The Two Kinds of Relationship in Love
The story here is simple: a couple misunderstood each other by an evil prank, and the other couple went from hatred to love by the practice of a good-humored prank. The tragicomic relationship between Hero and Count Claudius was, according to my opinion, of secondary importance, compared to the case with Beatrice and Benedick. Of the latter I noticed a pattern: the handsome shrew who provoked men with wits and puns was of great importance to a Shakespeare's comedy. The bickers between Beatrice and Benedick, which were skillfully employed by Shakespeare to achieve a comic effect, were analogous to those in "the Taming of a Shrew". So far as I can judge, Shakespeare was an attentive observer of love; he conceived the complex of feelings where constructive and destructive forces lie closely together. Love at first sight did suffer a great deal in the middle of its craze and prove frail in trust; Claudius denounced Hero's virginity without investigating the truth of what he had witnessed. On the other hand, if love can be likened to a battlefield, as the one between our bickering lovers in the play, the trust between lovers will be strengthened and nourished by their conviction of each person's character, conviction gained through constantly warring, teasing, snapping.