Hero is a fictional character in
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's play ''
Much Ado About Nothing
''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...
''. She is the daughter of Leonato, a governor in
Messina
Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...
, and cousin to
Beatrice. In the play, Hero falls in love with Claudio, who, under the influence of Don John, wrongfully accuses her of adultery causing her to fake her death. Hero is ultimately proven innocent and reconciles with Claudio at the play's conclusion.
Hero's origins are possibly from ''The Faerie Queen'', ''Orlando Furioso'', and Matteo Bandello's ''Novelle''. The Hero/Claudio plot has been criticized for its incoherence in tone with the Beatrice/Benedick plot and has led to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' sometimes being called a
tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragedy, tragic and comedy, comic forms. Most often seen in drama, dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the ov ...
. Especially in the 20th- and 21st-centuries, Shakespeare's depiction of Hero has been criticized by feminist readings of the play.
Many actors have portrayed Hero on stage and screen including
Ellen Terry
Dame Alice Ellen Terry, (27 February 184721 July 1928), was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and tour ...
.
Kate Beckinsale
Kathrin Romany Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress and model. After some minor television roles, her film debut was ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She appeared in British costume ...
,
Jennifer Gould,
Billie Piper
Billie Paul Piper (born Leian Paul Piper; 22 September 1982) is an English actress and former singer. She initially gained recognition as a singer after releasing her debut single "Because We Want To" at age 15, which made her the youngest woman ...
, and
Jillian Morgese
Jillian Morgese (born September 25, 1989) is an actress notable for her performance in the role of Hero (Much Ado About Nothing), Hero in Joss Whedon’s 2012 film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s ''Much Ado About Nothing (2012 film), Much A ...
.
Origins
A version of the Hero-Claudio plot appears in
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of ...
's ''
The Faerie Queene
''The Faerie Queene'' is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books IIII were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IVVI. ''The Faerie Queene'' is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 sta ...
'' in Book II, Canto iv.
Ludovico Ariosto's story of Ariodante and Genevra in ''Orlando Furioso'' is a likely source for Spenser's tale. It also influenced Shakespeare's interpretation of Hero and Claudio, though Melinda Gough identifies the Hero-Claudio plot more strongly with Aristoto's tale of Ruggiero and Alcin. However, Shakespeare may not have read Aristoto directly and possibly only had access to his works through translation.
Scholars have also located the origins of the Hero-Claudio plot within
Matteo Bandello's twenty-second story of part one of his ''Novelle'', which deals with the character of Fenicia. In this story, Fenicia is defamed because her lover overhears another man talking about her as if she was his mistress. Additionally, Fenicia's father is named Messer Lionato de' Lionati, a name which resembles Hero's father's. Bandello's story may be influenced by
Chariton
Chariton of Aphrodisias ( grc-gre, Χαρίτων ὁ Ἀφροδισιεύς) was the author of an ancient Greek novel probably titled ''Callirhoe'' (based on the subscription in the sole surviving manuscript). However, it is regularly referred to ...
's Greek romance, ''Chaeras and Callirrhoe'', which Shakespeare may had have access to through a French translation.
Name origins
The name Hero comes from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''ἥρως'' (heros) meaning "
hero
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...
". Shakespeare's choice of the name Hero may have been a reference to
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...
's ''
Hero and Leander
Hero and Leander is the Greek myth relating the story of Hero ( grc, Ἡρώ, ''Hērṓ''; ), a priestess of Aphrodite (Venus in Roman mythology) who dwelt in a tower in Sestos on the European side of the Hellespont, and Leander ( grc, Λέ ...
'', which features the line, "Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight."
Role in the play
Hero lives with her father, Leonato, and cousin, Beatrice, in
Messina, Italy
Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in t ...
. At the play's outset, Leonato welcomes a group of soldiers to his house, including the young soldier Claudio. Claudio is immediately smitten with Hero. Don Pedro offers to woo her in his place and does so, disguised at Leonato's party. Claudio and Hero plan to marry in a week. Following along with Don Pedro's plan, Hero helps to gull Beatrice into thinking Benedick is in love with her.
At her wedding to Claudio, Claudio, misled by Don Jon into thinking Hero (actually a disguised Margaret) spent the night before the wedding with Borachio, accuses Hero of being unfaithful. Being completely innocent of all accusations, Hero makes a few brief attempts to defend herself and ultimately faints. When she regains consciousness, the friar suggests that Hero fake her death to give the truth time to come to light and have Hero's accusers change their opinions of her.
Dogberry
Dogberry is a character created by William Shakespeare for his play ''Much Ado About Nothing''. He is described by ''The Nuttall Encyclopædia'' as a "self-satisfied night constable" with an inflated view of his own importance as the leader of ...
discovers Don Jon's plot and proves Hero's innocence. Leonato invents a niece for Claudio to marry. The niece is actually a veiled Hero who reveals herself as the two marry.
