Name: Cristina Camps Pérez.
Teacher: Vicente Fores.
Group: B.
MUCH
ANALYSIS OF THE CHARACTER OF
BEATRICE.
INDEX:
1.-
Introduction.
2.- Analysis
of the character of Beatrice.
3.-
Importance of the character in the play.
4.-
Conclusion.
5.- Bibliography.
1
INTRODUCTION:
In
this paper, I am going to write about “Much Ado About Nothing” by William Shakespeare,
and more concretely about Beatrice. First of all, I am going to divide the
paper in four parts: the first one, will be the description of the character,
Beatrice, not only physically but also a description of her character and her
relation with other characters, above all with Benedick, of the play and I will
give examples of it; then, I will analyse the role Beatrice plays in the play
and the importance of her character and how it develops through all the play;
after this, I will analyse what would had happened if Beatrice would not had
appeared in the play; and finally, I will give a conclusion.
But
for this, I also need to analyse the socio-cultural context of that moment and
also the relations between men and women, in order to better understand her and
her behaviour. I also want to analyse the importance of this character not only
in the play, but also in the society of that time and even nowadays, how
important women are and how important a character or a woman like her is.
Finally, I also want to say that I will use information taken from the internet
to guide my analysis and to support my ideas.
2
ANALYSIS OF THE CHARACTER:
Here, I am going to analyse the
character of Beatrice, who she is, how she is and the kind of relations she has
with other characters of the play. I think that some of these relations could
help us to understand her and why she behaves in one way or another. Besides,
this will help us to understand the purpose of the author and why Shakespeare
created a character like her.
Beatrice is a young and beautiful
woman, she is Leonato’s niece and her best friend is Hero, her cousin. But both
Beatrice and her cousin could not be more different. Beatrice is feisty,
vengeful, cynical, arrogant, sharp and witty, meanwhile Hero is all the
contrary. The only character Beatrice seems to hate is Benedick, a lord and
soldier of
(www.sparknotes.com/Shakespeare/muchado/canalysis.html)
(www.enotes.com/muchado/beatrice-character-analysis
)
(http://etext.libratry.adelaide.edu.au/mirror/classics.mit.edu/shakespeare/much_ado/full.html)
(apuntes de clase día 27/09/07)
At the beginning of the
play, Beatrice and Benedick talk in a way that they seem to meet each other
from long time ago. During the play, we find out or imagine that they had a
relationship but he broke up with her, he run away. For this reason Beatrice
sings a song about how men are in the first scene of the play. Through this
song, Beatrice is providing future information about what is going to happen
through the play and also how relation between men and women are. Perhaps also
for this reason she is so opposed to marriage and so arrogant and cold with men
and especially with Benedick. Maybe she
is afraid of love and for this reason none of them want to recognise that they
are in love with each other and are always saying bad things about the other, to
convince themselves they are not in
3
love. We find some examples of this when
Beatrice talks about him in the first scene of the first act when she insults
him as we have seen before and also in the second scene of the same act when Benedick
says: “Why, i' faith, methinks she's too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise and
too little for a great
praise: only this commendation I can afford her, that were she other than she is, she were unhandsome; and being no other but
as she is, I do not like
her.” He is also trying to convince
himself he is not in love with her. One example of why she hates him and why
she is afraid of love and afraid of having a relation with a man could be when
she says in the first act, scene 1: “Very easily possible: he wears his faith
but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block.” Although
here she is referring to Claudio as the “hat”, she is saying that women cannot
trust in man because they are always changing their partners, they always go to
one to another, they are always changing.
(http://etext.libratry.adelaide.edu.au/mirror/classics.mit.edu/shakespeare/much_ado/full.html)
(apuntes de clase día 04/10/07)
But in the end, when
Hero tells Beatrice that Benedick is in love with her, she finally opens her
heart to love and we can that Beatrice is not so cold or cynical but she is
vulnerable, more naïve than she thought and full of love and, consequently,
full of life. Actually, Beatrice looks for the same all women look for, find
someone special and merry him. But she wants this without loosing her freedom
and independence, something very difficult at that time. And she knows Benedick
is that man but he hurt her so much that she cannot forgive him. But perhaps
Benedick was also afraid of love and decided to run away trying to escape from,
maybe, the responsibilities of marriage or perhaps he was afraid of thinking he
was going to spend the rest of his live with the same woman. But we do not know
exactly, we just can imagine.
( www.sparknotes.com/Shakespeare/muchado/canalysis.html
)
4
The last thing I want to
analyse in that part of the paper is her name that I think could be related
with her relation with Benedick. The name of Beatrice means “the one that
blesses” and the name of Benedick means “blessed”. Perhaps Beatrice has to
“bless” Benedick with love, with her love. Another thing I would like to say
about the names and that is very common in Shakespeare plays is their origin.
All his comedies are located in foreign places, in this case in
(
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Much_Much_Ado_Nothing )
(apuntes de clase día 27/09/07)
5
IMPORTANCE
OF THE CHARACTER IN THE PLAY:
In
this part of the paper, I am going to write about the importance of the character
of Beatrice in the play, why she is so important and what she represents. Apart
from this, I also want to see what would have happened is she would not have
appeared in the play. The last thing I will analyse here will be the importance
of this character in her society.
