#much ado about nothing beatrice

[gr3y-heron-art]

O god, that I were a man!

Much Ado About Nothing

Amalia Vitale as Beatrice, Shakespeare's Globe 2024 Production

[davidtennantedits]

Catherine Tate and David Tennant in Wyndham's Theatre's Much Ado About Nothing (2011) Doctor Who 60th Anniversary's Wild Blue Yonder (2023)

[mindibindi]

~ ᗰᑌᑕᕼ ᗩᗪO ᗩᗷOᑌT ᑎOTᕼIᑎG (2011) + TE᙭TᑭOSTS [ᑭT. 1] [ᑭT. 2]

[rebelsafoot]

truly one of the most influential productions of our generation. i think about all the cunt they served daily

[aq2003]

david tennant and catherine tate have the range

[tatennantshenanigans]

no you don’t understand i love them so much

[afirewiel]

I think one thing about Much Ado About Nothing that I don't see talked about that I appreciate is Benedict and Beatrice's reactions to the planted conversations that they unknowingly were meant to hear. Both conversations basically go "Beatrice/Benedict is in love with Benedict/Beatrice and is wonderful person worthy of being loved, but Beatrice/Benedict is too flawed to notice or care." This is great because a) most people, while perfectly willing to criticize their friends behind their backs, would not dare do it in a conversation that they intend to be overheard. So Benedict and Beatrice have some brave friends. b) Most people overhearing themselves being "badmouthed" by friends behind their backs would simply go, "That's it! The friendship is over!" But neither Benedict nor Beatrice do that. Instead they both go, "You know what? They're right. I do have this flaw and I do need to work on that. And Beatrice/Benedict is totally worthy of my love and affection and I will give them that." And I think that is great that both of these characters are not afraid to take criticism, even if not give directly to their faces, and decide they need to work on their flaws. Beautiful.

[tatennant]

“Benedick and Beatrice are similar to the Doctor and Donna in some ways.” — Catherine Tate

[doctor-donnas]

David Tennant and Catherine Tate as Signior Benedick and Beatrice in a production of Much Ado About Nothing in 2011

[source]

[loveinstreams]

benedick kissing beatrice’s hand 🤝 fourteenth kissing donna’s hand

[iamstandingwater]

Benedick listing what he considers good qualities in a woman and then saying that there isn't a woman alive who has all of them and therefore he will never fall in love vs Benedick literally five minutes later describing Beatrice by listing all of those exact same qualities like babes you're not even subtle come on

[nastasya--filippovna]

Crush Culture; Conan Gray x Beatrice and Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing 2011)

For me these two will always be ace icons. Thank you Shakespeare for writing Ace characters that can and do fall in love.

There's this general misunderstanding that just 'cause you're Ace ergo you're also Aro. Aro and Ace are two separate identities. Some people on the spectrum identify a both Aro and ace hence they're Aroace (simple really!)

And I think that's the same misunderstanding these two have internalized. They've been told that just because you don't like someone "like that" also means that you are not capable of loving.... that love is just "not for you".

So here's to all the Ace people who have those who will find their love, their soulmate, and whoever matches their freak. I love you all!

Lovely moots: @a-singing-lunatic @shadesofecclescakes @suburbia-and-brentwood-market @glitterypin @angie-words

@davidtennantgenderenvy @dreamsfrozenincandyland @turtleneck-crowley @dtmsrpfcringe @princeloww

@consanguinitatum @mystic-mae @cranberry-sniffer

It would mean so much to my pathetic low self-esteem ass if you checked out my edit!! Lots of love 😘

[hamletteprinceofdenmark]

Much Ado About Nothing, Wyndhams (2011)

Act 4, Scene 1 aka

[rebelsafoot]

much ado about nothing pt 2 they are sooo silly they make me sooo normal

[so-true-jestie]

right well benedick saying he loves beatrice "no more than reason" makes me want to gnaw on wood because it's so ridiculous. that's the OPPOSITE of what it seems like. but you could also read it as perfectly true.

so benedick breaks with the two of the most important people in his life, who not only claim to have evidence of hero's infidelity but virtually unchecked power to do something (read: lots of things) about it, on beatrice's word alone. someone whom no one will take seriously even with evidence of hero's heretofore pristine reputation. someone who doesn't in the grand scheme of things have any power at all. "reasonable" is not the word for benedick's choice.

what i love reading into the "no more than reason" line though is that benedick actually finds it completely reasonable!!! he thinks it makes perfect sense to trust that beatrice's judgment is sound, that hero's reputation shouldn't be so easily dismissed, that the word of a woman may well weigh up against the word of a man. while he is 100%, as they say, down bad for beatrice, and that motivates his actions, it is not the final basis of his decision. it's not because he makes any concessions on her behalf. it's because his respect for her and faith in her judgment fundamentally changes the way he reasons and thinks about his world.

so yeah... he literally loves her no more than reason.

[transfemmbeatrice]

beatrice muchadoaboutnothing is a trans woman: a brief treatise

thematically, i think in a play about the social vulnerability of women, having a character be a trans woman just makes sense as a way to provide depth to that idea. specifically, i love the concept of beatrice's view of men being informed by her own experiences as a closeted trans woman (it's amazing what people will say in front of you when they think you're one of them) and as someone later facing sexism and transmisgoyny.

usually when someone does a trans reading of this play/character, they look at beatrice's famous speech about wishing she was a man and interpret her as a trans man, which is perfectly valid! but this idea started for me with the simple thought that i wanted an out and accepted trans character to play with rather than a closeted one who cannot transition, just as a matter of personal preference at that particular time and with this particular text. but then i kept thinking.

as above, the concept of beatrice reading men for filth in the context of having lived among them is great. the "oh god that i were a man" speech is extremely disparaging of men and what they claim to be vs how they actually wield their power. what she wishes is that she had the power that men have automatically in her society--felt all the more keenly because there was a time when she was able to wield that power and she gave it up to be happy, to be herself, to be free in a different way. (here is where i sometimes imagine beatrice regretting ever transitioning, believing that her own happiness and health is less important than having the power to protect hero's happiness and health, because i love angst.) but now that the worst has happened, she is reduced to begging a man for help and it's demeaning and infuriating and tragic.

i also love turning on its head the line "i cannot be a man with wishing, therefore i will die a woman with grieving." being a trans person, dealing with internalized transphobia, knowing that transitioning will put a target on your back, wishing you could just be the gender you're born as--but no amount of wishing will make her not a woman. i think she loves herself and her gender but the play is focusing on points of conflict so that's what i'm talking about here.

in a play about misogyny, the vulnerability of women, and the hypocrisy of men, a trans woman has a unique perspective on both masculinity and femininity both as genders and places in society. (in the ideal version, i think john would be a trans man to mirror this experience, but that would require him to be rewritten to have actual depth and personality and all that is a different essay). there is also just a particular kind of strength that comes from having to carve out and defend your identity in that way which i think fits her very well.

lastly, a couple of other miscellaneous things from the text that can tie in:

beatrice recounting "a double heart for his single one" meaning both "i loved him twice as much as he loved me" and "i loved him as two people: [birthname] and beatrice"

benedick insisting he wouldn't marry her even if "she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed." Adam, not Eve. in MY illustrious opinion, this is benedick saying "i don't care HOW big her dick is i'm NOT gonna marry her."