in much ado about nothing ESSAY HELP?

Question

when Beatrice says “I pray you, how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars? But how many hath he killed? For indeed I promised to eat all of his killing.” what does she mean and how is it related to war. THANKS TO EVERYONE THAT HELPS ME!

thanks for helping Roxy, but i forgot to say that shes talking about benedick who she pretends to hate. what does she mean by the eaten part?

Answer 1

um...I think it means that many people have died fighting in wars...sorry, that's all I could come up with. Good luck!

Answer 2

In the opening scene when we first meet Beatrice and Benedick, we see that Beatrice uses a lot of rhetorical schemes to insult Benedick. Beatrice first jokes that Benedick is a cannibal in her suggestion that he has eaten his enemies in battle. When she asks “how many hath he killed and eaten,” she is calling him uncivilized, cannibalism being a marker of savagery. When she says she will “eat all his killings,” the jest is premised on the absurdity of her being a cannibal. She would never eat another human being, but won’t have to because Benedick, in her estimation, is a bad soldier. A Shakespearian audience's initial reaction to Beatrice would be quite disapproving as she openly insults a respectable male character. However a modern audience would think very differently about Beatrice, they would approve of her because she is stands up for herself, but in general women at that time were supposed to be quiet and do what men tell them to. The messenger is confused, since he thinks that Benedick is a good man and a good soldier, which is true.