For
me, Beatrice is the voice of the women not only of her time but also of our
time. She represents a kind of woman equal to man, independent, a woman that
speak up and takes her own decisions. I think Shakespeare is using that
character to show his ideas about women. He thought women were equal to men, he thought they should had the right of choosing with
who they wanted to get married or what they wanted to do with their lives. In
my opinion, Shakespeare believed that both, women and men could live together
and “happy” without having to oppress anybody, he thought the purpose of life
was to marry and reproduce, to be happy, but to be actually happy none of the
couple cannot be oppressed or in a inferior position to the other. Besides,
what Shakespeare was trying to do was to make people get use to see women roles
in theatre, because even women roles were represented by men, they were very
important. Another thing is that for Shakespeare comedies, women were the main
characters, meanwhile in tragedies were men. Women represent life and happiness
while men represent death and they are more pessimistic.
(apuntes de clase día 25/09/07)
(apuntes de clase día 27/09/07)
(apuntes
de clase día 04/10/07)
In
my opinion, Beatrice is one of the most important character of the play or
perhaps the most important one because she is not only one of the main
characters but also, I think, the voice of the conscience of that age. Beatrice
is showing that there is something wrong in their society, women are equal to
them and they have the right of speak up like men. Beatrice is the perfect example of one
6
Shakespeare’s strong female
character, she is rebelling against women position in Renaissance society.
Beatrice is, for me, the main character because she makes the story to go on
saying Hero that she can
choose with who she wants to marry or when
Claudio brakes up with Hero and she helps Hero to make Claudio come back with
her.
(apuntes de clase día 04/10/07)
Perhaps the play could
be done without this character, but it would not have been the same because
Beatrice is a symbol, not only for the women of Shakespeare age, but also for
the women of the present day. Beatrice not only guides the play, but also
creates comic situations or conflicts and, above all, she is vindicating the
role of the women in
(apuntes de clase día 4/10/07)
As
I have said before, in tragedies, we find that the main character is man, who
is sad and the play looks for death. But in comedies, the main character is a
woman, who is feminine, erotic and pro-life, and in this comedy, Beatrice is this
kind of woman. Besides, Shakespeare always included more than one happy ending
in his comedies and one of these happy ending in this play is the
reconciliation of Beatrice and Benedick. The others
are Hero and Claudio and the punishment of John. This play is showing the
relation between men and women and some of this information is, as we have seen
in the previous part of the paper, provided by the song Beatrice sang at the
beginning of the play. I think Beatrice and Benedick are the perfect example Shakespeare
could have used to show those relations
7
because, in my opinion, everybody can see
himself or herself reflected in those characters at some moment in their
lives. What Shakespeare also want to show here is that there are more than only one point
of view and that men have to change they way of treating women, reality is very
complex and both men and women are necessary. We have to learn, even nowadays,
to live together and to learn that we cannot live one without the other, we need each other to be happy and to perpetuate
life, what was one of the most important values on Shakespeare comedies.
(Apuntes de clase día 18/10/07)
8
CONCLUSION:
All I all, I think Beatrice is very important to that play because she
guides the play and she creates comic situations and conflicts. Besides, she is
a perfect representation of the main female character of Shakespeare’s plays.
She is very strong and independent woman that does not need anybody to decide
for her and that can speak up and choose how she wants to live her life,
something unthinkable at that age. But, at the end, she realises she is like
any woman, she also wants to be with someone special, she also wants to be
happy and for Shakespeare a happy ending meant a weeding.
Here,
we can see how the relations between men and women are through the characters
of Beatrice and Benedick. Although they are always arguing and insulting each
other, they are very similar to each other and they need each other. But, maybe
because they are afraid of love, they cannot realise of that until Hero, Don
Pedro, Leonato and the rest of the characters tell to Beatrice that Benedick is
in love with her and to Benedick that Beatrice is in love with him, they do not
realise of how they love and need each other. And I think that even their names
are saying that they are complementary and that they, at the end, have to be
together.
I
think this is the perfect example to see how society was and the role of the
women at that time and the idea Shakespeare had about women. We can see how
women were ( Hero ) and how the author wanted a woman to be ( Beatrice ).
Shakespeare is showing in this play that women are equal to men. For me the
purpose of that play is this, show that we are all equal and show the situation
of women at that time and Shakespeare makes this showing the differences
between Beatrice and her cousin, Hero.
9
To
sum up, I think Beatrice is very important for this play because without her,
Shakespeare would not have been able to show his ideas about women and about
society at that time. For me, she is the main character and the author uses her
to guide the comedy and make it possible. And through this we also can see how
important women are not only for the play but also for life, because all of us
are important for life, not only men and not only women. We have to learn to
live together and learn to understand each other.
10
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1.- www.enotes.com/muchado/beatrice-character-analysis
Home: < www.enotes.com > (
16/11/07 )
2.-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Much_Ado_About_Nothing
Home: < en.wikipedia.org > ( 16/11/07 )
3.- www.sparknotes.com/Shakespeare/muchado/canalysis.html
Home: < www.sparknotes.com > ( 16/11/07 )
4.- Apuntes de clase días 25/09/07, 27/09/07, 04/10/07, 18/10/07.
5.- http://etext.libratry.adelaide.edu.au/mirror/classics.mit.edu/shakespeare/much_ado/full.html
Home: < http://etext.library.edu.au
> ( 16/11/07 )