The wedding scene

The wedding scene

1. "give not this rotten orange to your friend"

   • suggests
     • image of decay
     • once nice but not anymore
     • no longer useful
     • not pure / impure
     • expiration of hero's worth
     • she is diseased
     • contaminated with another man's touch
     • been used
   • metaphor
   • indicts Leonato, accusing him of knowingly and willingly offering his corrupted daughter
   • Claudio's opportunity of safeguarding his lineage is diminished with the expiration of Hero's worth

2. like a maid

   • suggests
     • suggests the antithisis
     • antithisis of goodness or purity
   • simile

3. "Would you not swear, all you who see her, that she were a maid by these exterior shows?"

   • direct address to the audience
   • ensuring Claudio's reputation remains intact

4. "heat of a luxurious bed"

   • she is lascivious
   • she knows what sex feels like
   • metaphor
   • foregrounds the contextual stigma of the temptress
   • bad, no sex before marriage

5. "approved wanton"

   • particularly pernicious part of Claudio's indictment because the metaphors have been replaced by a statement of truth / fact
   • a proven whore
   • gives definition to Claudio's indictment
     • can't dispute it
   • truth laid bare
   • no inference required

6. "you seemed to me as Dian in her orb"

   • allusion
     • Diana is the roman goddess of the hunt also known as the virgin goddess
   • implies Claudio's anticipation of Hero's virginity
   • Hero's facade is of a virginal pure

7. "as chaste as the bud ere blown"

   • suggests
     • true identity concealed
     • accentuates Claudio's sententious and premature judgement about Hero
     • moral judgement was made
   • simile

8. "more intemperate in your blood than Venus"

   • allusion
     • goddess of love, beauty, seduction, persuasive feminine charm
   • appears as Diana (virgin and pure) but is actually Venus

9. "rage in savage sensuality"

   • suggests
     • unrestrained passion
     • physicality to behaviour
     • become like wild animal
   • alliteration
   • lends definition to lasciviousness and liscentiousness