How Love in Much Ado About Nothing Changes in Benedick's Two Soliloquy's
PEEL: How Benedick’s view of love has changed between his two soliloquy’s
Benedicks view of love at the beginning of Act 2 Scene 3 is a negative, spiteful view. Using a series of imagery and comparison, Benedick talks about how love has made Claudio weak. ‘I have known when there was no music with him but the drum and the fife, and now had he rather hear the tabor and pipe.’ The drum and fife are music of war while the tabor and pipe are music of peace. Musical imagery is used to show a comparison of harsher instruments compared to weaker instruments. Another metaphor is used in ‘till he have made an oyster of me, he shall never make me such a fool.’ Benedick is not implying that love is like an oyster; the connotations of an oyster are enclosure, imprisonment and entrapment. The repetition of I’ll never from lines 24 to 25 further emphasize Benedick’s negative view to love and marriage.
In Benedick’s Soliloquy after he hears how Beatrice is ‘in love’ with him, Benedick’s tone and diction completely changes. In ‘happy are they that hear their detractions, and an put them to mending,’ Benedick is glad that he heard Claudio and Don Pedro talk about him faults as he wants to fix them which is something the old hubris Benedick would not say. Benedick’s view on love also completely changes in ‘I have railed so long against marriage, but doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth, that he cannot endure in his age.’ A metaphor is used here to describe a child loving meat as a child but despising it as an adult and how things can change, this is how Benedick now feels about love. In ‘when I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live until I were married,’ Benedick is rationalizing for himself and this also ties into the main theme of the play, which is deception.
Benedicks view of love dramatically changes from negative to positive in a short amount of time and this is shown
Benedicks view of love at the beginning of Act 2 Scene 3 is a negative, spiteful view. Using a series of imagery and comparison, Benedick talks about how love has made Claudio weak. ‘I have known when there was no music with him but the drum and the fife, and now had he rather hear the tabor and pipe.’ The drum and fife are music of war while the tabor and pipe are music of peace. Musical imagery is used to show a comparison of harsher instruments compared to weaker instruments. Another metaphor is used in ‘till he have made an oyster of me, he shall never make me such a fool.’ Benedick is not implying that love is like an oyster; the connotations of an oyster are enclosure, imprisonment and entrapment. The repetition of I’ll never from lines 24 to 25 further emphasize Benedick’s negative view to love and marriage.
In Benedick’s Soliloquy after he hears how Beatrice is ‘in love’ with him, Benedick’s tone and diction completely changes. In ‘happy are they that hear their detractions, and an put them to mending,’ Benedick is glad that he heard Claudio and Don Pedro talk about him faults as he wants to fix them which is something the old hubris Benedick would not say. Benedick’s view on love also completely changes in ‘I have railed so long against marriage, but doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth, that he cannot endure in his age.’ A metaphor is used here to describe a child loving meat as a child but despising it as an adult and how things can change, this is how Benedick now feels about love. In ‘when I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live until I were married,’ Benedick is rationalizing for himself and this also ties into the main theme of the play, which is deception.
Benedicks view of love dramatically changes from negative to positive in a short amount of time and this is shown