Write About Beatrice and How She Is Presented at Different Points in the Play

Write about Beatrice and how she is presented at different points in the play. (25 marks)

At the beginning of the play we meet Beatrice, an independent woman who says all that she thinks. To start we see her talking to Leonato joking about Benedick. For instance, “Eating all that he kills.” She jokes from the start that she feels he will not go onto kill anyone and not be helpful. Using the verb, “eating” implies to us that she is a person that is proud and not afraid to then go and stand up say bold statements and follow them up. When Leonato then has his chance to talk about their relationship that they have he uses the words, “Merry war!” This then shows the can see that Beatrice and Benedick have a love hate relationship and that they do not hold back in showing how they both feel about each other in quick succession of each other. Beatrice goes onto using statements like, “Jade’s trick” A term used in horse racing when I horse drops at before the end. She uses it here because she is saying you can’t lose this battle if you drop out before the end. She also makes comments like, “Nobody mark you.” When Beatrice makes statements like his meaning nobody is listening to you, this going to show she isn’t afraid to then go and challenge Benedick as she is a strong woman of this era.

The next big event when we see Beatrice is the masked ball. This is a social gathering when a lot of people were masks, so you are unable to work out who is who it comes down to instinct. At the masked ball we see Beatrice and benedick have an interaction. She starts to talk to Benedick pretending that she doesn’t know it is him, so he is fooled, then starts to say some horrible things about him. She says he is, “the prince’s jester.” Benedick his offended as this means he is a fool, clown a joke to the prince. She tells him to tell Benedick when he sees him as Benedick didn’t realise that she knows that, this shows to us that Beatrice is a very deceive character as she can trick a man to fool them and make then feel as if they are wrong. Later, in this scene in the play Beatrice says, “Old cuckold with horns on his head.” This is a disgracing statement towards Benedick. When she uses phrases like this in the play it shows to us that she still hates Benedick at this point in the play and that she is not prepared to talk to him as if he was a man or as if he was grown up enough for him to have a proper conversation.

The next big event of how Beatrice is presented in the play was when Hero and Ursula go and play a trick on Beatrice saying that Benedick confessed to loving her. In this part of the play we see Hero and Ursula in the gardens and then catch Beatrice’s ear after she was sent out to bid in Benedick to eat. After overhearing this conversation Beatrice says this, “what fire in my ears? Can this be true?” This starts to show a different side to Beatrice and now we see she is starting to think about this and that it maybe true. This changes the mode between Benedick and Beatrice, but mostly with Beatrice she changes the mood towards him from the rest of he plays from this point. The, “can this be true?” shows to us that Beatrice is changing in personality as before she would not have been able to even believe that her main enemy of Benedick would even have slight affection for her, but that she may believe this shows to us their past is strong and there must have been some connection before. She then goes to say, “I stand to commend for pride.” This goes to show that the Beatrice that we know is still living strong inside as she isn’t afraid to go and then say that her pride is still more important than his potential love for Beatrice her.

The next time we see Beatrice is at the wedding, when Beatrice is then defending her cousin Hero as she has been defied as she is publicly shamed as Don John made a plan for Borachio to woo Margret on Hero balcony wearing her clothes so when Claudio and Don Pedro see this they then go and believe it is Hero so then the marriage will not happen as she believes that this isn’t true. When this comes around Beatrice has a real attitude change and we can clearly see this as she becomes very defensive over Hero and shows her loyalty towards her and then she starts to make sure that people see that she is on her side and isn’t afraid to show this. She says, “ou my soul, my cousin is belied.” This goes to show to us that Beatrice is caring and that she is very passionate towards the way she feels and protects Hero in this situation when she needs to be defended. Also, at this part of the play we see a change in the character of Beatrice and we see how she is becoming a much more emotional person and she think less of herself and more about others and she is then able to go and support her family as she is scared to show herself at the start she has a barrier put up and it is starting to break down.