What are Beatrice and Benedick's attitudes towards love in Act 4, Scene 1 of Much Ado About Nothing?

In Act 4, Scene 1, we see that both Benedick and Beatrice view love as an emotion that they both wanted to steer clear of, but also as a happy, relieving emotion. Beyond that, they also see love as a test of loyalty. Beatrice believes that if Benedick is not loyal to her in doing her bidding that it means that he does not truly love her, while Benedick believes that he should also be loyal to his friend Claudio, which makes it very difficult for him to do Beatrice's bidding.

In Act 4, Scene 1, we still see traces of Beatrice's and Benedick's earlier resistances to falling in love when we see them both use the term "protest" in their declarations of love. While the word protest can refer to a very serious, or "earnest declaration," it also means to object or to disapprove (Random House Dictionary). Hence, when Beatrice says, "You have stayed me in a happy hour. I was about to protest that I loved you," she is using protest with a double meaning (IV.i.292-293). She is thanking Benedick from stopping her from speaking because she was about to tell Benedick that she loves him, which she objects to, but she is also using "protest" to say that she was about to earnestly declare that she loves him. Benedick is also using "protest" to refer to earnest declaration when he says earlier, "I protest I love thee," but Beatrice is using her wit to interpret it to mean that he objects also (288). Hence, through this little play on words, we see that both are immensely happy and relieved that they have fallen in love, but both are freely expressing their past hesitations at falling in love.

Beyond this, we also see in this scene that both equate love with loyalty. As soon as Beatrice learns that Benedick loves her she tells him to kill Claudio. When Benedick refuses, she says that he does not love her after all, as we see in her line, "There is no love in you" (302-303). However, Benedick refuses because he does not believe that Claudio is ultimately to blame for his horrible treatment of Hero. Benedick believes that both Claudio and Don Pedro, who are both honorable men, have been tricked by the treacherous Don John, as we see in Benedick's earlier lines:

Two of them have the very bent of honour;
And in their wisdoms be misled in this,
The practice of it lives in Don John the bastard,
Whose spirits toil in frame of villainies. (194-197)

Hence, due to his love for Claudio as a friend, he believes that he must be loyal to Claudio as well, which is why he hesitates when Beatrice tells him to kill Claudio. However, Benedick soon becomes persuaded by Beatrice that Claudio is ultimately to blame for dishonoring Hero and promises to kill him.

Thus we see in Act 4, Scene 1 that both characters view love as a happy relief that previously they resisted and that love is shown through loyalty.

How does Shakespeare present Beatrice and Benedick's relationship in Much Ado About Nothing?

Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship changes throughout the play. Before we even meet Benedick, Beatrice asks pointed questions about him. Leonato reveals that “There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her.” As soon as Benedick arrives, he and Beatrice exchange witty barbs. He rails against marriage and expresses special disdain for Beatrice. Still, he comments on her beauty, comparing her favorably to Beatrice’s cousin Hero: “there's her [Hero’s] cousin, an she were not possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty as the first of May doth the last of December.”

Beatrice likewise insults Benedick and the entire institution of marriage. The two have apparently known one another for a long time. Beatrice says, “I know you of old,” and suggests they had a previous relationship: “he [Benedick] lent it [his heart] me awhile; and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one.” Her comments also imply that the relationship did not end well.

As the play proceeds, Beatrice and Benedick’s feelings deepen while Hero and Claudio’s romance deteriorates. Don Pedro and his friends trick Benedick into believing that Beatrice is in love with him. Hero and Ursula make Beatrice think Benedick loves her. Benedick and Beatrice immediately decide to requite the other person’s feelings, Benedick declaring, “I will be horribly in love with her.” This supposed change indicates that an attraction already existed.

Benedick stands by Beatrice and Hero when Claudio mistakenly slanders Hero at his wedding. He even challenges his dear friend Claudio to a duel, on Beatrice’s insistence. The previously argumentative couple confess their love with abandon: “I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.” Ultimately, they discover that they have been victims of a prank. They begin to quarrel again, but Benedick declares his happiness, the two plan to marry, and neither of them loses a sense of humor.

Compare the relationship of Beatrice and Benedick to Claudio and Hero in Much Ado About Nothing.

I have simplified the wording of your question.  Comparing and contrasting characters and their relationships is a common essay assignment.  So that you might, with some suggestion from me, create your own comparisons between these couples, I have pasted a link at the bottom of this answer to the Enotes page on this topic.  You'll find the suggestions given here for creating a "Comparison/Contrast Essay" very helpful.

All character (and character relationship) analysis is subjective, which means that it is based upon a personal opinion that is supported with evidence of specific examples from the text.  I'll provide some suggestions for you of ways that these two couples are similar and different, then you can create your own comparison.  Be sure to support your observations with examples from the text.

