Quote 7
CLAUDIO
I'll hold my mind were she an Ethiope. (5.4.39)
So obviously the "Ethiope" stuff is hyper-racist, but the take-home of this comment—at least in Shakespearean times—is that for Claudio, marriage isn’t about love. It’s a formal arrangement that is just another way of doing your duty. Here, Claudio’s marriage to Leonato’s "niece" is just a way for him to pay his dues to the old man.
Quote 8
CLAUDIO
If I see anything tonight why I should not
marry her, tomorrow in the congregation, where I
should wed, there will I shame her. (3.2.116-118)
This is particularly nasty of Claudio. Rather than just canceling the wedding if Hero is disloyal, he’s hell-bent on disgracing her in front of the whole congregation. His plan is more about vengefully ruining her reputation than it is about escaping a loveless, dishonest marriage.
Quote 9
CLAUDIO
Sweet Prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.—
There, Leonato, take her back again.
Give not this rotten orange to your friend.
She's but the sign and semblance of her honor.
Behold how like a maid she blushes here!
O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
Comes not that blood as modest evidence
To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear,
All you that see her, that she were a maid,
By these exterior shows? But she is none.
She knows the heat of a luxurious bed.
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty. (4.1.30-42)
Claudio is hung up on how Hero appears – he thinks her image as a virtuous girl is false, masking her true nature. Reputation is linked with appearances – Hero blushes like a virgin, but Claudio thinks she isn’t one. Her reputation as a maiden rests on how she appears; in insisting that how Hero seems is not how she is, Claudio effectively undoes her reputation.