Much Ado about Nothing, a play by William Shakespeare is one of his pared down comedies and though a lighthearted play without too serious a tone portrays reality and brings out serious issues such as male dominance and feminism. The play at Stratford was directed by Chris Abraham, a fun show and has been an audience favorite for centuries. Shakespeare employs the standard tropes of the romantic comedy, which includes the overheard conversation, the case of mistaken identity and the skeptical bachelor/ bachelorette who secretly longs for monogamous love. Director Chris Abraham’s direction of Much Ado About Nothing retains the play’s wit and pageantry, while highlighting Shakespeare’s critique of patriarchal codes of personal honor and morality creating a society that had different set of standards for men and women.
Beatrice is the leading lady in the play and she can be seen as an early modern feminist. In the play she starts off with a prologue which is an additional text written by Erin Shields, a writer from Toronto. This title puns suggestively. as Chris Abraham points out that the Elizabethan slang, “nothing” is referred to a woman’s private parts. It also was pronounced more like “noting.” Both these associations prove highly significant in the play, as a woman’s chastity was one of the few things over which an upper-class man in Shakespeare’s period had little control; this led to a degree of male paranoia on the importance of a woman’s virginity that she belonged only to him. She was his property and nobody could say they had a part of her. The study of a female character in a Shakespearean play requires understanding the role of women during that time period. The men were the power base of society and wanted women of a certain mold, sweet, feminine and docile, a woman like Hero, Leonato’s daughter. Beatrice however is independent, feisty, rebellious and bold, somewhat irregular of what a woman was and could be. Her uncle, Leonato, is concerned about her sarcastic wit: “By my troth, niece, thou will never get thee a husband if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue”(Act 2,1,16). She carries her wit and sarcasm as “Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes”(3.1.51). She is living in an era where woman have no rights and must depend on a man. However, she has no desire to be trapped in a marriage where she will lose control of her life. She does not want to compromise and would rather be single and will not settle “till God make men of some other mettle than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a piece of valiant dust” (2.1.55-57). She is frustrated and angry that men have control and can tarnish a woman’s reputation without any clear evidence:”O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart / in the market-place.”(4,1,304-305). Beatrice rebels against this unequal status of women in Renaissance society and wants Benedick to “Kill Claudio” (4.1) when Claudio brutally rejects Hero in public because of a fabrication done by Don Juan to stop the wedding.
As the play progresses, Beatrice softens toward Benedick, being tricked by Hero and the other ladies into believing that Benedick is in love with her and she displays her vulnerable side. At the beginning of the play there is a battle of the sexes both witty and caustic towards each other and each wanting to have the last word. Despite projecting a strong and independent personality, Beatrice is attracted to Benedick and is open to his attempts to woo her. Benedick is also conned into believing that Beatrice is in love with him and both allow their hearts to rule over them. Beatrice finally abandons her habits of pride and contempt and allows herself to demonstrate her love to Benedick openly: “I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest” (4,1,285).
WORKS CITED:
Shakespeare, William. “Much Ado about Nothing” Penguin Random House. 1999.