Much Ado about Characters

Novels and plays try to accomplish the same goals, in different ways. In novels, characters are described in a variety of ways, one of which being a paragraph or description of a certain character. In a play, however, the difficulty that the writer faces during the characterization process is that the viewer only gets to see the characters interactions and actions. It then becomes very important to make any scene a character is a part of extremely detailed and representative of that character as a whole.

My personal favorite character in the play is Benedick, for one main reason. He is punny and quick on his feet. As someone who loves puns I found myself connected with this character instantly. As mentioned in a past blog post, Benedick swears off love, wishing to be a bachelor forever. However, he falls in love with Beatrice. One of my favorite conversations in the story is when Benedick is trying to put up a front about his dislike for Beatrice. He begs Don Pedro, the man he serves under to

“command me any service to the world’s end? I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on. I will fetch you a toothpicker from the furthest inch of Asia . . . do you any embassage to the pygmies, rather than hold three words’ conference with this harpy.”(MY BOOK WAS MISSING IN ACTION, THIS QUOTE WAS IN ACT II SCENE I)

This quote show Benedick’s desire to be away from Beatrice, saying he would rather be sent across the world to fight than to talk to Beatrice.. Obviously it is eventually revealed that this is a front, however I found it extremely funny to see the description and emphasis he went in trying to cover up his love. Benedick’s over the top attitude and witty behavior made him a hilarious protagonist, and I constantly found myself enjoying his crafty remarks and ongoing humour.

Going hand in hand with Benedick(literally) is his sassy counterpart Beatrice. Throughout the play, Beatrice proves to be a FOIL of her friend Hero. Hero is always shown as quiet and respectful, whereas Beatrice is sarcastic, bordering on mean with her comments. Like Benidick, Beatrice swears of marriage, having an early idea of feminism and women’s rights, thinking that a women should not be married to anyone she does not love. Beatrice is a fiercely loyal friend, and when she hears the rumours that Claudio cheated on Hero, she berates him, using his actions as an example as to why women should be equals. As a whole, Benedick and Beatrice fit together perfectly. Based on the constant battle of remarks they share, I assume that they have a romantic history, and it is likely that Benedick led her on. However, after trying to beat the other in every aspect of life, their love is known by each other, and they reconcile. These two characters are characterized by their actions, and how others act towards them. They do not get the luxury held by authors who can write paragraphs of description, and Shakespeare provides detailed, remarkable scenes in order to characterize the future couple.