony I. Chan

January 20, 2012


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TRACING FEMINISM IN SHAKESPEARES MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

What should I do with himdress him in my apparel and make him my

waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, andhe that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more

than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for

him.Beatrice

Comedy is a work in which materials are selected and managed primarily in order to

interest, involve, and amuse us: the characters and their discomfitures engage our delighted

attention rather than our profound concern. We feel confident that no great disaster will occur,

and usually the action turns out happily for the chief characters (Draper, 2000).

In 1598, William Shakespeare wrote Much Ado About Nothing, a play that focused on

the social standing of women in and around Europe. Shakespeare shows a healthy respect for

women as adults capable of making up their own minds. Through the plot, he advances the

notion that women who go against the traditional passivity demanded of them and take an

active role in the determination of their future benefit from this. Shakespeare does this

through the contrasting examples of two couples: Claudio and Hero, and Benedick and Beatrice.

He expects the audience to learn from both relationships, but he clearly feels that Beatrice is

exemplary of the direction women should be heading because he presents her with more choices

and the better consequences ().

Nevertheless, this paper will try to trace feminism in Shakespeares Much Ado About

Nothing particularly on the character of Beatrice and as contrasted to the character of Hero (for


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certain types of female characters often resurface in Shakespeares plays, telling us a great deal

about his view of women and their status in Elizabethan society.)

Summary

Leonato, a kindly, respectable nobleman, lives in the idyllic Italian town of Messina.

Leonato shares his house with his lovely young daughter, Hero, his playful, clever niece,

Beatrice, and his elderly brother, Antonio. As the play begins, Leonato prepares to welcome

some friends home from a war. The friends include Don Pedro, a prince who is a close friend of

Leonato, and two fellow soldiers: Claudio, a well-respected young nobleman, and Benedick, a

clever man who constantly makes witty jokes, often at the expense of his friends. Don John, Don

Pedros illegitimate brother, is part of the crowd as well. Don John is sullen and bitter, and

makes trouble for the others.

When the soldiers arrive at Leonatos home, Claudio quickly falls in love with Hero.

Meanwhile, Benedick and Beatrice resume the war of witty insults that they have carried on with

each other in the past. Claudio and Hero pledge their love to one another and decide to be

married. To pass the time in the week before the wedding, the lovers and their friends decide to

play a game. They want to get Beatrice and Benedick, who are clearly meant for each other, to

stop arguing and fall in love. Their tricks prove successful, and Beatrice and Benedick soon fall

secretly in love with each other.


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But Don John has decided to disrupt everyones happiness. He has his companion

Borachio make love to Margaret, Heros serving woman, at Heros window in the darkness of

the night, and he brings Don Pedro and Claudio to watch. Believing that he has seen Hero being

unfaithful to him, the enraged Claudio humiliates Hero by suddenly accusing her of lechery on

the day of their wedding and abandoning her at the altar. Heros stricken family members decide

to pretend that she died suddenly of shock and grief and to hide her away while they wait for the

truth about her innocence to come to light. In the aftermath of the rejection, Benedick and

Beatrice finally confess their love to one another. Fortunately, the night watchmen overhear

Borachio bragging about his crime. Dogberry and Verges, the heads of the local police,

ultimately arrest both Borachio and Conrad, another of Don Johns followers. Everyone learns

that Hero is really innocent, and Claudio, who believes she is dead, grieves for her.

Leonato tells Claudio that, as punishment, he wants Claudio to tell everybody in the city

how innocent Hero was. He also wants Claudio to marry Leonatos niecea girl who, he says,

looks much like the dead Hero. Claudio goes to church with the others, preparing to marry the

mysterious, masked woman he thinks is Heros cousin. When Hero reveals herself as the masked

woman, Claudio is overwhelmed with joy. Benedick then asks Beatrice if she will marry him,

and after some arguing they agree. The joyful lovers all have a merry dance before they celebrate

their double wedding.


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Much Ado About Something: Buying into the necessity of fixed gender

roles.

Much Ado About Nothing is set in the Italian city of Messina just as a civil war fought

by two opposing brothers, Don Pedro and Don John, is ending. The brothers have reconciled

and come to visit one of the governors, Leonato, as well as his daughter, Hero, and his ward,

Beatrice. Don Pedro is accompanied by a pair of soldiers; Claudio and Benedick. Claudio falls

immediately in love with Hero while Benedick spars verbally with Beatrice. Don John is still

bitter about his half-brothers better lot in life and tries various schemes to break up Claudio and

Hero. He does succeed to some extent when he convinces Claudio to publicly shame Hero, but

in the end the two lovers are reunited and Don John is given his just desserts. Meanwhile,

through a well-meaning scheme, Benedick and Beatrice are pushed together into a romantic

relationship and find that theyre compatible. While the plays plot focuses in on Claudio and

Hero, the character development centers around Beatrice and Benedick, the only two characters

who are fully realized.

