A Feminist Perspective of the Hero in Much Ado About NothingContrary to the title of this piece suggests, Hero did not undergo his transformation in Much Ado About Nothing by magic. On the contrary, Hero fell victim to the double standards and illogical fears that the men in Shakespeare's plays commonly had. The following quote sums it up quite well: In plays, female sexuality is not expressed differently through courtship, pregnancy, procreation and remarriage, as was the case at the time. Instead, it is narrowly defined and contained by the conventions of Petrarchan love and cuckoldry. The first idealizes women as catalysts of masculine virtue, emphasizing their absolute purity. The second fears them and is suspicious of them because of their infidelity (generally fantasized), an infidelity which requires their real or temporary elimination from the world of men, which then reforms [sic] around the certainty of the shared victimization of men (Neely 127). The plight of the hero in Much Ado About Nothing is a perfect example of how the skewed male perspective can turn a sweet, innocent girl into a scheming whore in no time. The main problem is the young Count Claudio. He is immature when it comes to love, and this is shown when he alludes to his growing feelings for Hero when he asks Benedick what he thinks of her (Ii161). Claudio can't come out and just say he has feelings for Hero, he has to seek approval from his male counterparts first. When speaking to Benedick and Don Pedro, Claudio first describes his feelings as passion (Ii219-220), then he says, "That I love him, I feel it" (Ii228), indicating that he knows he feels something for Hero, but he's not sure what exactly he feels... middle of paper... Ironically, this happened because of the madness of men, almost compensating the double standards exercised at the beginning... But not entirely. Hero should not have depended on men to regain his honor. Works Cited Much ado about nothing. Directed by Kenneth Branagh. Samuel Goldwyn Company and Renaissance Films, 1993. Much Ado About Nothing. The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997. 366-398. Neely, Carol Thomas. “Shakespeare’s women: historical facts and dramatic representations”. Shakespeare's personality. Ed. Norman N. Holland, Sidney Homan and Bernard J. Paris. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. 116-134. Ranald, Margaret Loftus. “As marriage binds and blood breaks: English marriage and Shakespeare” Shakespeare Quarterly 30, (1979): 68-81.