The Representation of Women in Much Ado About Nothing Essay

The Representation of Women in Much Ado About Nothing The female characters who are in the play are all present and involved in Act2 Scene1, which makes it the perfect situation to describe Shakespeares portrayal of women in Much Ado About Nothing. Hero can be easily compared with Beatrice being of a similar class and very close relatives. Then you have the characters of Margaret and Ursula, the servants, who are also very comparable and show a portrayal of women in lower classes. This scene is cementing the idea that the play is a Shakespearean comedy and we can see this because the Party is used to create dramatic irony between Beatrice and Benedick in their amusing banter. A modern†¦show more content†¦These ideas are far apart from our own modern thinking on the sexes and marriage, they are so far removed from our times it can often be difficult to comprehend these objectionable and downright sexist views. Beatrice is one of the main characters and unlike most of the other women in the play, a modern audience can relate to her. She is almost like the feminist flappers of the 1920s; they aimed to empower women with the same leisure pursuits as men, and yet in the end many ended up marrying and becoming the housewives they so detested. However in Renaissance times it was different, there had never before been such a forward minded and witty woman taking centre stage. The character of Beatrice is fiery and rejects the models of women put upon her by society, particularly the idea of marriage. LEONATO: (to Beatrice) well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband BEATRICE: Not till God make men of some other metal than earthà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Adams sons are my brethren, and, truly, I hold it a sin to match a kindred This is the kind of view that women could not express in Elizabethan times. To a modern audience she seems almost the heroine of the story after saying this, yet to the contemporary audience she is merely not honourable enough to be a wife. In other plays, like As You Like It- in which the character of Rosalind dresses up as a man,Show MoreRelated Much Ado About Nothing - A Feminist Perspective of Hero Essay919 Words   |  4 PagesA Feminist Perspective of Hero in Much Ado About Nothing  Ã‚     Ã‚   Unlike the title of this piece suggests, Hero did not undergo her transformation in Much Ado About Nothing through magic.   Rather, Hero was a victim of the double standards and illogical fears that the men of Shakespeare’s plays commonly held.   The following quote sums it up quite well:   In the plays female sexuality is not expressed variously through courtship, pregnancy, childbearing, and remarriage, as it is in the periodRead MoreHow Shakespeare Dramatically Presents Power and Authority in the Relationship Between Men and Women in Much Ado About Nothing1582 Words   |  7 PagesBetween Men and Women in Much Ado About Nothing One of the key explorations of power and authority in â€Å"Much Ado About Nothing† is the relationship between Hero and Leonato as father and daughter. 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