Analysis
Some critics have claimed that the Hero/Claudio plot is tonally inconsistent with the often light-hearted comedy Beatrice/Benedick plot. The darkness of Claudio's treatment of Hero has led some to label ''Much Ado'' a "
trage-comedy". More contemporary critics have used this same argument to suggest that ''Much Ado'' is a "serious comedy", despite its flippant title.
Convention
The coupling of Hero and Claudio has been described by some scholars as the play's more conventional couple, in comparison to Beatrice and Benedick. Claudio's wooing of Hero is from afar and places him in the conventional
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
an position of the lover admiring his love as on a pedestal.
Feminist critiques
In
Elizabeth Griffith
Elizabeth Griffith (1727 – 5 January 1793) was an 18th-century Welsh-born dramatist, fiction writer, essayist and actress, who lived and worked in Ireland.
Biography
Elizabeth Griffith was born in Glamorgan, Wales, to Dublin theater manager ...
's 1775 text, ''Morality of Shakespeare's Drama Illustrated'', Griffith writes that the slander of Hero was "so very irksome a theme, that it disgusts me to dwell upon it." It was not until the late 19th-century that criticism of the patriarchal mistreatment of Hero reemerged. Grace Latham, in 1891, detested how Hero's independence and self-assertion are taken away from her. 20th-century feminist readings of ''Much Ado'' follow in Latham's view and often criticize the ways in which Hero and Beatrice are both silenced as they become wives.
Comparison to other Shakespeare characters
Scholars have noted that the sudden attraction in the Hero/Claudio plot shares certain similarities with Shakespeare's earlier play, ''
Romeo and Juliet
''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...
''. Additionally, both Hero and
Juliet
Juliet Capulet () is the female protagonist in William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. A 13-year-old girl, Juliet is the only daughter of the patriarch of the House of Capulet. She falls in love with the male protagonist R ...
are advised to fake their deaths by friars, though with wildly different outcomes.
Martin Mueller identifies Hero as part of Shakespeare's "sleeping beauties", a group of female Shakespeare characters also including
Hermione
Hermione may refer to:
People
* Hermione (given name), a female given name
* Hermione (mythology), only daughter of Menelaus and Helen in Greek mythology and original bearer of the name
Arts and literature
* ''Cadmus et Hermione'', an opera by ...
,
Desdemona
Desdemona () is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a Moorish Venetian ...
, and Juliet, whose "deaths are subject to doubt and draw attention to the poet's freedom to dispose of their fate one way or another."
Performance history
Theatre
Asia
In the
huangmei opera
Huangmei or Huangmei tone ( or , pinyin: or ) originated as a form of rural folk song and dance that has been in existence for the last 200 years and possibly longer. Huangmei opera is one of the most famous and mainstream opera in China (others ...
, Hero is called Hai Luo. In Jiang Weiguo and Sun Huairen's 1986 production with the
Anhui
Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...
Huangmei Opera, Hai Luo was played by Wu Qiong. In this production, after Claudio cried on Hero's supposed-grave, she emerged from it and sang and danced around Claudio.
Europe
Nederlands Toneel's 1983 production of ''Veel Leven Om Niets'' (
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
) in
Ghent
Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
featured Chris Thys as Hero.
United Kingdom
Ellen Terry
Dame Alice Ellen Terry, (27 February 184721 July 1928), was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and tour ...
performed the role of Hero when she was 15 (c. 1863) at the
Haymarket Haymarket may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Haymarket, New South Wales, area of Sydney, Australia
Germany
* Heumarkt (KVB), transport interchange in Cologne on the site of the Heumarkt (literally: hay market)
Russia
* Sennaya Square (''Hay Squ ...
, though she is more widely remembered for her portrayal of Beatrice. In the 1870s, Ellen Wallis played Hero at the
Drury Lane Theatre
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Drur ...
. She later took over the role of Beatrice from
Helen Faucit
Helena Saville Faucit, Lady Martin (11 October 1817 – 31 October 1898) was an English actress.
Early life
Born in London, she was the daughter of actors John Saville Faucit and Harriet Elizabeth Savill. Her parents separated when she was a g ...
.
In 1961,
Michael Langham
Michael Seymour Langham (22 August 1919 – 15 January 2011) was an English director and actor, who spent much of his career living and working in Canada and the United States.
He was educated at Radley College and studied law at the Universi ...
directed a production of ''Much Ado'' with the
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...
in which, instead of showing Margaret pretending to be Hero meeting with Borachio, the actress who played Hero pretended to be Margaret pretending to be Hero. With the
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...
, actresses including
Julia Ford
Julia Ford (born 7 August 1963) is a British actress, voice actress and director.
Early life
She was born in Chester, Cheshire and grew up in Sutton Weaver. She attended Helsby County Grammar School.