Beatrice, cousin to Hero, and ward of Leonato, clearly thinks women to be the better

sex. Shes intelligent, witty, and perpetually unwilling to become attached to a man. In response

to Benedick saying he loves no women, Beatrice replies,

A dear happiness to women: they would else have been

troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my coldblood, I am of your humor for that: I had rather hear my dog

bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me. (line 126,

page 254)


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Shakespeare favors Beatrice over Hero, giving her center stage through sparkling

discourse, often giving her the last word in her word play with Benedick. He also provides her

with choices and a range of devoted men, such as Don Pedros proposal.

Don Pedro: Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.

Beatrice: I would rather have one of your fathers getting.

Hath your grace neer a brother like you? Your father got

excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them.

Don Pedro: will you have me lady?

Beatrice: No, my lord, unless I might have another

for working days: your grace is too costly to wear every day.but, I beseech your grace, pardon me; I was born to speakall mirth and no matter. (Act2 Scene 2 line 328, page 261)

Moreover, Hero does not get to choose her husband, while Beatrice is given the option of

marrying up when Don Pedro proposes to her. Beatrice is referred to as witty and intelligent, and

repeatedly demonstrates that she is more than just a pretty face, while Hero is manipulated by

those around her. Even when Hero tries to influence Beatrice towards Benedick, shes just

participating in a plot concocted by her father and Claudio. Hero doesnt display much of an

indication that she has a mind of her own, and is never really in any position to follow through

on her own ideas, even if she had some.

Both Hero and Beatrice are manipulated by other characters in the play, but Beatrice

alone seems to take the misinformation she hears offering her a choice to make, as opposed to an

order she must follow. Hero is weak and ineffectual. When she is publicly shamed on her


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wedding day, she faints, effectively leaving the decision of how to clear her name in the hands of

her father, Beatrice, and the priest.

Claudio: Never tell him , my lord: let her wear it out withgood counsel.

Leonato: Nay, thats impossible: she may wear her heart outfirst.

Don Pedro: Well, we will hear further of it by yourdaughter: let it cool the while. Act 2 Scene 2 Lines 203-209

Beatrice and Hero represent two different stages on the path to female equality. Hero

symbolizes what women were at the time, not much more than slaves to their male betters,

subject to the whims of their effective owners, first the father, then the husband. Beatrice is a

step in a new direction, making her own decisions and speaking her mind. Shakespeare

illustrates his own feminist nature by making Beatrice the more likable and full character.

This does not mean that he thought that women were completely equal. He has Leonato

criticized Beatrice for being too nagging to find a husband and Shakespeare keeps Beatrice as a

second-class citizen by having her wish that she had been born a man, rather than speaking of

being equal to men while remaining a woman, thus buying into the necessity of fixed gender

roles.

Beatrice: Is he not approved in the height a villain, that hath

slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kins-woman?O, that Iwere a man!What! Bear her in hand until they come to

take hands, and then with public accusation, uncoveredslander, unmitigated rancor,-- O God, that I were a man! I

would eat his heart in the market place. Act 4 Scene 2 line

301-305


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In simpler words, Much Ado About Nothing is a play that presents many themes, but the

underlying social commentary on the status of women is one of the most important. Shakespeare

put feminist ideals into the character of Beatrice, and showed them to be much more favorable

than the pliant traits of Hero. It was a step in the right direction for sexual equality. The picture

contradicts the pen time wherein the context of Elizabethan society was that women are

subordinate than men. Yet, undoubtedly, her reign elevated the status of women.

Tracing feminism in Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing, the character of

Beatrice who never allows herself to be outwitted by Benedick, and contradicts the idea of

womanhood during Elizabethan period. Beatrice engages in banter with her uncle, Leonato,

against the background of the marriage proposal which it is expected that Don Pedro will be

making to her own cousin, Hero.

Beatrice displays a spirited individuality. She asserts her independence, demonstrating

the freedom of will that enlivens Shakespeares most attractive female characters.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. (2003) " Much Ado About Nothing." Stages of Drama: Classical to

Contemporar y Theater.Ed. Carl H. Klaus, Miriam Gilbert, and Bradford S. Field Jr.

Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, . 253-284.

Zitner, Sheldon P. (2004)" I ntroduction to Much Ado About Nothing."1993. Literature

Resource Center. 14June .
http://www.galenet.com/servlet/LitRC?locID=itha37434&srchtp=ttl&c=1&stab=512&ai=80495&docNum=H1420043962&bConts=269999&vrsn=3&TI=Much+Ado+About+Nothing&OP=starts&TQ=TW&ca=1&ste=57&tab=2&tbst=trp&n=10&wi=1097710http://www.galenet.com/servlet/LitRC?locID=itha37434&srchtp=ttl&c=1&stab=512&ai=80495&docNum=H1420043962&bConts=269999&vrsn=3&TI=Much+Ado+About+Nothing&OP=starts&TQ=TW&ca=1&ste=57&tab=2&tbst=trp&n=10&wi=1097710


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