Characterizations of Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.
One of the most engaging and entertaining comedic couples in any of the works of Shakespeare, is that of Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. Both Beatrice and Benedick are essences, they are the progenitors of the clich¨¦s of the woman-hater turned lover and the ice-queen turned golden-heart. Both of them experience a very similar sequence of events, both work with their respective tutee's in love in the same way, and both come to realize their love for each other through tricks played upon them by their own friends. In this, Benedick and Beatrice are really the true soul-mates of the story in that they truly seem to be of the same cloth and of the same heart - two halves of the same whole. Their change from enmity to love covers the course of the entire play and, in many ways, is much more engaging, funny, entertaining, and ultimately rewarding than that of Hero and Claudio. It is the purpose of this paper to explore that relationship as it changes over the course of the play, Much Ado About Nothing. MLA format.
