How Far Is Beatrice in Custody of Comic Pleasure - Coursework Example

Beatrice’s Custody of Comedy in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” Introduction “Much Ado About Nothing” is reasonably referred to as one of the most renowned and best plays of a greatest dramatist ever, William Shakespeare. This masterpiece of dramatic art definitely deserver the readers’ attention because it perfectly reveals the most actual and thought-provoking topics of Shakespeare’s days: relationships of the two sexes, social and public rules and moral norms in this regard, the problem of traditional and progressive approach to the themes usually being a taboo in society of that period – sexual matters, and the greatest achievement of the play is that it manages to deliver serious thoughts to the reader’s mind by means of its comic realms. The characters of the play support the overall comic idea, and the point of concern is whether Beatrice is the main character who controls the comedy. This may be understood as a correct statement because Shakespeare lets Beatrice command the start of the play, but in the course of the plot development there is another important character, Benedick, who contributes to the comic realm the same way Beatrice does. This means that Beatrice, though catches the reader’s attention from the very beginning of the play, does not command the entire custody over the comedy but shares it with Benedick. This also proves that Beatrice is not the commanding character throughout the entire play. Beatrice is a symbolic character of the comedy. According to Amussen, the traditional social order was violated by changes in usual relationships of the sexes, and concerning the usually tabooed issues promoted people’s interest in such things. (Amussen, 1994). The time of the comedy is the age of Elizabethan England with its sexual hypocrisy and old-fashioned models of social relations, and Beatrice symbolizes struggle against traditions and their imposing on people. This struggle finds reflection in her behavior and live language she speaks. Beatrice is courageous enough to be tough with men which is totally untypical of the patriarchal society with male domination in it and the words she uses strike her opponents straight to the heart. The question about a man who has just returned from battlefield “I pray you, how many hath he killd and eaten in these wars?” a century or half a century ago would mean immediate severe punishment for anyone who dared to insult a warrior, but the fact that Beatrice said this proved her being rebellious to traditional norms and rules and tried to emphasize on important role of women in a society which was gradually becoming more liberal. (Shakespeare, 1600). The opening scenes of the play reveal the nature of Beatrice’s character and introduce her leading role in the comic sense until the initiative is transferred to Benedick. This is the moment when her attacks on this character secure her custody of the comic realms. Not only Beatrice can offend Benedick as her opponent, but she also uses him, as well as he does, to prove her views on life: she is the fiercest opponent to the traditional institution of marriage and the most severe critic of men and their drawbacks which she considers to be accumulated in Benedick. Beatrice highlights her domination in word battles with Benedick and emphasizes that “…In our last conflict four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governd with one…”, which adds confidence to her convictions that her behavior and ideas are right. (Shakespeare, 1600). Beatrice’s tart words and ironic negative comparisons of Benedick reveal her hatred and demonstrate that such state of affairs is really comic because Benedick responds the same way and this is similar to childish game of insulting aimed at self-assertion. Such introduction of Beatrice is advantageous in terms of the comicality of the play. Her strong opposition to marriage and love relationships equalizes her with Benedick, the person with the same ideas but of an opposite sex. This way she acquires unusual features untypical of female social role and characteristic of men: traditionally, women are more concerned with the issues of marriage, family, intimate relations, whereas men focus on their natural roles of defenders and breadwinners, and Beatrice’s rejection of traditional women’s things makes her to some extent similar to a man. This enables her conducting constant attacks on Benedick without any risk, as it was mentioned above, and promoting her ideas among other women who tend to sympathize marriage, for example, her advice in the Act 2, scene 2, on Hero’s behavior in case of in appropriate choice of a husband and failing to meet the demands of the father: “…it is my cousins duty to make curtsy and say Father, as it please you. But yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another curtsy and say Father, as it please me.” (Shakespeare, 1600). As her ideas are not supported by Hero and she is still determined at fulfillment of a traditional female role, Beatrice is perceived as a person with some fixed idea who tries to impose it on the others. The comicality of this situation is that the only supporter of such ideas is a man, and his hatred has the same nature as her and they are interrelated with each other. There is an interpretation