Love and marriage

How Shakespeare explores love, courtship and marriage through two contrasting couples across the text, and why it matters to the text's meaning.
Where it appears, the key quotations that show it, and different ways it can be interpreted.
Evidence from the beginning, middle and end of the text.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'Lady, as you are mine, I am yours', 'O Lord, my lord, if they were but a week married, they would talk themselves mad', 'Speak, count, 'tis your cue', 'Love me! why, it must be requited', 'I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest', 'Why, no; no more than reason', 'by this light, I take thee for pity', 'How dost thou, Benedick, the married man?'.
Two couples: Claudio and Hero's quick match arranged through the Prince against Beatrice and Benedick's slow, witty courtship, and marriage as the comedy's ending.
Context: marriage as a family arrangement of wealth and status, and romantic comedy's young lovers.

What you need to know