Beatrice And Hero In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

Beatrice and Hero

How would you feel if the man you loved turned on you on your wedding day or if you found out that you love the man who you have hated all your life? Surprisingly both these events happened to Beatrice and Hero. “Much Ado about Nothing” is a comedy play by William Shakespeare which was published in 1612. In this paper I will be comparing the vexatious Beatrice and the peaceful Hero to see their similarities and differences.

Leonato the father of Beatrice lives in the idyllic Italian town of Messina. He lives in a massive house with his daughter Hero, his niece Beatrice, and his brother Antonio, who is Beatrice’s father. The play starts by Leonato welcoming some friends of his who have just returned from the war. The main characters from the war are Claudio, Benedick, Don John, and Don Pedro. Once they arrive

This infuriates Claudio and on the day of the wedding he announces to everyone that Hero has been seeing another man. Hero’s father sides with Claudio and wishes to commit suicide. Astonishingly Hero’s family members decide to pretend that she is dead in order to guilt trip the crooks responsible for the misleading information. Fortunately the night watchmen, who one of them was Dogberry, over hears Barachio and Conrad confessing what they had done. Dogberry arrests them and questions them. Leonato learns this and Claudio wishes to apologize to Leonato and to the rest of the estate. Leonato says that since Hero is dead he would like him to marry his niece, which he describes as looking very similar to the diseased Hero. Claudio attends the wedding expecting it to be Leonato’s niece who he his marrying. Hero unveils herself and Claudio is overjoyed. Benedict then asks Beatrice if she will marry him; after they quarrel for a bit she