Hero and Claudio:

• Don't know each other well at the opening of the play.
• Are openly in love (infatuated?) with each other from the beginning of the play;
• undergo a huge test to the strength and potential longevity of their love when Claudio accuses and rejects Hero;
• Spend very little of their onstage time in conversation together;
• Proceed from engagement to marriage in very conventional ways that include Hero's father Leonato;
• Are reconciled (despite the hardship of the middle section of the play) for marriage and a happy ending.

Beatrice and Benedick:

• Have already known each other for a long time when the play opens;
• Are determined not to be in love (with anyone), even though all the other characters see their affection for each other;
• Spend alot of their onstage time together in witty and contentious conversations;
• Are conventional in their course of engagement, as Benedick asks Leonato for Beatrice's hand;
• Have their love strengthed by adversity, rather than weakened;
• End the play, much to their own chagrin, prepared for marriage and a life of love.

Shakespeare commonly presented love relationships that contrasted greatly with each other in his comedies.   He would often present a young, somewhat naive conventional couple in contrast to a more witty, worldly and wise couple as he does here.  The Taming of the Shrew is an example of a play with similar pairs of lovers.

For more on writing a Comparison/Contrast essay and on the couples in Much Ado, please follow the links below.

Hero and Beatrice are just about as opposite as night and day. Their one similarity is that both are witty and tease each other in their own way.

We first see Hero's modest wit portrayed in the first scene when Beatrice makes a pun referring to Signior Benedick's fighting skills by referring to him as Signior Mountanto and asking the messenger if has returned. Hero replies with her own subtle wit, and like a best girlfriend who is in on a private joke and knows that Beatrice admires Signior Benedick more than she is willing to admit, she explains to the company, "My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua" (I.i.30). Though the wit is subtle, we can most definitely hear the teasing tone that Hero is aiming at her beloved cousin. We can also hear her modest, flirtatious wit when at the masquerade, a man in a mask, whom she thinks is the prince, asks her to "walk about with him," meaning dance with him, and she flirtatiously replies that so long as he dances gracefully, is handsome, and says nothing she is his for the dance and her presence may even linger after the dance has ended and she has "walked away," as we see in her lines:

So you walk softly and look sweetly, and say nothing, I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away. (II.i.74-75)

Examples of Beatrice's wit are far more dramatic; she especially enjoys making fun of Benedick and of marriage in general. We see her wit being used to insult Benedick when she refers to him first as a man with "an excellent stomach" and then as a "stuffed man," like a dummy (I.i.42, 48). We also see one instance of her wit with respect to making fun of the act of marriage when she tells Hero that romance is like a dance. She relates the act of courtship to a "hot and hasty dance," the wedding to a ceremonial dance that would be performed before the state, or before the king, and she relates the act of regretting the marriage to a dance called the "cinquepace," which is a fast paste five step dance that goes faster and faster until the man Hero marries "sink into his grave" (II.i.62-68).

While Hero and Beatrice have wit in common, Hero is very gentle and submissive, while Beatrice is rebellious. We especially see Hero's submissiveness in contrast to Beatrice's rebelliousness with respect to their views on marriage. Hero is very submissive to her father and is willing to marry whom ever he asks her to. When Leonato eroneously discovers that Prince Don Pedro wishes to ask Hero to marry him, Leonato encourages Hero to accept as we see when he reminds her, "Daughter, remember what I told you. If the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer" and Hero very submissivly conscents (II.i.57-58). In contrast, Beatrice rebells against the entire idea of marriage, as we see in her proclamation, "[I]f he send me no husband; for the which blessing / I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening" (23-25).

Despite its light-hearted title, Much Ado About Nothing has some of the darkest moments in any of William Shakespeare’s comedies. This somber note is primarily sounded by Claudio. The theme of true love carries through the entire play. Claudio and Hero stand for unchecked feelings and show the dangers that lurk beneath an overly romantic attitude toward love. Benedick and Beatrice, who represent the combination of intellect with emotion, offer an example of a couple who move toward each other to appreciate the other person’s good qualities.

Both couples are deceived repeatedly, but Claudio is hot-headed and prone to jealousy. Hero is presented in strict contrast as sweet and trusting. Benedick begins the play with a reputation as a light-hearted, carefree flirt but shows that he has greater depth. Beatrice has a superior attitude that includes contempt for his superficiality, but she learns the difference between his surface and the substance of his character.

if we compared the two couples in the play, we would see that both couples share a problem with trust. However, for Benedick and Beatrice, the feelings of hate and distrust come first in their relationship, but then they grow to love each other. While on the other hand, Claudio and Hero experience love at first sight, but then Claudio develops an unwarranted distrust of Hero.

