 Let's discuss the character of Hiro in much ado about nothing. Now, she is presented in many ways as a foil to Beatrice's character. Foil means when one character is used to highlight the things another character is lacking and vice versa, okay? So both Hiro and Beatrice, the kind of foils to each other's personalities and characters. So whilst Beatrice is very outspoken, very fiery, she goes against a lot of conventions that we expected of Elizabethan women. So Elizabethan women were expected to be very passive, very submissive. Hiro, on the other hand, is presented as a very stereotypical Elizabethan woman. She's very virginal, very modest, very chaste, very obedient. And of course, when she is accused of the worst thing that woman could be accused of during that time, apart from of course being a witch, when she is accused of basically not being a virgin and when Claudio denounces her, slanders her and basically refuses to marry her, this is something that basically causes her to faint, okay? And of course, she doesn't die, but she pretends to die. And this is almost as a metaphor for how women at the time would suffer a social death if they were not seen as virginal at the time before their marriage, okay? Now, Hiro is a key character within the space, so you do need to be very familiar with her. Hence, I have prepared a set of quotations to remember when it comes to writing about her character, either for your coursework or for your exam. So let's go through them. Now, the first quotation when it comes to Hiro's character is when we first meet her, she is shown to be very modest, very obedient. When she's talking to the different men, she states, I will do any modest office ellipsis to help my cousin to a good husband. So now here, she's basically saying that she's going to do all her best to help her cousin Beatrice, who's seen as really rebellious, find a good husband. So of course, here by this stage, you can see that Claudio has really fallen for her and, you know, the prospect of marriage is very immediate, but she's still saying that she loves her cousin Beatrice and she'll do her best to try and see if she can get a husband for her. Now, the word level analysis you want to do here is firstly the adjective modest. Of course, here, this is still highlighting and linking back to her own modesty. The other word level analysis you want to do is alliteration of help and husband, so the alliteration of her age here. Now, the other key quotation to bear in mind for a hero's character is she does seem to find Beatrice's outspokenness and her very fiery temperament, very puzzling. She states, nature never framed a woman's heart of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice. So she's also sometimes a little bit exasperated by a cousin. Why is Beatrice so outspoken? Why does she not want to get married and basically act like a very modest woman like me? Okay, so she can see even if she loves Beatrice as her cousin, she also is finding it a little bit annoying that Beatrice is so proud, which is, you know, she talks back, she's very outspoken. Now, the word level analysis here you want to do, and of course this quotation definitely highlights the key contrasts between her and Beatrice's characters. Number one, the alliteration of N in nature and never. Also, nature frames, this is personification. Now, the other quotation is what hero says which is interesting before her marriage. She states, my heart is exceeding heavy. Now, this is of course before her marriage, she doesn't yet know that Claudio has changed his feelings towards her. He's now about to accuse her of infidelity of being unfaithful. So she's basically saying, yes, I'm really excited to be married, but my heart is heavy. So at first when we watch it as the audience were thinking, okay, maybe her heart is heavy because, you know, she's about to become married. She's shifting from her father's house to Claudio's house. You know, we maybe think that however, of course, we realize that this is a technique of foreshadowing, foreboding by Shakespeare to show that hero has a bad feeling something's going to happen. Okay. And the word love analysis you want to do here is alliteration of H and heart and heavy. Now, the other quotation is when during her wedding, Claudio basically slanders her. He says really hurtful things and accuses her of being unfaithful. She is really emphatic in trying to prove her innocence. She states, if I know more of any man alive than that which made in modesty, Doth warrant, let all my sins lack mercy. Okay. And this whole sentence is an exclamatory sentence. Okay. So do make sure you pay attention to that structural feature, but also here she speaks in euphemism if she knows more of any man. And of course a euphemism is just a polite way of referring to something that socially is seen as either insulting or terrible. And of course in this case, the euphemism is to talk about her having sex. She's saying I've never had any intimate relationship with any man. Okay. I'm still a virgin. Also here she uses alliteration. So or rather Shakespeare uses alliteration in his writings and maiden and modesty. So this is alliteration event. The other quotation, of course, this is still tied into when hero is really emphatically trying to prove her innocence. She states on my father prove that any man with me conversed ellipses refuse me, hate me, torture me to death. Now again here she is speaking really, really emphatically. She is emphatic that she is a virgin. She's not done anything wrong, which is true. Now the one level analysis you want to do here is she of course is talking to her dad, Leonardo. She's saying, dad, if I've done anything bad with the man, you can denounce me. You can disown me. You know, she's really kind of showing that, you know, please anyone prove that what I've done is wrong. And of course she's saying this in order to show that she's actually innocent. She has nothing to hide. Now the one level analysis you want to do is the repetition of the pronoun me three times, which is obviously showing that she is very emphatic. There's also listing. So refuse me, hate me, torture me. And of course also you can argue this is also rule of three of refuse, hate and torture. And finally this is an exclamatory sentence, which is a structural point you can make. The final notation for her as character is when later at the end, when of course is revealed that Don John actually made up this slanderous information about her and she decides to forgive Claudio and of course marry him. And she states, one hero died defiled, but I do live and as surely as I live, I am a maid. Now here she's basically saying, okay, the old hero basically died. So she died a slandered woman, but actually I have resurrected and I'm still a virgin. Great. Okay. So now here, the one level analysis you want to do is firstly the literation of D and died in defiled. And also you want to focus on repetition of live. Okay. Because of course this is emphasizing that she didn't die after all. And finally, she talks about, she speaks in lots of ephemisms. Okay. So here she's talking about, she's still a maid. I'm still a virgin. So I'm still, you know, a very good woman. Okay. So don't forget that hero really represents a conventional Elizabethan woman and of course she is in direct contrast to her cousin Beatrice, who goes against all these conventional expectations of women. Thanks so much for listening.