An Analysis of the Developing Relationship of Benedick and Beatrice in Act 3 Scene 1 of Much Ado About Nothing, a Play by William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing arguably features Shakespeare’s best and most dynamic romantic couple: Benedick and Beatrice. Act 3 scene 1 in this play is a climactic point in this pairings relationship, because Beatrice admits her true feelings and love for Benedick despite her prior apprehensions and bitterness toward him before. This scene is important to the action of the play because it solidifies Benedick and Beatrice’s relationship in confirming Beatrice’s adoration for Benedick and shows character development for both Beatrice and Hero. It is important to acknowledge Hero’s personhood in this scene.

While Hero is easily underestimated and overlooked as a quiet ingenue – and for some valid reasons – this scene proves she is more astute and intelligent than many would acknowledge. Hero plays a key role in getting her cousin to realize her feelings for Benedick and does so in a clear and organized scheme – she aptly and deservingly compares herself to Cupid (3.1.22). She realizes precisely how to manipulate Beatrice, and that is by attacking her pride – something many men have been afraid to do before; for example, while the presumably male messenger said he “will hold friends with [Beatrice], lady” because he is afraid of her wit and snark (1.2.85), Hero is unafraid to say Beatrice’s heart is unnaturally “proud” (3.1.49) and “disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes… her wit values itself so highly… she cannot love… she is so self-endeared” (3.1.51-56).

It is almost ironic that Hero is branded weak and completely underdeveloped when she is brave enough to be honest with Beatrice, which is something random men, her betrothed, and even her father never do. One may argue Hero did not say this directly to Beatrice’s face which proves Hero to be weak and possibly petty, but this argument is weak and belittling to both Beatrice and Hero’s character. Hero and Beatrice share a special, close bond, which is evidenced by Beatrice’s explosive reaction to Hero’s public shaming (4.1) and by the amount of time the two spent together; Beatrice said she had “twelvemonth been her bedfellow,” meaning she had spent the night with her cousin for a year (4.1.149). Hero knows Beatrice more than anyone else in the play and is aware of how feisty Beatrice can be and how Beatrice will often have a clever comeback to all attacks. Beatrice easily could’ve shown herself and sassed her cousin for gossiping and making such harsh remarks about her, which could lead one to question – why doesn’t she?

Why doesn’t Beatrice defend herself against the vile defamations against her being made by the cousin she holds dearest? Her speech at the end of the scene proves why: Beatrice knows and trusts Hero’s accusations to be correct. Before this scene, Beatrice is consistently disagreeable. She’s consistently making ridiculous or mean remarks, from creating a silly story about being St. Peter sending her to heaven to explosive arguments with Benedick. Arguably, before this scene, Beatrice is never serious. All her emotions are hidden behind snark, even when subtext and interpretations can tell the audience she is really hurting; an example of this is in the first scene, where Beatrice claims to “know [Benedick] of old,” leading the audience to believe they had a former relationship (1.1.138-139).

While this is only a brief moment, it’s revealing of Beatrice’s general character, demeanor, and personality – note that Beatrice gets the last word in this argument – and hints at her lingering feelings and sadness because of Benedick. This brief line is arguably the most vulnerable moment we see from Beatrice until Act 3, scene 1; in other scenes, she is either making jokes or being angry at Benedick. The final soliloquy in Act 3, scene 1 allows the audience, for the first time, to really delve into Beatrice’s mind, emotions, and thought process. It is clear that Beatrice is a character with intimacy issues who is afraid to be vulnerable, which we see the bitterness of her interactions with Benedick and her disdain for marriage. However, in this scene, not only is Beatrice being honest with herself and coming to an important realization, she is being vulnerable and honest with the audience. The audience sees how these words really affected her.

Beatrice compares what Hero and Ursula said about her to “fire,” (3.1.107) which evokes violent and intense visual imagery as well as the physicality of Beatrice’s ears burning due to their harsh, fiery words. Beatrice allows herself to be insecure and proves she is concerned how others feel about her. She admits “no glory lives behind the back of such,” (3.1.110) meaning being prideful and scornful will only lead others to gossip about her and will lead to no praise. Like everyone else in this world, Beatrice wants others to think well of her instead of speaking badly about her when she isn’t around, even if she appears to be confident and composed before this scene.

She vows to be kind instead from this point onward (3.1.113), especially to Benedick, which a stark contrast to her apparent hatred for him before and from her general demeanor. Without this scene, Beatrice’s romantic feelings for Benedick would have felt significantly less natural and more out of character. Beatrice is a stubborn woman who seemingly despised Benedick, and though it may be obvious to the audience she secretly has feelings for him and is hiding behind a tough exterior to disguise her real feelings, it is impossible to know if she ever would have admitted it to herself without the assistance of her cousin’s staged gossip, though given her prior interactions with Benedick, like the first scene in the play, it seems unlikely she would’ve responded to his declarations of love favorably.

Because of this firm push from Hero, Beatrice is forced to deal with the reality of her emotions, instead of hiding behind rationality and fear of being hurt by Benedick again. In this scene, the audience is allowed to see Beatrice overcome her natural fears and desires to be protected, which in its essence is a beautiful and tremendous thing. Even in a mostly light hearted, lovable, and romantic comedy, Shakespeare captures real emotion that is relatable to general experiences in this singular scene. Anyone who has ever had conflicted feelings over someone who has been hurt in the past can relate to Beatrice’s inner struggles here; anyone who has ever been guarded can understand her inner turmoil; anyone who has ever been blind to their own love and emotions due to stubbornness or other outside circumstances can empathize with Beatrice’s abrupt but forced realization. Thanks to this scene, Beatrice is able to “[tame] her wild heart” and fall in love with the person she is most similar to (3.1.112).