We see in the very first scene just how much Beatrice and Benedick dislike and distrust each other. One excellent example is that when Beatrice learns from the messenger that Benedick has closely befriended Count Claudio, Beatrice refers to Benedick as a contagious disease, as we see in her lines, "If he[Claudio] have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a thousand pound ere he be cured" (I.i.74-76). We especially see how much Beatrice's dislike for Benedick has also turned into distrust when she refers to him as a playboy. When Benedick declares that he loves no woman, Beatrice rejoices in what a relief that is for all womankind, saying that they are spared from marrying an unfaithful man, as we see in her line, "They would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor" (108-109). Benedick equally shows his dislike for Beatrice when he greets her by referring to her as "Lady Disdain," meaning that he acknowledges her as a person who treats everyone with contempt and mocks them (101).

However, while Beatrice and Benedick appeared to dislike each other in the beginning of the play, they are easily tricked into falling in love with each other by being led to believe that the one loves the other. Their easy persuadability to fall in love shows us that while they appeared to dislike each other, they actually did see each other's merits. If they had not, they would not have so quickly agreed when they heard others speak of their merits.

In contrast, Claudio and Hero both fall in love at first sight. Claudio refers to Hero as "the sweetest lady" he ever "looked on" (I.i.160). Similarly, when Prince Don Pedro woos Hero in Claudio's name, Hero very quickly accepts and is seen whispering in his ear that she loves him, as Beatrice points out in her line, "My cousin tells him in his ear that he is in her heart" (II.i.278-279). However, despite how sweet, virtuous, and modest Claudio believed Hero to be, he is very easily tricked into believing that Hero is unfaithful by the morally questionable Don John. When Don John tells both Claudio and Don Pedro that he has seen Hero be unfaithful, Don Pedro has enough sense to instinctively disbelieve Don John and declare, "I will not think of it" (III.ii.100). However, neither Claudio nor Don Pedro continue to listen to their instincts and decide to disgrace Hero in the church before the congregation. Claudio even calls Hero an "approved wanton," meaning a "proved whore," showing us just how much he has grown to distrust Hero.

Hence, if we compare the two couples, we see how similar the two couples are but also that their situations exactly mirror each other's.

How do Beatrice and Benedick's relationship and marriage differ from Hero and Claudio's in Much Ado About Nothing?

A common mistake! Beatrice and Benedick don't hate each other. When the announcement of the arrival of the soldiers is made, Beatrice makes some insults of Benedick. However, Leonato calls the relationship between the two a "merry war". A happy war, in other words. They enjoy their jokes. This is shown again later in the play, after they have confessed their love. Beatrice still teases Benedick, when he goes to kiss her:

Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but
foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I
will depart unkissed. (you spoke bad words, and therefore have bad breath, and can not kiss me)

Other factors show that these two have felt kind feelings for one another. Beatrice at the dance announces that she lent Benedick her heart for awhile, a "double one for his single". It appears there was love there in the past.

The difference between these two and Hero and Claudio are many. Beatrice and Benedick have obviously known each other for some time and, has been shown, most likely shared a relationship. Claudio only "looked" upon Hero before going to war, and nothing of their actual contact before their engagement is mentioned... indicating that there was very little contact. Also, Beatrice and Benedick speak for each other and to each other. Until the wedding scene, Hero and Claudio do not, speaking through others or only in each other's ears, so the audience doesn't hear. Their love seems more based on appearance, and is the work of the moment, while the love of Beatrice and Benedick is complex and has developed over time.

Describe Beatrice and Benedick's relationship in Much Ado About Nothing.

The relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is antagonistic at best and volatile at worst, at least at the beginning and throughout the majority of the text. At the masquerade, Beatrice pretends not to know Benedick because of his mask. She mocks him, saying that Benedick is the "Prince's jester, a very dull / fool" (2.1.135-136). She makes fun of him and says that he amuses people and makes them laugh at him but that nobody really likes him. According to her, people think he lacks wit: only "libertines" appreciate his "villainy."

Benedick, with such great dislike of Beatrice, begs the Prince to send him on any tedious and far-flung errand so that he will not have to have even "three words' conference with this harpy" (2.1.266). He cannot stand to be around her! Thus, it is evident that they dislike one another very much. Beatrice soon explains, somewhat vaguely, to the Prince that Benedick "once before" won her heart with "false dice."

In this way, she implies that she and Benedick were romantically involved at some point in the past and that he somehow mistreated her or proved himself to be untrustworthy (2.1.275). For this reason, she goes on the attack when she is near him because she believes he would do the same to her, and she does not want to prove herself to be "the mother of fools" (2.1.281). In other words, she goes on the offense because she doesn't want to be fooled and get hurt by him again.

How does Shakespeare contrast Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing?

One way we see Shakespeare contrast Beatrice with Benedick is that Beatrice is more emotionally driven while Benedick remains more logically minded. This contrast helps to illuminate Shakespeare's theme of the differences between men and women.

