i should hope that in the case where i am accused of doing something dreadful that my father would give me the benefit of the doubt. that he would at least take a moment to recollect his wits and think rationally about the situation. "i know this to be true about my beloved daughter..." or something along those lines. rather than assume that the bearers of mine sordid tale held absolute truth and, in his rage, attempt to choke the life out of me for my transgression.
let us cogitate on the customs in the time period of, Much Ado About Nothing. while sex was a much more open and less taboo thing than it is now, sex out of marriage wasn't really something that happened a lot. and that could have been for a number of reasons. maybe because they married so much younger than we do now they didn't really have the urge or the opportunity to have sex outside of marriage. so when claudio accuses hero of having been clever enough to find the time and the lust to do just that, it really says something. remember, that family honor was everything and hero's indiscretion has brought shame upon her father and her upbringing. marriages weren't really for love, they were more sociopolitical contracts. no one wants to enter into contract with someone who is know for doing dirty business. if your daughter has a habit of sneaking around with men who are not her betrothed, no other family is going to want to make a fool of themselves by attaching themselves to you and your out of control household. if we consider all of these, then leonato's actions [trying to kill hero after he is told of her so-called promiscuity] seem much more in context.
i don't think that i can defend the claim that this announcement returns the play to the status quo because, even for shakespeare, this seems a bit over the top.
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