How Is Beatrice Presented In Much Ado About Nothing

During my assessment I will be exploring how Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship develops throughout the play ‘much ado about nothing’. I will also explore how their relationship follows the conventions of a relationship in the Elizabethan era. Also how their relationship subverts conventions due to the common idea of looking at the outside appearance to fall in love, however they fall in love with each other due to their intellect; Claudio and Hero fall in love because of beauty.

In the beginning of the play we see through Beatrice’s witty remarks on love of how she subverts normal conventions of marriage: “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me”. This emphasises how she subverts normal conventions, she does not want a man to love whereas most women seemed to want to marry. Furthermore this shows how Beatrice speaks out of turn and enriches upon Benedick's masculinity as she defines him as a ‘dog’ as dogs are usually dirty and disturbing due to their loud bark. This ruins his honour as she perceives him as dirty and

The verb ‘scratching’ implies violence because of it being an aggressive verb and action. ‘a double heart for his single one’ supports this as it strengthens the idea that they had a relationship due to them swapping ‘hearts’. Beatrice may want to be malevolent and in a ‘skirmish of witt’ with Benedick because he hurt her in love which is suggested by the noun ‘heart’. ’such a face as yours were’ this is an example of hyperbole because Beatrice is conveying that no face could be worse than Benedick's it could signify how she masks her true