The Two Kinds of Relationship in Love

[phoebelll25]

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.

[billl]

My favorite thing by Shakespeare.

[Lucille Padua]

Yes I think you're right.
He tries to put forward an idea that true love should be built on mutual understanding (in B&B's case) and compared to this, love at first sight (/idealized love) can be very vulnerable and can be torn down really easily (by a villain's few "ill words")

I guess here he also wants to demonstrate both sides of the effects of "hearsays" or "pranks" - one boosts love as in B&B while one destroys as in C&H.
Shakespeare, to me, seldom only portrays one point of view.
Though the play seemingly promotes marriage (the play ends with a wedding, even the fastidious Benedick urges Don Pedro to "get thee a wife", we can see the down side of marriage (or love) is also discussed quite often in the play - the notion of excessive female sexuality which gives rise to the man's fear of cuckoldry (with reference to Benedick's theory on "horns", and also the limitation on freedom imposed by marriage - "thrust thy neck into a yoke... sigh away Sundays") blahblahblah

Em, it's really fun to study Shakespeare... his work stirs up lots and lots of thinking and reflection

[kelby_lake]

The folly of young love versus the more mature love. Therefore Hero and Claudio are part of the former and Benedick and Beatrice are skirting round mature love. Thus with the bed trick (Shakey likes these) Hero is initially shamed but her and Claudio become maturer for it. The tricks with B and B provide the comedy.

[Diego Moreno]

Well, Benedick and beatrice are older and actually they have a story together behind. At the moment the play happens they are mad at each other, but evidently they are in love. On the other hand Claudio and Hero are younger and naive eager to love each other. My theory is, B and B once where as naive as C and H but they, we don't know what really happened but they learned that to grant each other their heart and devotion will make them very vulnerable to each other, thus ended up in quarreling to protect their emotions (that is why they both claim that will never marry) and specially Benedick is very concerned with adultery. Maybe in the past B and B werent officially engaged but wooed each other, then fear took Benedick and he walked away the relationship, leaving Beatrice bitter and feeling rejected. I would like to know what happened in the past of B and B and what happens in the future of Claudio and Hero.