Benedick’s attitude to love & marriage in ‘‘Much Ado About Nothing’’ In the play ‘‘Much Ado About Nothing’’ by William Shakespeare, the character of Benedick shows mixed emotions towards loves and marriage throughout. In the two extracts we studied, Benedick shows a large contrast of opinions: In Act 1 Scene 1, Benedick portrays strong feelings of contempt towards love and marriage, whereas by Act 2 Scene 3, Benedick has completely changed his views and he is prepared to make the commitment and marry Beatrice, a woman he appeared to dislike in the beginning of the play and who seemed to have mutual feelings towards Benedick. Act 1 Scene 1 portrays that Benedick has a very negative attitude towards love and marriage. When conversing with
He decides to just shut them out completely and not give them the opportunity to abuse his trust. In Act 2 Scene 3, Benedick’s attitude towards love and marriage changes completely, and contrasts to his feelings portrayed in Act 1 Scene 1, where he shows he is not interested in loving a woman or getting married - in Act 2 Scene 3, he shows that he loves Beatrice and proclaims ‘’I do spy some marks of love in her’’. Benedick and Beatrice had appeared to never really like each much, as they always argued. However, when Benedick hears Claudio, Leonato and Don Pedro loudly discussing Beatrice’s ‘‘love’’ for him (a ploy used to get the two together), Benedick starts to develop a romantic interest in Beatrice, saying ‘‘love me? Why it must be requited,’’ meaning that her love must be returned and he is happy to reciprocate those feelings. This begins Benedick’s soliloquy, which allows the audience to hear and know Benedick’s thoughts and feelings without the other characters finding out. It proves that Benedick can be tricked, as he believes that Beatrice loves him almost instantly (BBC GCSE Bitesize). Benedick also admits ‘‘they say the lady is fair, ‘tis a truth I can bear them witness,’’ revealing the fact that he thinks this woman is beautiful and attractive, and testifying to that. He claims ‘‘I never did think to marry,’’ meaning that he never thought he