Much Ado About Nothing - Act III, scene 4
1st part of the scene: l. 1-28
Characters: Hero, Margaret, Ursula
Summary: In Hero’s apartment, Hero asks Ursula to go and fetch Beatrice. Meanwhile, Hero
and Margaret discuss what Hero is going to wear for her wedding, and her upcoming
marriage.
Hero’s marriage:
It’s Hero’s wedding day, and she should be really excited, but she’s not. Hero’s
unexpected sense of foreboding sets off warning bells in the minds of the audience. There
is no clear reason for her to feel this way, except perhaps that she must sadly bid her
innocent childhood adieu. We can interpret her heaviness of heart as a foreshadowing of
something bad to come. Some might interpret this to mean that her feelings foreshadow the
ills that will befall her at her wedding. Others find some other, more practical reasons: she’s
about to marry a man who she has not (at least not on stage) had a single real conversation
with. All the other characters of the play have spent a good deal of time talking about what
marriage means to them, but we have yet to hear Hero’s thoughts on her own wedding. In
addition, Hero’s been told what to do by her father for her whole life, and given what we
know about Elizabethan marriage, she’s about to transition into being told what to do by
her husband for the rest of her life. This is a function of her marriage, but it’s also a fact of
her gender; women held a special role in marriage of being the ones that were taken by
their husbands (both literally and figuratively), and that is difficult to handle for Hero.
→ Hero - God give me joy to wear it, for my heart is exceeding heavy.
Margaret probably means to suggest that Hero will become pregnant, but what
happens at the wedding makes her joke an ominous double-entendre: Hero will indeed be
heavier (meaning sadder) after her wedding.
→ Margaret - ‘Twill be heavier soon by the weight of a man.
Margaret teases Hero while Hero is in bad spirits about marriage. Margaret’s
celebration of marriage as honorable is couched in her bawdy allusion to sex, where one is
made to feel a heavy burden (especially when one is lying under a husband). The base
reality of sex is the starting point for Margaret to talk about honorable marriage, which makes
marriage seem a little less dull. Moreover, the adjective “light” can mean not heavy, or
immoral.
→ Margaret - Of what, lady? of speaking honorably? Is not marriage
honorable in a beggar? Is not your lord honorable without marriage? I
think you would have me say 'Saving your reverence, a husband.' And
bad thinking do not wrest true speaking, I'll offend nobody. Is there any
harm in 'the heavier for a husband'? None, I think, an it be the right
husband and the right wife. Otherwise 'tis light and not heavy. Ask my
Lady Beatrice else. Here she comes.
1st part of the scene: l. 1-28
Characters: Hero, Margaret, Ursula
Summary: In Hero’s apartment, Hero asks Ursula to go and fetch Beatrice. Meanwhile, Hero
and Margaret discuss what Hero is going to wear for her wedding, and her upcoming
marriage.
Hero’s marriage:
It’s Hero’s wedding day, and she should be really excited, but she’s not. Hero’s
unexpected sense of foreboding sets off warning bells in the minds of the audience. There
is no clear reason for her to feel this way, except perhaps that she must sadly bid her
innocent childhood adieu. We can interpret her heaviness of heart as a foreshadowing of
something bad to come. Some might interpret this to mean that her feelings foreshadow the
ills that will befall her at her wedding. Others find some other, more practical reasons: she’s
about to marry a man who she has not (at least not on stage) had a single real conversation
with. All the other characters of the play have spent a good deal of time talking about what
marriage means to them, but we have yet to hear Hero’s thoughts on her own wedding. In
addition, Hero’s been told what to do by her father for her whole life, and given what we
know about Elizabethan marriage, she’s about to transition into being told what to do by
her husband for the rest of her life. This is a function of her marriage, but it’s also a fact of
her gender; women held a special role in marriage of being the ones that were taken by
their husbands (both literally and figuratively), and that is difficult to handle for Hero.
→ Hero - God give me joy to wear it, for my heart is exceeding heavy.
Margaret probably means to suggest that Hero will become pregnant, but what
happens at the wedding makes her joke an ominous double-entendre: Hero will indeed be
heavier (meaning sadder) after her wedding.
→ Margaret - ‘Twill be heavier soon by the weight of a man.
Margaret teases Hero while Hero is in bad spirits about marriage. Margaret’s
celebration of marriage as honorable is couched in her bawdy allusion to sex, where one is
made to feel a heavy burden (especially when one is lying under a husband). The base
reality of sex is the starting point for Margaret to talk about honorable marriage, which makes
marriage seem a little less dull. Moreover, the adjective “light” can mean not heavy, or
immoral.
→ Margaret - Of what, lady? of speaking honorably? Is not marriage
honorable in a beggar? Is not your lord honorable without marriage? I
think you would have me say 'Saving your reverence, a husband.' And
bad thinking do not wrest true speaking, I'll offend nobody. Is there any
harm in 'the heavier for a husband'? None, I think, an it be the right
husband and the right wife. Otherwise 'tis light and not heavy. Ask my
Lady Beatrice else. Here she comes.