that Beatrice’s advantage is also that she tries to consolidate women around her and be the head of their striving for equality and expansion of their rights, and it deserves the right for existence because she is the most attractive female character of the play with a very strong personality and ability to express her opinion directly. Courtly love is one more topic Shakespeare encounters in his literary works, and he does it from comic perspective as well. Douglas Cherry reckons that “…Shakespeare reverses the theme in the following plays: Alls Well that Ends Well, Much Ado about Nothing, Measure for Measure, and Richard II. In the first three the lady uses a trick to win her man…” (Cherry, 1952). Lee Jamieson, a Shakespeare literary works expert, specifies that in the play under analysis the author mocks the traditional courtly love, and Beatrice is the character which does this the best than any other in the play. (Jamieson, 2015). The traditions of love of such type presuppose romantic treatment and leading role of men in relations, as well as observing rules and manners of behavior, whereas Beatrice mocks these conventions and always refers to love and romanticism as something very distant and practically impossible. Benedick’s responses to Beatrice’s tarts lead to constant backbiting between them, at least till the moment of their falling in love with each other, which is proved by such words of Benedick in the Act 1, scene 1: “…My dear Lady disdain! Are you yet living?” (Shakespeare, 1600; Jamieson, 2015). The comicality of courtly love is also achieved by opposition of two main lines of the plot: relations between Hero and Claudio which are very close to traditional romantic ones, and the already mentioned totally unromantic Benedick-Beatrice communication. It is possible to reckon that Beatrice’s comedy relies on Benedick totally, which is not quite right, but it is also impossible to deny that this comedy has very much to deal with this character. Till the moment these two persons let the love in their lives, Beatrice shows how good she at tarts and ironic comments is and demonstrates her dissatisfaction of male sex and conventional gender relations with Benedick as the main target, but her comedy also distributes on Margaret when the story comes to its end. There is a moment in the play when Beatrice moves away from her comic image and starts being serious. This is a pivotal event of the play and it happens when she tries to assure herself that she loves her opponent, Benedick, and wants to change her vision of the world. This shift is seen in her language which becomes similar to everyday one without her usual epithets, metaphors, irony and sarcasm: “I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me…” (Shakespeare, 1600). This passage also demonstrates that her speech became more friendly and less offensive in relation to Benedick. At this point of time, she similarly loses much audience due to her thinking on the new relations between them, but this loss of Benedick’s listening is covered by her talking to Margaret and Hero, and overall audience remains on the same level. The play ends traditionally for Shakespeare, when main characters are united by love. (Jamieson, 2015). The peculiarity of this play is that Beatrice manages to gain back her fun after rather a long time of very serious speculation, which is proved by her language becoming live, comic and artistic again: “…I yield upon great persuasion; and partly to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption…” (Shakespeare, 2015). The author displayed the relations of Beatrice and Benedick this way to emphasize comic perception of traditional love popular in England those days, because they fell in love by means of tricks of the others played on them, and to demonstrate importance of proper understanding of the situation. There is a version that the word “nothing” is similar to “noting” which had a very close meaning to eavesdropping or overhearing in the times of Shakespeare, and this idea deserves attention because these two characters make much ado, that is, thinking, on nothing, that is, overheard thoughts of the others. (Jamieson, 2015). When the play is close to its end, the reader shall attend to both Beatrice and Benedick, in contrast with the beginning, because these characters demonstrate significant changes and contribute to facilitating comic effect: due to deception of the persons who made them think about their mutual love, they decided to change their minds and to follow that deception, Benedick radically changed his way of thinking and behavior, and Beatrice managed to stay funny. (Jamieson, 2015). Conclusion The comic realm of the play “Much Ado About Nothing” is specific. At the beginning of the play Beatrice is the main comic character with her custody of the comedy and catching the reader’s attention, and the development of the story introduces comedy custody of another character, Benedick, and they command the scene by means of their interaction. Works Cited Amussen, S. An Ordered Society: Gender and Class in Early Modern England. 1994. Web. 3 May 2015 Cherry, D. The Courtly Love Theme in Shakespeares Plays. 1952. Web. 3 May 2015. Jamieson, L. Major Themes in Much Ado About Nothing. 2015. Web. 3 May 2015. Shakespeare, W. Much Ado About Nothing. 1600. Web. 3 May 2015. Read More