I agree it is obvious from the very first scene that Beatrice and Benedick will fall in love. This is because of many important signs throughout the first scene of this play, which give the impression that Beatrice and Benedick will fall in love. One reason why I agree with this statement is that Beatrice and Benedick both come from rich families and people tend to marry into the same social class. Beatrice and Benedick are from rich families as they’re friends with Don Pedro and Leonato, who are aristocrats.
Benedick is a soldier, but obviously in a high rank as he is a friend of Don Pedro who’s the ruler of a large Part of Spain. Also, he is a man of ‘name’, a comment made by the messenger. Beatrice is also friends with people in high places as she’s the niece of Leonato who is the governor of Messina. Beatrice and Benedick are very similar characters in the way they act and where they come from. Although they both give the impression that they can’t stand each other by making fun of each other to each other’s face with their ‘verbal boxing matches’ or behind their backs, in fact they both like one another.
For example they both bring each other up into conversations with other people even if the conversation has nothing to do with them. Like in the beginning of the first scene when Beatrice starts asking where Benedick is, before she asks about anyone else, whether he has returned from the wars or not and even gives him a pet name, ‘Signor Mountanto’. When she says, ‘But I pray you, who is his companion? Is there no young squarer now, that will make a voyage with him to the devil.
This suggests that Beatrice is pleading gently probing with the messenger to tell her where Benedick is when he doesn’t say where he is the first time she asks. This suggests that Beatrice has Benedick on her mind a lot as she has taken time to think of a name for Benedick and asks about him, which is one of the factors that show us that Beatrice and Benedick will eventually fall in love. Benedick also brings up Beatrice into the conversation when she had nothing to do with it.
Benedick was talking to Claudio about Hero and then for no reason Benedick says to Claudio how Beatrice is prettier than Hero, ‘There’s her cousin, and she were not possessed with a fury, exceeds her in as much beauty as the first of May doth the last of December. ‘ This suggests that Benedick thinks a lot of Beatrice as he gave his opinion of her, which was a very good opinion about her being good looking, even though he was supposed to be giving an opinion of her cousin. Other characters in the play know about the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick, like Beatrice’s cousin, Hero.
When Beatrice mentions Signor Montanto to the messenger, the messenger does not know whom this is until Hero tells him, ‘My cousin means Signor Benedick of Padua. ‘ This suggests that Hero has heard Beatrice mention Signor Montanto before, so she knew who Beatrice was talking about and maybe knows there’s something going on between Beatrice and Benedick. Leonarto also knows about the relationship between the two.
He says, ‘You must not, sir, mistake my nice: there is a kind of merry war betwixt Signor Benedick and her: they never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them. This suggests to us that Leonarto has realized there’s something going on between his nice and Benedick and it has been going on for some time. Don Pedro also thinks that Benedick will get married soon. ‘I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love. ‘ Here Don Pedro is saying that Benedick will get married. He also says, ‘Well as time shall try: ‘In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke. ‘ Don Pedro now says that eventually Benedick will fall in love.
When Don Pedro says, ‘Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice thou wilt quake for this shortly. He is suggesting that it won’t be long till Benedick gets married, and he possibly suspects that something is going on between Benedick and Beatrice, as she is the only eligible young woman around. From these things that Don Pedro says about Benedick it shows that Don Pedro knows Benedick very well and can tell there’s something going on between Beatrice and Benedick as he keeps mentioning love and marriage many times to Benedick. Another important factor that indicates Beatrice and Benedick will eventually fall in love is the way they similarly exaggerate their feelings about the opposite sex.
An example of this is when Benedick is with Claudio and Don Pedro and they’re talking about the relationship between Claudio and Hero. Benedick is very resentful and bitter towards his friend’s relationship. When Don Pedro asks Benedick ‘What secret hath held you here, that you followed not to Leonato’s? ‘ Benedick answers very bitterly, ‘I would your grace would constrain me to tell’. This could also suggest Benedick is feeling left out and jealous even his best friend wants to get married, while he is not. Benedick apparently doesn’t want to lose his reputation for being a ‘ladies man’.
People also expect him to behave in a misogynistic. Maybe this has become a bit of a habit, which he feels he is now trapped within. When Benedick says, ‘That I neither feel how she should be loved, nor how she should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me: I will die in at the stake. ‘ This is an example of how exaggerated Benedick can be, and how much he reveals his desperation. Benedick then goes on to say how he wouldn’t marry a woman, as he doesn’t trust them. Benedick also says to Don Pedro to punish him however he likes if he ever breaks his word about falling in love.
When he says this he is almost hysterical. ‘With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord not with love: prove that ever I lose more blood with love than I will get again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker’s pen, and hang me up at the door of a brothel house for the sign of a blind Cupid. ‘ The way Benedick behaves here suggests that he does this to hide his feelings about Beatrice. Another point that suggests that Beatrice and Benedick will eventually fall in love is that they are both very quick-witted, especially in their famous ‘verbal boxing matches’.
It starts with Beatrice telling Benedick that nobody’s listening to him, but obviously Beatrice is which shows when he’s around she’s always listening and watching him, another factor that proves you can tell from the first scene that Beatrice likes Benedick. When Beatrice and Benedick are fighting they’re both very mean in what they say. Like when Beatrice says ‘Is it possible Disdain should die, while she hath such meet food to feed it, as Signor Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to Disdain if you come in her presence’, she is basically saying that Benedick infects all the good things in life.
Then Benedick picks this up and turns it around and tells her, ‘Then is courtesy a turn-coat but is a certain I am loved of all ladies: and I would I could find in my heart, that I had not a hard heart, for I truly love none. ‘ The points Benedick made about being loved by all ladies and that he loved none wasn’t really relevant to what Beatrice said, but he said it anyway, maybe so if he thinks Beatrice suspects anything about him liking her she won’t anymore as he told her he loves no one.
However it does reveal a similarity in their outlook as well as a similar way of thinking and speaking. Beatrice also goes on to say ‘I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me’, which suggests she’s hiding her feelings for Benedick. So another point that shows Benedick and Beatrice will eventually fall in love is the way they’re both very quick witted and think alike when they tell each other they hate being romantic and will never love someone of the opposite sex.
From the very first scene of Much Ado About Nothing I agree that you can tell from the very first scene that Beatrice and Benedick will eventually fall in love. Beatrice and Benedick are very similar people in the way they act and the things they say. They both come from wealthy backgrounds and people who are similar and have a lot in common are usually attracted to each other. Also a lot of people seem to know about the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick and it seems as if something has been going on for a long time. These points suggest that Beatrice and Benedick will eventually fall in love.