One way in which we see Beatrice be more emotionally driven than Benedick is that her spoken reaction to being tricked into believing that Benedick is in love with her is much shorter than Benedick's own response. Even though both characters proclaim that they must amend their ways and give up their pride, Beatrice's short response is full of emotion, even exclamation points, such as "Contempt, farewell!" (III.i.111). In contrast, Benedick's much longer speech shows us that he must spend more time reasoning his way into his new situation. Beatrice becomes convinced that she should requite Benedick's love simply by hearing Hero and Ursula praise Benedick, showing us that, despite her protests, Beatrice already thought highly of Benedick. Beatrice's quick acceptance of Benedick in her short little speech show us that she is very emotionally responsive. We especially see Beatrice's emotional responsiveness when she proclaims that she should love Benedick because others think he deserves it, as we see in the lines, "For others say thou dost deserve, and I / Believe it better than reportingly" (III.i.117-118).

In contrast, Benedick takes a much longer time to reason through Beatrice's attributes. He must examine every merit both Claudio and Don Pedro said Beatrice has, as we see in his lines:

They say the lady is fair--'tis a truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous--'tis so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving me ... " (II.iii.210-212).

The line, "'tis a truth, I can bear them witness," particularly shows us that he is not only reasoning through to see if he agrees with their description of Beatrice, he is also examining whether or not he will be embarrassed by his own decision. We further see him reason through his emotions when he points out that he may be laughed at for changing his mind about love and marriage, but says it will be okay because everyone changes their minds with age, as we see in the lines:

I may chance have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me because I have railed so long against marriage. But doth not the appetite alter? (II.iii.214-216)

All of the reasoning we see through this very long speech, in contrast to Beatrice's very short speech, shows us that Benedick is more inclined to use rational thought while Beatrice is more emotionally driven.

What is the relationship like between Beatrice and Benedick?

Beatrice and Benedick are attracted to one another, but have a difficult time expressing that attraction. They are intellectual equals who enjoy matching wits. Shakespeare was the first playwrite to write love scenes as if they were war scenes (he is known for writing fast, furious, almost violent dialogue between lovers). This creates an undertone of romantic (sexual) tension that is almost palpable. Their wit, however, masks but does not protect them. Though they are the most intelligent characters in the play, they are also the most vulnerable and, consequently, the biggest fools. They are like children in their manner, and their speech is almost the verbal equivalent of a punch in the arm. They are innocents in love who do not know how to deal with the intense attraction they feel.

In addition to the sexual/romantic tension, there is also a power struggle that goes on between the two (and perhaps that is a facet of the romance, maybe any romance). It comes to a point when Beatrice asks--no tells--Benedick to "Kill Claudio" for what she thinks is his mistreatment of Hero.  This pits Benedick's loyalty to his friends (and there is lots of male camaraderie in this play) against his love for her. More than that, it puts him in a position to do as she says in order to show his love, suggesting a cuckoldry that all the men in this play fear. The play must resolve this tension to make the relationship work.

How do Hero/Claudio and Beatrice/Benedick's love stories counterbalance in Much Ado About Nothing?

Much Ado About Nothing features two love stories: Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero.

When the play opens, we learn that Beatrice and Benedick are engaged in a battle of wits. They often jest with each other. Benedick arrives back from the war with Claudio, who immediately is smitten with Beatrice's cousin Hero. Don Pedro helps Claudio woo Hero, and within the first half of the play they are engaged to be married.

Hero and Claudio, with help from the others, decide to trick the master tricksters Benedick and Beatrice into falling for each other. The friends make sure our protagonists overhear them discussing how one has a crush on the other, and vice versa. Believing that the other loves them makes Benedick and Beatrice fall for each other.

Meanwhile, Don John concocts a plan that makes Claudio believe Hero is unfaithful. Claudio disgraces his fiancée at the altar. By the time he find out the truth, that the adultery was all a lie, a new scheme makes him think Hero is dead. He promises to wed an unknown niece of Leonato's in repentance, who turns out to be Hero in a disguise. The two happily reunite. Benedick and Beatrice publicly admit their feelings for each other, and the two couples end the play in love.

While the two couples end up happily together, their journey to get their is very different. Hero and Claudio fall for each other at first sight and quickly become engaged. On the other hand, Benedick and Beatrice have known each other for a while, but do not recognize their feelings until they are tricked by their friends. The way they talk to each other is very different from how Hero and Claudio talk to each other. Thus, the two couples counter balance each other.

However, while Hero and Claudio have a quick, easy path to falling in love, their relationship takes a turn for the worse. It is clear everyone understands the battle of wits between Beatrice and Benedick, so when they insult each other it is taken as jesting. Claudio, however, slings real insults at Hero on their wedding day. The story becomes very dark after the failed wedding. After Claudio spurns Hero, Beatrice and Benedick have a very honest and emotional conversation. Shakespeare especially contrasts the couples in that scene.