Much Ado About Cake

Cake Recipe for Beatrice

Ingredients:

·         Sponge cake

·         Lemon filling (sarcasm, bitter)

·         Buttercream Icing – white (purity and virtue)

·         Smarties (intelligence and wit)

·         Love hearts (love)

In the case of Beatrice the lemon filling symbolises her sharp and sarcastic way of talking to people, she isn’t afraid to speak her mind or mock people. This means that in the play she can be seen as a shrew, because she isn’t a demure as the ideal woman should be (as Hero is). “The good nature of a woman is to be mild, timorous” – Sir Thomas Elyot 1531. Leonato says that she is “shrewd of thy tongue” and she is also described as being “too curst”.

Buttercream icing shows that whilst she is presented as a shrew she is still and pure and “virtuous” woman, her wit is used as a way of mocking people or showing her true feelings and she doesn’t use it as a way of being cruel. At her heart she is kind and loyal, particularly in the case of Hero, as she is the first person to defend her.

Beatrice’s intelligence is often shown through her use of wit in the play, a lot of the time shown in her conversations and resulting verbal sparring matches with Benedick. Her intelligence and wisdom means she isn’t a fool when it comes to love, there are suggestions that her and Benedick had some kind of previous relationship – “I know you of old.” And this means she is more guarded when it comes to her true feelings. As well as this she doesn’t let her feelings for Benedick get in the way of her loyalty to Hero, as she is prepared to leave Benedick if he doesn’t do as she wishes and kill Claudio.

In the end though, her love for Benedick does win out in the end and it is revealed through her hidden poetry. Underneath her mocking and her cynicism she is still romantic and wants love, but she wants it on her own terms and doesn’t bend to a man’s will as would be expected of a woman.