Much Ado About Nothing Gender Analysis
People should challenge gender roles because people benefit from expressing their own opinions and expectations instead of conforming to society's expectations. Those who don't challenge gender roles do not have control over their decisions or lives. In this Much Ado About Nothing, many characters fight against gender roles and end up on top. Hero, the governor's daughter and one of the main characters, conforms to gender roles, and Beatrice, her cousin, does not.
In Act 4, Scene 1, Hero is told at her own wedding that she is unfaithful and a whore, as well as other horrible things, but she does nothing to defend herself from these false accusations. In the Elizabethan Era,when this play was written, a “proper woman” did not speak against men. This shows that she is submissive to the men accusing her even under such an embarrassing and disgraceful act. Because she conforms to this gender role, everyone believes the slander, forcing her to pretend that she is dead.
In Act 2, Scene 1, Hero is told by her father that she must marry a man she …show more content…
In Act 4, Scene 1,Line 317, Beatrice says “O, that I were a man!....I would eat his heart in the marketplace”. This shows that she conforms to the gender role that fighting is a man's job , not a woman's. She understands her limitations of that time. She could not fight and beat him from a physical standpoint. She couldn't beat him front an experience standpoint either because she doesn't have any fighting training. In the Elizabethan era woman could not get any kind of fighting training or at least taken seriously for it. She is smart not to challenge that in that era but now in the 21st century a woman can get training whenever she wants and fight a man as almost an equal but there is still a small physical disadvantage. Beatrice in modern day should challenge this gender
In Act 4, Scene 1, Hero is told at her own wedding that she is unfaithful and a whore, as well as other horrible things, but she does nothing to defend herself from these false accusations. In the Elizabethan Era,when this play was written, a “proper woman” did not speak against men. This shows that she is submissive to the men accusing her even under such an embarrassing and disgraceful act. Because she conforms to this gender role, everyone believes the slander, forcing her to pretend that she is dead.
In Act 2, Scene 1, Hero is told by her father that she must marry a man she …show more content…
In Act 4, Scene 1,Line 317, Beatrice says “O, that I were a man!....I would eat his heart in the marketplace”. This shows that she conforms to the gender role that fighting is a man's job , not a woman's. She understands her limitations of that time. She could not fight and beat him from a physical standpoint. She couldn't beat him front an experience standpoint either because she doesn't have any fighting training. In the Elizabethan era woman could not get any kind of fighting training or at least taken seriously for it. She is smart not to challenge that in that era but now in the 21st century a woman can get training whenever she wants and fight a man as almost an equal but there is still a small physical disadvantage. Beatrice in modern day should challenge this gender