Introduction In his plays The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It, Shakespeare gives the leading female characters similar roles, yet is able to develop the relationships between them in different ways. Katherina from The Taming of the Shrew, Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing and Rosalind from As You Like It, all of whom are either the older sister or cousin, are given strong, dominating characters whilst Bianca, Hero and Celia, in the respective order of plays, are given a sincere, polite and more disciplined attitude in comparison to their sister or cousin. Despite completely opposite attitudes and behaviors of the female characters, Beatrice and Hero from Much Ado About Nothing and Rosalind and Celia from As …show more content…
She finds it unnecessary to speak in a softer manner, even in his absence, and speaks about him in an extremely harsh way and probable tone of voice, criticizing him heavily, as suggested by “He is no less than a stuffed man; but, for the stuffing – well, we are all mortal” (Much Ado About Nothing I.i.49-50). She believes that Benedick is a “stuffed man”, an ignorant and unintelligent man. Due to such strong judgments like these from Beatrice, Leonato is compelled to inform her “Faith, niece, you tax Signor Benedick too much, but he’ll be meet with you, I doubt it not” (Much Ado About Nothing I.i.39-40). Within the starting scene, the audience learn that trivial matters can trigger Beatrice into making her opinions and views very clear, no matter how insolent they may be. Despite starting the conversation about Benedick herself, implying that he is significantly present in her mind, Beatrice is enraged when he was praised, showing that she expects others to agree with her views and opinions. Like Katherina, the boy player of Beatrice was a convincing female on stage, despite her masculine and arrogant behaviour. It could have been for the convincing acting that the same boy player was picked for As You Like It, with a similar character to