Ideal couple, gender and honour and marriage
Hero and Claudio are very much the ideal couple in the Elizabethan period, hero a convention dutiful lady and Claudio a young Elizabethan lord who is romantic and falls in love at first sight. While Beatrice and Benedick do not follow the conventional courtly couple, who have views against love but ultimately falls in love in the end. Beatrice and Benedick would be seen as the ideal couple in a modern perspective, as Beatrice is independent and both have views against arranged and superficial marriage.
Through the play she is a subservient lady, and even after Claudio’s public humiliation, as an Elizabethan lady, she forgives him. Hero’s subservient character is displayed through Hero’s silence …show more content…
Claudio falls in love with Hero at first sight and he sings, “Can the world buy such as jewel?” This metaphor compares Hero to a jewel beyond purchase, the connotations of the ‘jewel’ suggests that Hero is an extremely precious and similarly love that cannot be bought. This emphasis Claudio’s positive outlook on love, therefore following the expectation of Elizabethan lord. In contrast the modern audience would see this metaphor as Claudio objectifying Hero as object in which he values suggesting he does not love her. Hero and Claudio are both model lady and lord of the Elizabethan period seen through Hero’s subservience and forgivingness and Claudio does not value …show more content…
The play establishes Beatrice as a witty and combative in her view who ultimately reject the conventional gender roles of Elizabethan women at the start of the play. Beatrice declares,“ I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me”. The use of antitheses juxtaposes a dog bark and a man swearing to love, suggesting that the thought of hearing a man propose is a nuisance, like one of a dog barking. This emphasises Beatrice’s independent opposing views on marriage and that does not see the values of love like a conventional Elizabethan lady. Furthermore, before the mask ball Leonato asks Beatrice if not marrying a man will mean she will go to hell, in which Beatrice replied “no, but to the gate and there will the devil meet.. and say “Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven; here is no place for you maids.”.. for the heavens, he shows me where the bachelors sit”. Beatrice innocently replies she will go to hell only to meet the devil but will be sent to heaven, as hell is no place for a virgin like her. The religious reference implies Beatrice’s witty nature with the ease at which she refers to heaven and hell, as in Elizabethan period religion was a
Hero and Claudio are very much the ideal couple in the Elizabethan period, hero a convention dutiful lady and Claudio a young Elizabethan lord who is romantic and falls in love at first sight. While Beatrice and Benedick do not follow the conventional courtly couple, who have views against love but ultimately falls in love in the end. Beatrice and Benedick would be seen as the ideal couple in a modern perspective, as Beatrice is independent and both have views against arranged and superficial marriage.
Through the play she is a subservient lady, and even after Claudio’s public humiliation, as an Elizabethan lady, she forgives him. Hero’s subservient character is displayed through Hero’s silence …show more content…
Claudio falls in love with Hero at first sight and he sings, “Can the world buy such as jewel?” This metaphor compares Hero to a jewel beyond purchase, the connotations of the ‘jewel’ suggests that Hero is an extremely precious and similarly love that cannot be bought. This emphasis Claudio’s positive outlook on love, therefore following the expectation of Elizabethan lord. In contrast the modern audience would see this metaphor as Claudio objectifying Hero as object in which he values suggesting he does not love her. Hero and Claudio are both model lady and lord of the Elizabethan period seen through Hero’s subservience and forgivingness and Claudio does not value …show more content…
The play establishes Beatrice as a witty and combative in her view who ultimately reject the conventional gender roles of Elizabethan women at the start of the play. Beatrice declares,“ I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me”. The use of antitheses juxtaposes a dog bark and a man swearing to love, suggesting that the thought of hearing a man propose is a nuisance, like one of a dog barking. This emphasises Beatrice’s independent opposing views on marriage and that does not see the values of love like a conventional Elizabethan lady. Furthermore, before the mask ball Leonato asks Beatrice if not marrying a man will mean she will go to hell, in which Beatrice replied “no, but to the gate and there will the devil meet.. and say “Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven; here is no place for you maids.”.. for the heavens, he shows me where the bachelors sit”. Beatrice innocently replies she will go to hell only to meet the devil but will be sent to heaven, as hell is no place for a virgin like her. The religious reference implies Beatrice’s witty nature with the ease at which she refers to heaven and hell, as in Elizabethan period religion was a