Summary
English Lit: AQA GCSE Much Ado About Nothing, topic 5.4.1
Act 3, Scene 4
The morning of the wedding, Hero is getting ready with Margaret and Ursula.
Tragic foreboding
- Initially, the scene resembles Act 3, Scene 1 and it may appear as though all is well and there will be a continuation of the trick to fool Beatrice, as at the start of Act 3, Scene 2.
- However, the audience being privy to all the events know what has already transpired and know what Claudio is intending to do.
- An air or tragic foreboding hangs over this scene.
Hero
- Shakespeare again demonstrates to the audience a confident, assertive side to Hero’s character when she states: “My cousin’s a fool, and thou art another: I’ll wear none but this.”
- To state that Hero acts as a foil and contrasts to Beatrice’s outspoken, radical character is an oversimplification.
- Hero can also be headstrong, although more privately than her cousin.
Tragedy
- The sense of tragedy is emphasised when Hero states “my heart is exceedingly heavy”.
- Characters having premonitions of ill fortune are a common dramatic device in tragedies.
- In ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Juliet has a vision of Romeo dead at the bottom of a tomb before he departs to begin his banishment from Verona.
Innocence
- Margaret attempts to lighten the mood, telling Hero her heart will soon be heavier “due to the weight of a man.”
- Hero’s embarrassment at Margaret’s crude, sexual humour is again illustrative of her purely innocent character and contrasts to the accusation made in Act 4 that she “knows the heat of a luxurious bed”.