Table of ContentsIntroductionGender Dynamics in Much Ado About NothingImpact of Honor on Characters' LivesHonor and Gender RolesConclusionWorks CitedIntroductionHonor involves having great respect for someone, while presenting them with great admiration. Using honor is important because it defines someone's status. Honor was important because it gave the family the right to be respected and admired, and in Elizabethan times, honor could be easily lost or regained. Throughout the play Much Ado About Nothing, everyone can see a lot of this happening; the setting implies and surrounds the true meaning of honor, and each character's position with it. Over the course of the play, he delves into the complex interplay of gender roles in Much Ado About Nothing, discussing the differences between social classes and what a man or woman is capable of, whilst also witnessing the true sense of love and the extent of jealousy. will take someone. Both Hero and Claudio are called into question when Hero's honor is taken out of context for the wrong reasons. Not only are they mainly affected, but the honor of everyone around them is greatly damaged by the association. In the play, the main characters fight to win and disrupt alliances, while learning the differences in honor between men and women. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Gender Dynamics in Much Ado About Nothing In Jacqueline Beatty's article titled, American Honor: The Creation of the Nation's Ideals During the Revolutionary Era by Craig Bruce Smith (Review), she discussed the made honor a matter of “race, class, sex” (1 Beatty). Honor dealt with many different aspects of a person. It was about a person's type of race and origin. If this race was favored in this era, then their honor would be much higher than that of most people. In the Elizabethan era, many people born with a lot of money had a greater sense of honor and reputation. Being male or female also made a huge difference in the type of honor given. If the person was a man, he had to be strong and fearless to have great dignity and be associated with great honor. If it was a woman, she had to be reserved for marriage and could not do anything that would compromise her standards for her honor. Their honor also touched many people around them and was not only associated with themselves. If women were unfaithful, they could be fired or even killed. Men could also strip women's honor if they were not faithful, or even respectful, to a man, and a woman was expected to obey her father. Women's honor was not as important as men's. A man's honor mattered to everyone and consisted of killing and doing things that involved justice. Having a man's honor stripped was far worse than it would have been with a woman. Even though women did not have as much importance as men, honor had a huge impact in everyone's life. The meaning of honor for women is very different from that for men. Women were held to much higher standards than men, especially throughout the play. A woman's honor was based on purity, fidelity and obedience. Honor took care of everything and described exactly where someone was in their social status. At the beginning ofthe play, when Claudio first lays eyes on Hero, he calls Hero "the sign and appearance of his honor." (33) Claudio thought Hero was one of the best girls he had ever seen and compared her to the very definition of honor, even before he knew what she looked like. In the article The Sign and Appearance of One's Honor: Reading Gender Differences in Much Ado About Nothing, writer Carol Cook discusses the honor that is displayed regarding characters, particularly between Hero and Claudio . Cook writes: "Her place in the world of this play is the most apparent scene, where, almost silent and finally sinking into unconsciousness under the onslaught of abuse, she becomes a sign to be read and interpreted by others" ( Cook 194). Cook states that Hero is interpreted by others as a wonderful and kind girl. for everyone, and Claudio falls in love with her, with this state of mind. Once he meets her openly and falls in love with her, then hears about what she did, he is furious, because she cheated on him, and his own appearance cheated on him, but in reality this is not the case. It only affects women, but also affects the family, especially the father. Hero's father, In Much Ado About Nothing, was widely ridiculed when people suspected that Hero had committed infidelity towards Claudio. It was Leonato's duty to ensure that Hero remained chaste until her marriage. Since Claudio believed that Hero had been dishonest with him, Leonato's honor suffered, being publicly humiliated by Claudio and Don John in front of what was supposed to be Claudio and Hero's wedding. Once Leonato thought that he had been betrayed by his own daughter, he began to call her horrible names, because he then realized that his own honor was in danger. Although Hero didn't do anything, because there was a bad rumor around her, everyone around her was affected. Women's honor can be taken away and returned with the good grace of a man. Men played