Foils Of Beatrice And Hero In Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare is arguably the best playwright to ever live. He added many literary terms to his plays to enhance them such as puns, metaphors, similes, character foils, etc. In the Play “Much Ado About Nothing” by William Shakespeare, Beatrice and Hero are foils of each other because they have different views on love, different personalities, and react differently to situations.

Beatrice and Hero are foils of each other because they have different views on love. Beatrice has trouble committing to love, but Hero commits to love and will marry anyone her father tells her to marry. For example, Beatrice said,“What should I do with him? Dress him in my apparel… he that hath no beard is less than a man…” (Shakespeare 18) to show she didn’t want a relationship with Benedick. She said this to show that there would be no point in a relationship. She is also very picky/uncommitted and wouldn’t date Benedick because his facial hair isn’t manly enough. Hero said “So you walk softly, and look sweetly, and say nothing, I am yours for the walk; and especially when

Hero said, “O God defend me! How am I beset! What kind of catechizing call you this” (Shakespeare 68) to her father, Leonato. Instead of trying to take her anger out at Claudio’s lie, she was asking her dad to defend her. Hero knew it was a misunderstanding that she was cheating on Claudio, so she asked her dad to explain she wasn’t cheating. Later, Beatrice said, “Kill Claudio, you kill me to deny it. Farewell” (Shakespeare 74). Instead of asking Leonato to protect Hero with telling the truth, she asked Benedick to kill Claudio. This was a much more enraged thing to say to save her cousin. These quotes show that Beatrice and Hero are foils because in the same situation, Hero tries to get revenge by being truthful and getting help from her dad, but Beatrice wanted to take all of her anger out on Claudio by killing