7.2.2

Key Lines

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Benedick and Beatrice

Two quotations illustrate key aspects of Benedick and Beatrice’s loving relationship.

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Key line

  • BENEDICK: Serve God, love me, and mend.
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Religious imagery

  • The use of religious imagery here contrasts to Beatrice's suggestion that it would “grieve a woman to be overmastered by a piece of valiant dust”.
  • However, “serve God” implies that it is the right that men and women should fall in love.
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Imperative verb

  • This is accentuated through the imperative verb “mend”.
  • The only way for Beatrice to recover from the shock of Hero’s treatment at the hands of Claudio, Don Pedro and Don John is to conform to the expectations of society by returning Benedick’s love.
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True character

  • Shakespeare presents Benedick’s feelings for Beatrice as sincere and caring.
  • He is concerned for both her well-being and Hero’s.
  • Again this adds to the idea that his previous persona of being “a profess’d tyrant” to women was merely an act.
  • The way he conducts himself here reflects his true character.

Benedick and Beatrice

Two quotations that illustrate key aspects of Benedick and Beatrice’s loving relationship.

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Key line

  • BENEDICK: I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes, and, moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncle’s.
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Hyperbole

  • In a style perhaps more often utilised by Shakespeare when writing Claudio’s character, Benedick speaks hyperbolically here, in the language of the conventional 16th century lover.
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Agreement

  • However, his assertion ends with a much more down-to-earth request: Beatrice has asked him to accompany her to Leonato’s to discover what is to happen now Don John’s villainy has been uncovered.
  • Happy and content in his love, he acquiesces (agrees) to Beatrice’s request, just as he (reluctantly) agreed to challenge Claudio.

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