1. Reminds me of his attitude towards Benedict about falling in love with Hero. “Let me show you something new.” Claudio in this stage of the play is over being a soldier, and is ready to settle down. Fair Hero (and her father’s fortune) catches his eye.
2. This song is about a girlfriend cheating on her boyfriend with other boys. It brings to mind how Claudio “witnessed” (offstage) “Hero” have an affair with another man. The singer addresses his anger towards his former lover without acknowledging he may also be at fault, singing “No one will love you like I did…some come on wear that/Scarlet letter.” “Scarlet letter” of course refers to the book of the same name by Natheniel Hawthorn, wherein the main character is forced to wear a scarlet ‘A’, branding her as an adulterer.
3. This song is different in that it’s more forgiving that some of the other songs on this list. It’s still the man breaking up with the woman, but rather than blaming the woman for her alleged promiscuity, the song instead laments the way the two are no longer compatible and the singer needs to move on from the relationship. You might be asking, “How is this related to Claudio?” Well, it reminds me of the way the others around him tell him needs to move on from the relationship despite it only lasting about a week. “But I need you to be/my ancient history.”
4. Another song bemoaning the incapability of a couple. “Now we’re singing different songs,” is an interesting way of interpreting that the couple no longer understands each other. When Benedict and Beautrice fight, they are an even match, and are quick to use their sharp tongues to banter, but when Claudio and Hero encounter trouble, it is one-sided, abrupt. It really makes you wonder what the rest of their marriage will be like.
5. Another break-up song full of vitriol at the woman, supposedly after the woman has treated him poorly. The lyrics “Thanks for treating me like every boy you meet/please come in and take a seat/here’s the part where I learn and you shall teach/on how to treat people like a piece of meat,” implies that the woman is promiscuous, a belief that harkens back to christianity in that women should be pure and free of sin, and enjoying sex makes them sinful.
6. Yet another song about a woman cheating on a man (I’m starting to sense a pattern here). However, this one reminds me of how even though Hero protests her innocence following his accusations, Claudio refuses to believe her. The foreshadowing for Claudio’s bull-minded rage and subsequent tunnel vision is foreshadowed as early as Act 2, Scene 1, wherein upon Don John’s gulling, he declares, “Trust no agent for beauty is a witch.”
7. About Hero after her supposed death. The way the singer expresses his remorse about not being able to go through a different “window” and experience what could have been reminds me vividly of Claudio’s remorse and sorrow upon his realization that Hero is “dead.” Through unopened windows, bound to my heart/Fantasy so close, feels so afar/But I long to break the lock and live among the life we lost.” Luckily for Claudio, Hero isn’t dead, and apparently still wants him, and they get that happily ever after