Much Ado About Nothing: My Feelings Overall

Today is the last day with Much Ado About Nothing. Guess what happened today? I got an email from the library saying the book I put on hold, Much Ado About Nothing, was in. Thanks.

• MAIN CHARACTERS: There’s always debate about who the two main characters of the show are supposed to be; is it Hero and Claudio, the characters around whom much of the main plot seems to revolve, or is it Beatrice and Benedick, the crowd-pleasing favorites and the more satisfying of the romances? I don’t know for sure and I can’t claim to know which couple Shakespeare intended to be the main pair (although I’m as sure as I can be that he was aware that Beatrice and Benedick were going to be the breakout characters, considering the very crowd-pleasing ending he gave them). Here is some food for thought, though. Maybe the two main characters are Hero and Beatrice. Perhaps the play is the story of two cousins and best friends who could not be more different, and how one girl’s conventionality and traditional submissiveness leads her into misfortune, while the other’s independence and unconventionality leads her to a happy marriage with the love of her life. Beatrice is strong, brave, intelligent, and independent and finds love because of it, not in spite of it. What a wonderful message to show girls. Meanwhile, Hero is submissive, traditional, and can't speak up for herself.
• BEATRICE AND BENEDICK’S PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIP: It’s only hinted at once (when Beatrice tells Don Pedro). My theory is that he told her he loved her and then somehow took it back. I’ve come to this conclusion because when Benedick says he loves Beatrice, she assumes he’s going to “eat his words”, and questions him about it a few times before she believes that he is sincere. She also says earlier that he won her heart of false dice. So maybe he told her he loved her, she reciprocated, and then he took it back, thus kind of getting her heart (as she would see it) dishonestly. I’m not sure he wouldn’t have meant it - in fact, I’m sure he would have - but he was probably afraid of commitment and marriage and settling down.
• WIT AND INSULTS: Beatrice and Benedick’s insults are interesting, because they’re all obviously not reflective of the truth. Benedick calls Beatrice old (she’s not, she’s his age, and he’s described by Claudio as being a “youth"), Beatrice calls him ugly (he’s not, every single woman and even some of the men in the play have acknowledged his attractiveness) and dull (he’s her biggest form of entertainment). That’s probably why it’s not hard when, after admitting to themselves that they’re in love with the other, they can easily acknowledge the other’s good qualities.
• AN ADMISSION OF LOVE: It’s also pretty funny that in their private admissions of love for the other, they go much farther than Don Pedro and company intended. Where as the tricking crew thought just making them have a little crush on each other would be funny, Beatrice and Benedick are like, "Marriage and children? Bring it on!” Also what I think is pretty interesting is that it is the first time they talk straight to each other - no metaphors and puns. 
• TRUST OF WOMEN: I think it’s interesting that Benedick’s excuse of why he’ll never marry is that he can’t trust women, and it ends up being Claudio who, in reality, doesn’t trust a woman (thinking that Hero is cheating on him), and Benedick, who puts the ultimate level of trust in a woman (by telling Beatrice that he will challenge Claudio for Hero’s honor). Although even at the beginning of the play he admits that his “hatred” of women is really just an act, it’s certainly possible that he is afraid of being hurt by being cheated on, even though he loves Beatrice, and when he sees the harm that comes from distrust, he realizes that he needs to take a leap of faith.