Women's place in Shakespeare's society

Women of Shakespeare's time
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My blog eleventh is going to be the first blog pertaining to the play we are currently reading in my English 102 class. Our professor has giving us a series of questions on which we are only allowed to pick only one and write a blog from it.  The one I have choosen is really interesting because it talks about how women were place in shakespeares society.

In the early act of the play Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare, we can see how women were diminished in Shakespeare society. Men were believed to be superior and dominated women in every aspect. Stereotypes were used to downgrade women’s position in society; one of them is women as whore or a wife.

Claudio, Leonato and Don Pedro think that Hero is a wife to be owned and manipulated; they also believe that she is a goddess. Hero is a quite, shy, sensible, vulnerable, and very polite woman, she would let her father and Claudio manipulates her. Later in the play, Hero has been dishonored and accused for violating her chastity; Margaret and Borachio made believe that Hero was making love with Borachio. The days of the wedding, Claudio humiliates and mistreats Hero in front of everyone. She is stereotyped as an adulterer and accused of infidelity in front of the public.

Beatrice is very independent and strong, not easy to manipulate. She refuses to get married because she is a strong person and has not yet fall in love with the right person. She wants to find partner that does not control and manipulates her; she is accustomed to be a free and independent woman. Benedick thinks that Beatrice is a scapegoat and always uses animal names when he refers to her or talks to her.

At the masked ball, Don Pedro proposes marriage to her Beatrice. Not knowing that he is really in love with her, she refuses him with good humor. I think Beatrice refuses men because she was hurt before and is afraid to be hurt again. Beatrice becomes vulnerable when she listens to Hero saying that Benedick is in love with her. It was very hard for Beatrice to admit that she is love with Benedick.

I think that Beatrice will be able to keep on resisting men’s attempts to control her actions forever. She is not like Hero that gives love and obeys her partner as if she was kid obeying her father. Beatrice has her own way of loving; she is intelligent, astute woman, capable to manipulate a man and make them do whatever she wants.