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Kelly's Reviews > Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
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Let's face it, there aren't too many of Shakespeare's females who kick ass. Yes, we all can name the four or five that don't quite suck (Kat, Portia, Viola, Emilia, etc) but good strong feminine characters were not, it seems, the bard's strong suit. So as you wade through the whiny, conniving, helpless throngs of man worshipping wenches that appear in nearly all Shakespeare plays, it can be tempting to just give up looking for redemption. But alas, it is this lack of strong feminine voice that makes the discovery of a truly awesome character like Much Ado About Nothing 's Beatrice that much more thrilling. Beatrice is without a doubt my favorite of all Shakespeare's women. She is smart, sardonic, and fierce. And while many chide her for her decision to marry, a decision that some argue nullifies any feminist credit she may have accumulated throughout the play, I take issue with the idea that a woman must choose between love and identity. How sad to think that to be a strong woman, one must live her life utterly alone so as not to let a man infringe on her sense of self. Married or not, Beatrice definitely meets my requirements for a kick ass female!
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
January 1, 1998
–
Finished Reading
July 19, 2007
– Shelved
July 19, 2007
– Shelved as:
will-shakespeare
July 19, 2007
– Shelved as:
favorites
July 23, 2007
– Shelved as:
drama
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Joann,While I agree that people can have drastically different ideas about what makes a person strong, bold, etc., isn't everything in the mind of the beholder?
I realize that Elizabethan ideas of strength (as applied to women) are vastly different than my own. My point is that there are many more Heros in Shakepeare's plays than there are Beatrices.
I completely agree, however when a character like Titania from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is originally strong and bold, Shakespeare turnes her into a fragile, love-sick, hormonal teenager.
Kelly:I agree with you on the idea that a woman shouldn't have to be alone so as to be perceived as strong.
I think that to be alone one does require a great deal of strength, but to be strong one does not have to be alone.
Beatrice for the greater part of the play shuns men and their love; therefore she is alone. Yes, she is a strong character, but is this what makes her strong?
When Beatrice falls in love with Benedick, she is no longer alone, but still appears to me to be a much stronger character. I don't really see that the development in her character had to do so much with her loosing any strength as with her gaining love. She still has the power over Benedick, and still refuses to admit to love. They bicker just as much in the end of the book as they do in the beginning; the only thing changed is that Beatrice has opened her heart up to love, which does not make her weak. After all, there is no strength in a cold heart.
Kat and Beatrice are my favs :)
Good, strong feminine characters are in the mind of the beholder. Beatrice and Benedict were both outliers in their culture. And, they found each other.