Hero

Leonato’s daughter, Beatrice’s cousin, and the beloved (and slandered) fiancée of Claudio. A gentle, loving girl. Quiet and reserved. Though she is supposed to be the female lead of the play, Hero has the fewest lines of the four primary characters. Her sweet nature contrasts with Beatrice. Her little actions and words within the play show that she has some willfulness, but she expresses this side of herself infrequently because she gives so many of her big decisions over to other people. Innocent victim - when Claudio denounces her publicly at her wedding, she doesn’t defend herself to inspire anyone to really question Claudio’s claims. Shakespeare shows a few traits of what was expected from a woman from the Elizabethan era through Hero, above all to be 'mild' (quiet). Vulnerable to circumstance because women were low in society and so their words meant very little. The name Hero would be familiar to the Shakespearian audience, as Hero is synonymous with romantic heroine, therefore Shakespeare's Hero has a very straightforward role and is one the very few characters in the play that does not change at all. Since the name Hero gives the impression of a kind, polite and dutiful daughter, we can immediately tell that she is the kind of woman who represents the model requirements of an unmarried daughter in her society.