a huge role in honoring women because they were the ones taking away their honor. Just like Claudio did when he thought he was being lied to. He ridiculed her in front of everyone and deprived her and her father of any good reputation. Once the rumor dissipated and people thought Hero was dead, his honor was restored, and Hero and his father were able to live in shame. A woman's honor also meant being obedient and following her father's rules. In the room, Leonato says: “My daughter, remember what I told you. If the prince solicits you in this way. You know your answer” (54-55) Leonato expected Hero to act a certain way towards the prince since the prince has the highest honor of all in the play. Hero knew what she was supposed to do, and if the prince was interested in her, she would have jumped at that option, knowing that her honor and that of her father would have been affected. Throughout the play, men's honor was also undermined in a different way. A man's honor was primarily concerned with his bravery, when in war. Men had to show others that they were strong, fearless, and courageous to prove their honor. The male honor dealt with a very different aspect and the honor rewarded certain people for their achievements. In the play, Claudio arrived in Messina highly respected and with great honor displayed through him. Claudio, too, usually had to show Hero that his actions in war ensured that he had been a fearless leader, killing all his enemies along the way. Instead of wondering how many he had killed in war, Hero trusted the words of his father and the prince. I don'tasks Claudio for no other reason. From the beginning of the play, Claudio had maintained his honor at a very high standard and was a well-respected man as the prince's right-hand man. The messenger informs "I find here that Don Pedro has bestowed much honor on a young Florentine called Claudio." (8-10) In the play, the messenger mentions how Don Pedro gives Claudio great honor. From now on, everyone in Messina is able to accept the fact that Claudio is actually very honorable. Since Claudio had very high honor, he never wanted anything to tarnish it, including marrying an unfaithful daughter. Since Claudio thought this was about to be tarnished, he was about to ruin anyone who was about to achieve this. That's why, during the wedding, he was about to ruin the reputation and honor of Hero and his father. He ruined everything by treating her horribly and telling everyone what they thought she did at the wedding. Even though Claudio and Don Pedro were wrong in accusing Hero of being unfaithful, their reputations were never greatly affected by their news, and their accusations were false. Throughout the play, Claudio's honor was all he had going for him, for no one knew anything else about him, and that was what he cared most about, even though he was never greatly affected. Honor can cause harm and good in people's lives. Disrupting people's lives one by one or bringing someone to a higher social class if someone enjoys a higher sense of honor. In the lives of the characters in the play, all the characters are touched by honor in one way or another. The hero was greatly affected by honor. When Hero was humiliated because people thought she had been unfaithful, her honor was taken away. Since honor affects everyone around them, including the father, Leonato was also greatly affected, and Claudio blamed him for his actions as well as his daughter's actions. Leonato was incredibly angry at Hero for what they thought were his actions, and he also insulted her, while shaming her. One person who experienced a good kind of honor was the guard who found the person guilty of spreading the rumor by falsely accusing the hero. The guard brought the prisoner to court and also brought him to Leonato. He experienced great honor because it was he who cleared Hero's name and saved her from shame for the rest of her life. If a person has a high reputation and belongs to a higher class, we suspect that their honor is very high and they may use it to shame someone. Since Claudio had great honor, he could use his reputation for evil such as degrading and insulting someone like Hero. I believe that having honor and focusing too much on it in someone's life can disrupt and blow their life out of proportion. Throughout the play, the fact that honor is so involved in the characters' lives does more harm than good. From the looks of it, most of the characters could have led worry-free lives if they hadn't focused so much on it. Hero wouldn't have had to pretend to be dying of grief and could have spoken with Claudio about her false accusation. Claudio, on the other hand, wouldn't have been so embarrassed when he accused Hero of doing a bad thing. Both characters could have handled the situation better; talk to each other about the situation without having to worry about the consequences on their honor.ConclusionIn the play Much Ado About Nothing, the characters all had to worry about their honor throughout the play. Honor was about class, while also involving gender and impacting something no one.