956 shakespeare, William
In act 1, scene 3, Benedick similarly asserts
the problematic nature of woman’s word, his fear
of betrayal, and his fear of being ridiculed as a
cuckold when he states his reasoning for choosing
bachelorhood:
That a woman conceived me, I thank her;
That she brought me up, I likewise give her
most humble thanks. But that I will have a
recheat winded in my forehead or hang my
bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women shall
pardon me. Because I will not do them the
wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the
right to trust none; and the fine is, for the
which I may go the finer, I will live a bachelor.
(1.1.238–245)Rather than risk his reputation, Benedick hopes to
avoid the possibility by refusing to marry and, con-
sequently, “mistrust” a woman’s truthfulness.
Men are not the only characters in Shakespeare’s
play that proudly avoid relationships and unpleasant
outcomes. Beatrice similarly declines to marry when
she explains:
Not till God make men of some other metal
than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to
be overmastered with a piece of valiant dust?
To make an account of her life to a clod of
wayward marl? No uncle, I’ll none. Adam’s
sons are my brethren, and truly I hold it a sin
to match in my kindred. (2.1.55–60)While Beatrice does not distrust the honor in a
man’s word, she recognizes a frailty in his disposi-
tion that she would rather avoid. Unfortunately,
though, she equally fears how others will view her
if she chooses to remain single when she exclaims,
“Thus goes everyone / to the world but I, and I am
sunburnt. I may sit in a / corner and cry, ‘Heigh-ho
for a husband!’ ” (2.1.303–305). Beatrice’s reference
to sunburn depicts her insecurity that others will
look down on her as an insignificant spinster if she
does not marry herself off as Hero does to Claudio.
Despite her pride in her own intelligence and wit,
Beatrice cannot help but dread a lowering of station
in her society, an inevitability if she remains single.
Later on, as the other characters attempt to fool
Beatrice and Benedick into falling in love, Hero
directly refers to Beatrice’s pride when she observes,
“O god of love! I know he doth deserve / As much
as may be yielded to a man; / But Nature never
framed a woman’s heart / Of prouder stuff than that
of Beatrice” (3.1.47–50). Eventually, Beatrice admits
her love for Benedick in the same act, thus over-
coming her insecurities with men while discarding
her necessity to protect herself with pride. Benedick
similarly forfeits his misgivings when he gives in to
Beatrice, promising to kill Claudio because his lover
desires revenge for her cousin’s soiled reputation.
Revenge becomes unnecessary when the falseness of
Don John’s claims is revealed. Leonato and Claudio,
previously disgusted by the charges, now recognize
the fallacy of pride and an obsession with appear-
ances. The governor, as a result, regains his daughter
while Claudio chooses to resume his engagement
with Hero.
So many of the characters in Much Ado about
Nothing base their actions on how others will
respond to them. The people of Messina proudly
display their masculine strength, their witty conver-
sation, and their personal decisions regarding mar-
riage. However, pride proves to be another insecurity
in the characters’ hearts, an insecurity that each man
and woman must overcome in their own way by the
play’s close. By overcoming the error of pride, the
characters manage to achieve powerful and loving
relationships with one another.
Susan LeeSHakESPEarE, wiLLiam Othello
(1622)
First performed in 1604 and published in 1622,
Othello is Shakespeare’s most intense tragedy, both
because of its central characters, Othello and Desde-
mona, and because of its most important character,
Iago. For obvious reasons, the play invites a compari-
son with Romeo and Juliet. As in that early tragedy,
the lovers in Othello attempt to overcome societal
and family pressures that seem to make their mar-
riage impossible. In the end, their love succumbs to
forces more powerful than they are, and the Shake-
spearean tragic imperative, death, triumphs.