Career
Her acting work includes theatre, ...
(1988)
and Kirsten Parker (2002) have played Hero.
North America
Canada
At the
Stratford Festival
The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival ...
in
Stratford, Ontario
Stratford is a city on the Avon River within Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada, with a 2016 population of 31,465 in a land area of . Stratford is the seat of Perth County, which was settled by English, Irish, Scottish and German im ...
, Hero has been played by many actresses including
Jennifer Gould (1998), Sidonie Boll (1991), Bethany Jillard (2012)
= United States
=
Rosalyn Newport played Hero at the 1958
Ashland Shakespeare Festival.
In 1981 Shakespeare in Central Park in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
, Janet Burrows played Hero. In 1980 in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
, Hero was played by Deborah Moradzadeh (Valley Shakespeare Festival), Julia Fletcher (
American Conservatory Theatre), and Laurell Ollstein (San Francisco Shakespeare Company). Holly Thuma was Hero at the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
in 1983. In 1988 at the
New York Shakespeare Festival
Shakespeare in the Park (or Free Shakespeare in the Park) is a theatrical program that stages productions of Shakespearean plays at the Delacorte Theater, an open-air theater in New York City's Central Park. The theater and the productions are ...
,
Phoebe Cates
Phoebe Belle Cates Kline (born July 16, 1963) is an American former actress, known primarily for her roles in films such as ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), ''Gremlins'' (1984) and ''Drop Dead Fred'' (1991).
Early life
Cates was born ...
played Hero.
In the
Folger Theatre
The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materia ...
's 2005 production, Hero was played by Tiffany Fillmore. In 2019, Margaret Odette played Hero in an all-black production at
Shakespeare in the Park
Shakespeare in the Park is a term for outdoor festivals featuring productions of William Shakespeare's plays. The term originated with the New York Shakespeare Festival in New York City's Central Park, originally created by Joseph Papp. This conc ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. This performance was later broadcast on
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
as part of their ''
Great Performances
''Great Performances'' is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise theatrical performances such as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is pr ...
'' series.
Film
In the 1964 German adaptation of ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Viel Lärm um Nichts'', Ursula Körbs played Hero. In
Kenneth Brannagh's 1993 adaptation of the play, Hero was played by
Kate Beckinsale
Kathrin Romany Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress and model. After some minor television roles, her film debut was ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She appeared in British costume ...
. Hero was played by
Jillian Morgese
Jillian Morgese (born September 25, 1989) is an actress notable for her performance in the role of Hero (Much Ado About Nothing), Hero in Joss Whedon’s 2012 film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s ''Much Ado About Nothing (2012 film), Much A ...
in
Joss Whedon's 2012 adaptation of ''
Much Ado About Nothing
''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...
''.
Television and web series
The first episode of the ''
BBC Television Shakespeare
The ''BBC Television Shakespeare'' is a series of British television adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and broadcast by BBC Television. Transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to ...
'', then known as the ''BBC Complete Works'', was set to be a production of ''Much Ado About Nothing'' featuring
Ciaran Madden
Ciaran Anne Magdalene Madden (born 27 December 1942) is a retired English stage, film, and television actress, who was professionally active from the late 1960s through the late 1990s.
She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RAD ...
as Hero. This 1978 episode was scrapped for unconfirmed reasons, though it was filmed and edited in its entirety. ''Much Ado About Nothing'' was reshot for the seventh series of the ''BBC Television Shakespeare'' with
Katharine Levy as Hero.
In the ''
ShakespeaRe-Told
''ShakespeaRe-Told'' is the umbrella title for a series of four television adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays broadcast on BBC One during November 2005. In a similar manner to the 2003 production of ''The Canterbury Tales (TV series), Th ...
'' adaptation of ''Much Ado About Nothing'',
Billie Piper
Billie Paul Piper (born Leian Paul Piper; 22 September 1982) is an English actress and former singer. She initially gained recognition as a singer after releasing her debut single "Because We Want To" at age 15, which made her the youngest woman ...
played Hero. In this production, Hero was a
weather presenter
A weather presenter (also known colloquially in North America as a weatherman or weather broadcaster) is a person who presents the weather forecast daily on radio, television or internet news broadcasts. Using diverse tools, such as projected weath ...
. The play's ending was altered to remove the wedding of Hero and Claude and to have Hero reject Claude's apology for his accusations during the wedding. However, the production hints at a possible reconciliation between the two in the final scene when Beatrice and Benedick marry.
In the web series "Nothing Much To Do", Hero was played by Pearl Kennedy. "Nothing Much To Do" was a New Zealand adaptation told through
vlog
A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...
s that transposed the play to a high school setting.
Notes
References
{{Much Ado About Nothing
Literary characters introduced in 1599
Female Shakespearean characters
Fictional Italian people