Critical Analysis
"The play is centrally concerned with the social nature of language - with the power of language & with language as an articulation of power." - Camille Wells Slights, Comic Commonwealths 1993
"By characterizing (sic) Beatrice's discourse as emasculating aggression, Benedick accuses her of inverting the hierarchy of the sexes." - Camille Wells Slights, Comic Commonwealths 1993
Act 1, Scene 3
Line 23 -24 - "It is needful that you frame the season for your own harvest." Shows the desire and need to shape own future, goals, outcomes through choice.
Lines 25 - 34. Whole speech about feeling trapped, restricted, voiceless. "I am trusted with a muzzle and enfranchised with a clog." The inability to speak felt by Don John, making him unable to socialise or articulate what he has to say/feel. ("If I had my mouth, I would bark.") leaving him feeling bitter. "I have decreed not to sing." Don John refuses to entertain, in turn refusing to comform/become subservient.
Throughout 1.3, Don John is quick to identify his differences and his inability to conform. This leaves him bitter, noted by Hero in 2.1, "He is of a very melancholy disposition."
You'll need to expand upon these responses if you're to achieve the higher bands. Use the criticism of CWS to shape your answers to this scene and future ones.
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