In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, one major difference between Claudio and Benedick is that Claudio is depicted as a much more typical hero. He is characterized as valiant, handsome, and as falling in love easily with Hero. In contrast, Benedick, though equally valiant in the war they have just returned from, claims to be a "professed tyrant" of women (1.1.155). He claims to despise women and objects to the idea of marriage. He continues to illustrate his claim when, in the first scene, he keeps protesting against Hero being worthy of Claudio's love, or of any man's love. He further illustrates his claim by swearing he shall forever live as a bachelor.
Yet, Benedick shares more similarities with Claudio when it comes to matters of the heart than he cares to admit. While Benedick protests against love and marriage, the reality is that he easily sees Beatrice as beautiful, even more beautiful than Hero, is easily hurt by her when at the masquerade ball she calls him the "prince's jester; a very dull fool" (2.1.122), and very quickly admits he loves her when he is led to believe she loves him. Therefore, as the play progresses, Benedick proves to be just as much of a lover as Claudio.
But one more difference between them that remains constant throughout the play is that Claudio proves to be very distrusting of others, and his distrusting nature makes him easily feel jealous. We first see him feel jealous when Don John easily tricks Claudio into believing Don Pedro is courting Hero for himself. His next and most dangerous bout of jealousy is stirred when Don John tricks him into believing Hero is not a virtuous bride. In contrast, when Claudio disgraces Hero on their wedding day, Benedick is very quick to believe that Claudio wrongly accused Hero. He is also quick to see that Don John purposefully misled Claudio into believing Hero was unfaithful. Benedick's ability to see what really happened and to challenge his dear friend saves the day.
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