A Feminist Perspective on Hero in Much Ado About Nothing Unlike the title of this piece suggests, Hero did not undergo his transformation in Much Ado About Nothing through magic. Rather, Hero was a victim of the double standards and illogical fears commonly held by the men in Shakespeare's works. The following quote sums it up quite well: In plays female sexuality is not expressed differently through courtship, pregnancy, pregnancy, and remarriage, as in the period. Instead it is narrowly defined and contained by the conventions of Petrarchan love and betrayal. The first idealizes women as catalysts of male virtue, insisting on their absolute purity. The second fears and distrusts them for their (usually fantasized) infidelity, an infidelity that requires their actual or temporary elimination from the world of men, which then reforms [sic] around the certainty of the shared victimization of men (Neely 127). The hero's plight in Much Ado About Nothing is a perfect example of how the distorted male perspective can turn a sweet, innocent girl into a scheming slut in no time. The main problem is the young Count Claudio. He is immature when it comes to matters of love, and shows this when he mentions his growing feelings for Hero when he asks Benedick what he thinks of her (Ii161). Claudio can't come out and simply say he has feelings for Hero, he must first seek approval from his male counterpart. While speaking to both Benedick and Don Pedro, Claudio first describes his feelings as passion (Ii219-220), and then says, "That I love her, I feel it" (Ii228), indicating that he knows he has feelings for Hero, but he is not sure what exactly his feelings are... middle of paper... Ironically, this came about due to the madness of men, almost making up for the double standards exercised in the beginning... But not quite. The Hero would not have to depend on men to regain his honor. Works CitedMuch Ado About Nothing. Directed by Kenneth Branagh. Samuel Goldwyn Company and Renaissance Films, 1993. Much Ado About Nothing. Shakespeare's Riverbank, 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. “'How marriage binds and blood breaks': English marriage and Shakespeare” Shakespeare Quarterly 30, (1979): 68-81.