The relationship and eventual marriage between Beatrice and Bendick left me feeling a bit uncomfortable at the end of the play. This appears to be one of those partially unresolved issues that Shakespeare seems to enjoy leaving his readers with at the end of his plays.
I certainly feel as though Benedick and Beatrice have an abundance of sexual (and perhaps emotional) tension. They do have quite a bit in common, and seem to enjoy the sarcasm and witty banter they frequently share. After thinking more on the subject following our brief discussion about it in class, I am not completely convinced that Benedick and Beatrice would have naturally wound up with each other if their friends had not taken the initiative to shove them together. In fact, after reading the play in its entirety, I am more prone to believe that they would not have ended up in marriage with each other if they were not so intensely persuaded to do so.
Beatrice and Benedick are both extremely stubborn individuals. They appear, as evident in their first conversation in Act 1.1, to enjoy toying with each other, and one might even expect them to secretly love one another. They do not, however, seem to think of each other when they are not in direct contact. In Act 2.3, Benedick vehemently expresses his dislike for marriage, and does not once mention Beatrice. He is alone, so it is not as though he has other, secret feelings that he is trying to hide from others. I truly feel that he has no intention of attaching himself to a woman until his ego has been stroked by the idea that Beatrice is in love with him. Beatrice also seems to genuinely dislike the idea of marriage, and likewise gives no evidence of secretly pining over Benedick.
Because they each think so highly of themselves, I am convinced that only the idea of being loved by someone that was so determined not to love is what finally brings them together. It feels great to be wanted, but to be wanted by someone who is trying so hard not to have those feelings must be a powerful thing.
What convinces me most that these two needed other people to connive their match is the final scene of the play, when Benedick and Beatrice discover that the love they each thought existed in the other was not necessarily real. Benedick asks, “Do not you love me?” and Beatrice replies, “Why no, no more than reason.” Benedick then states that he feels similarly. It takes some additional convincing by their friends for them to decide to marry each other. Beatrice even says, “…I yield upon great persuasion, and partly to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption.” It seems, therefore, that they have really fought against being matched with each other. Although I’ll allow that they must have some real affection for one another to let themselves be convinced to marry, I think that that affection would not have been enough to bring them together on their own. The other members of the play were an imperative part of their eventual marriage.
1 comment:
I agree with you, I think that Beatrice nor Benedict would stoop to either Hero or Claudio's level and marry of the sake of marrying. It seems that they are too strong willed people to ever be forced into a marriage or do it because everyone else is. Based off of their characteristics and the manner they present themselves at the end of the play, I agree they really did love and want to marry one another. I think they needed that probing in order to "get the ball rolling" but at the heart of things they loved each other. I think that the love Benedict and Beatrice exemplify in comparison to Hero and Claudio, is very different. They in my opinion really care for one another where as Hero and Claudio are more into the fashion of marriage. I think you make a good point here in your observations of Benedict and Beatrice.
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