much ado about nothing
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Much Ado About NothingTRANSCRIPT
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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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