Much Ado About Nothing Benedick Sacrifice

What a person is willing to give up, especially at any level of personal, painful cost, can reveal a lot about what and who they value. In the play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, the character Benedick sacrifices his previously held ideas about love, as well as his pride, showing that he values Beatrice’s love and commitment to himself in addition to the institution of marriage; His sacrifices illuminate the larger theme in the play of the changing power of love. Benedick gives up his previous “strongly held” beliefs about love relatively quickly, revealing that he has actually valued love all along, especially Beatrice’s. Before hearing that Beatrice was “in love with him,” Benedick was very outspoken in his opposition to …show more content…
Immediately after Benedick and Beatrice admit their love for one another, and after Claudio leaves Hero at the altar on her wedding day, Beatrice requests (though it is truly more of a demand) that Benedick avenges her cousin’s dishonor by killing Claudio, one of his best friends. Benedick rightfully responds with hesitation, as he and Claudio have served together and are very close. However, after Beatrice retorts that he cannot TRULY love her, he reluctantly agrees to do anything that she would ask of him. His desperation to keep her favor leads him to give up his own better judgement, valuing her will and desires over his own. He has changed, due to this love that he now possesses, from the beginning of the play, when he was able to think and make decisions for himself. Now, he is compelled by his value of Beatrice’s opinion and desire to love her well to do whatever she would ask of him, even if it required the sacrifice of old friendships. Even in this extreme case, where Beatrice’s will is in direct conflict with his own, he still manages to put aside his reservations to keep her loving him. Love compels him to do things that he would never even consider on his own, but is willing to carry out in order to retain the wonders of his new discovery. Benedick’s sacrifice of his …show more content…
In the first few acts of the play, Benedick actively slanders both Beatrice, who later becomes his object of affection, and Claudio, dismissing his flowery language and lovesick laments as a sickness that he would never fall ill with. Later, he is forced to humble himself and take back his previous words, enduring much of the same teasing that he gave Claudio from his other friends. His willingness to go through the same treatment that he gave others shows how much he values the qualities that he has found in Beatrice. While previously, Benedick boasted about being impervious to the many charming characteristics a woman could possess (beauty, intelligence, wealth, charm, etc.), he changes his stance when faced with the possibility of one loving him in return. His avoidance of love in the first place could be said to be caused by a combination of pride and fear of rejection. When the fear that a woman who bears all of his ideal qualities would not love him in return is resolved in the form of Beatrice, he is willing to sacrifice the other self-imposed obstacle, his pride, for the chance at happiness. He values Beatrice in part because of the qualities she possesses, the same qualities that he has been taught to value by the society that he lives in. When he was a bachelor, and adamantly opposed to