Samuel Watkinson

Assignment 2: Much Ado about Nothing

In Act 2 scene 1 of Much Ado about Nothing, one of the plays main questionswhether

Claudio will get to marry Herois resolved in the affirmative. As Don Pedro tells Claudio that

he has successfully wooed Hero for him, and spoken to her father Leonato and got his

permission, Leonato offers his daughter in marriage to him. As will be shown, this moment of

joy for Claudio and the ensuing exchange between Don Pedro and Beatrice (2.1.299-332),

reflects such central themes of the play as marriage and the social expectations associated with it,

particularly of unmarried women, the pressure of which shapes characters words and actions.

One of the central themes of Much Ado is marriage and its necessity in the world of

Messina, especially for a woman. The expectations of unmarried Elizabethan women was to

obey their fathers in his choice of marriage and then their husbands. Leonatos brother, Antonio,

echoes Leonatos role by saying he trusts Hero will be ruled by [her] father (2.1.49-50) in the

choice of a husband. Similarly, since she is expecting at this stage that Don Pedro will propose to

Heroafter Antonios servant overhears (incorrectly) Claudios conversation with Don Pedro

earlierHero is primed to accept his proposal. Thus, Hero has no say in the matter as Leonato

asks the Count to take her in marriage. Hero is the archetypal passive woman in Elizabethan

society: obedient, meek, and conventionally feminine. Although her father has prepared her to

promptly accept a proposal by Don Pedro, she is completely pliable in extemporaneously

accepting one instead from Claudio.

Similarly, the social expectations Claudio brings to his courtship of Hero is in keeping

with conventional courtly love. Unlike other romantic comedies, Shakespeare gives us nothing

like love at first sight; instead, as Zitner notes in his editorial introduction, All the lovers are

concerned about rank, money, and Society (1). Since marriage must take place within ones
class, it is thus natural for Claudio, a Count, to seek after Hero, a governors heiress; further,

since money is another factor that filters his decision, it is natural for Leonato to collocate [his]

daughter and [his] fortunes (2.1.300) together as if there is no distinction between the two.

Furthermore, the fact that Hero is often portrayed only through her effect on Claudiothe

sweetest lady that ever I looked on (1.1.182-83)reflects more the propriety of the courtly

lover than his passionate love (Cook 192).

This social pressure upon Claudios courtship of Hero is illustrated when, urged by

Beatrice to declare themselves, Claudio claims that Silence is the perfectest herald of joy. I

were/but little happy if I could say how much (2.1.303). While Claudio can find only a few

words, Hero can find none; and it is instead Beatrice who conveys that Hero tells [Claudio] in

his ear that he is in her heart (2.1.312-13). Ironically, silence is no herald at all; it implies

nothing less than their lack of emotion. Silence is thus dangerous to Claudios relationships with

both Hero and Don Pedro. His too-quick suspicions that Don Pedro would betray him by wooing

Hero for himself show his lack of trust, and foreshadow his belief of Heros infidelity upon

merely seeing her talking to a man at night, instead of communicating with her.

In another sense, his silence on his earlier conversation with Don John is crucial in the

plays construction; if he had revealed his deception earlier, the play could not have continued to

culminate in their arranged marriage (Zitner 124). But the fact that he realises he was deceived

by appearances and yet marries Hero based on what he has seen confirms that he is more falling

in love with her beautiful face instead of her as a person. His subsequent declaration to Hero is

telling: Lady, as you are mine, I am yours. I give myself for you, and dote upon the exchange

(2.1.305-6; italics mine). Claudios words, which constitute an espousal de praesenti, an

2
immediate indissoluble union, are significant formulated as they are: why make it a condition,

and why not dote upon the lady herself? (Zitner 24).

While the romantic main plothighbrow and serioussees marriage as a foregone

conclusion, Beatrices attitude of marriage is characteristic of the comedic subplot:

unconventional and questioning of its societal function. Her equivocation that she would not

want to marry a man with a beard nor one without (2.1.35-38) strongly implies she does not

fancy marriage, period. Similarly, her response to Don Pedros proposal as she graciously rejects

him continues her evasiveness to the topic of marriage by offering the excuse that he would be

too costly to wear [for her] every day (2.1.325-26). The comparison of Don Pedro to fancy

clothes is a socially acceptable way of intimating that his high status violates propriety.

However, her self-deprecatory lament of being sunburnt and crying Heigh-ho for a

husband has a markedly different tone to her previous comments on marriage. Her comment

mirrors Benedicks concern that he will never see an old bachelor again (1.1.193)both are

sensitive that everyone but them is getting married. This suggests that her cousins engagement

inspires her, just as Benedicks supposed love for her would later inspire her to marry, and that

eventually the societal pressure to marry is something that she (and Benedick) cannot overcome.

She clearly is aware of her role as a woman in society, as her addressing Heros duty to

make curtsy and act as it pleases her father (2.1.51-52) shows. Yet, as Zitner notes, if she fears

marriage, she fears also being single: being potentially overmastered (2.1.60) on the one hand,

on the other being excluded from the only career with open status to women (31). Thus, she is

only willing to submit to the gender roles imposed upon by society insofar that she retains her

autonomy.

3
 In fact, her attitude leads Don Pedro to remark that her silence, in contrast to Heros

silence, most offends [him] (2.1.328). When Don Pedro, playing along, attempts to account for

her cheerful disposition by saying she must have been born in a merry hour (2.1.330), she

replies, No, sure, my lord, my mother cried. But then there was a star danced, and under that I

was born (2.1.331-32). Her quick change from the analogy of the labouring mother to the

dancing star might suggest the conflicts inherent in her role that she experiences as a woman in

society: while her thoughts seem focused on the situation of women, they also betray that her

merry heartkeeps on the windy side of care (2.1.310-12). In other words, it appears that her

merry war (1.1.59) with Benedick is a means of suppressing her true desire for male

companionship; indeed, her deception by Margaret and Ursula in the arbour betray this as she

conforms to the wildness-taming clichs of marital submissiveness (Zitner 31).

Shakespeare thus seeks to illustrate the tension between the still-existing patriarchal

world and the emerging Protestant ideal for marriage. Whereas Heros role in this scene is to

reflect societys expectations of women, Beatrices role, while to question them, is to ultimately

articulate the mutual, complementary roles of husband and wife.

4
Works Cited

Cook, Carol. The Sign and Semblance of Her Honor: Reading Gender Difference in Much Ado about
Nothing. PMLA. Vol. 101, No. 2 (1986): 186-202.

Shakespeare, William. Much Ado about Nothing. Ed. Sheldon P. Zitner. Oxford University Press, 1993.