In "Scolding Brides and Bridling Scolds: Taming the Woman's Unruly Member," Lynda Boose explains that the punishment of scolds and shrews during the sixteenth and seventeenth century is not what makes modern day directors try to lessen Kate’s unwillingness by emphasizing a sexual attraction between Petruchio; it is more likely that it is due to the power struggle in today’s heterosexual marriages in general (181). Boose explains that Kate's placement of her hand under Petruchio's boot was part of a ceremonial custom when a bride was going to be offered a share of property by her intended husband, but also a physical representation of the marriage vow to love, honor, and obey (182-183).
According to Boose's research, this was a custom throughout the Elizabethan era: there are accounts of the ceremonial prostration of a woman before her husband in Russia (183). That the brides
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Kahn states, “[Kate] steals the scene from her husband who has held the stage throughout the play...” (98), and she uses this as an example to prove that Kate has not been tamed because she steals the show from Petruchio in the end as her final show of independence. Kahn then goes on to say that “[Petruchio] has gained her outward compliance in the form of a public display, while her spirit remains mischievously free” (98). This goes along with a quote from Frances E. Dolan’s Houshold Chastisements: Gender, Authority, and “Domestic Violence”, “The violence that subordinates learn, for instance, is not inevitably, as in Barker’s dynamic, turned against their oppressors; instead, a person who is the victim of violence in one location, or in relation to one person or group, may strive for dominance elsewhere (especially where the odds are better).” (Dolan, 164) At the end of the play when Kate gives her speech it is her way of fighting back that is not necessarily violent but goes against
I think Kate's final speech can be interpreted in endless amounts of ways but it comes down to how someone's individual view of the play is. Personally I felt Kate's speech was very ironic and a coincidence since through out the play she's very mean to Pertuchio and her view on the whole marriage was pretty negative. Pretty much how I saw this play in a modern aspect is Kate was the girl with the bad attitude and Petruchio was the douche-bag who likes girls who are a challenge i.e. Kate and in some weird way Kate ended up seeing that her attitude isn't what someone like her or a women that is married should be presenting. Her final speech to me was her seeing her own demons in a sense through Pertuchio and she was having an epiphany on how
The Renaissance may have been a time filled with the revolutionary concepts but the people of this time still regarded woman as mere property. This milieu formed the Taming of the Shrew, a play about an outspoken Katherina who gets tamed into a “good wife” by Petruchio. “She [Good Wife] is the eye of wariness, the hand of labour, and the heart of love, a companion of kindness, a Mistress of Passion, an exercise of Patience, and an example of experience. “ (Good and Badde)The methods used by Petruchio, to tame her such as starving Kat, are not seen as revolt...
In the play The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, Petrucio recognizes, respects and desires Katherine’s strength of character. Petrucio is a clever man who sees beyond facades because he uses them himself. (II, i 46) (II, I 283 - 89) He is stimulated by Katherine’s sharp tongue and harsh actions. He proves this many times throughout the play.
In this marriage Katherine has no power. She is verbally abused by Petruchio and denied what she needs. As said in the article,“ Kate is transformed after enduring the irrational world of Petruchio 's country house, where she is denied food, sleep, and fashionable accoutrements of her social class” (Karen 263). Katherine is tamed and she praises and respects him now that she is tamed. At the end of the play, when Katherine and Petruchio are at the wedding, Katherine is the only woman out of all at the wedding that actually listens to her husband when they all call their wives. Katherine ends up giving them a speech and telling them to respect their husband: “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head thy sovereign, one that cares for thee And for thy maintenance commits his body” (Shakespear V. ii . 162-164). She respects who he is and all the work that he does for her. Petruchio has the power in marriage because she respects him and his
The first Shakespeare play which Zeffirelli adopted to the cinema, The Taming of the Shrew, deals with the theme of gender roles. In a grander scale the play explores the behavior expectations of males and females both in society at large and within a domestic relationship. For many years, most critics agreed that the heart of the play suggested male domination and female submission, especially to the authority of their husbands, as the accepted male-female dynamic. This view went unchanged for many years and audiences widely accepted Petruchio's “taming” of Katherina as politically correct.
Much responsibility lies with readers, actors, and directors. Remember, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Katharina and Petruchio are both victims of their social situations, their passions, and their egos, and by Kate’s final speech, it is clear that she doesn't really believe what she's saying – she's just telling Petruchio what he wants to hear. The final speech, then, can be seen as an extension of Kate's newfound ability to "role-play," or act. Katherine’s motivations for giving this speech (fear, exasperation, amusement) and whether or not Kate derives any power in her new relationship with Petruchio
Double Standards in The Taming of the Shrew A very prominent theme in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is society's double standards of men and women. In the play, Katherina is a very free-willed, independent woman who wishes to follow her own path in life and is not dependent on a man for her happiness. Petruchio is also free-willed, independent and speaks his mind freely. However, where Petruchio is praised for these characteristics, Katherina is scorned and called names. Petruchio is manly and Katherina is bitchy for the same traits.
"Women have a much better time than men in this world; there are far more things forbidden to them." -Oscar Wilde. This quote embodies the fight over gender roles and the views of women in society. Taming of the Shrew deals with Kate and Bianca, two sisters who are at the time to he married off. However, suitors who seek Bianca as a wife have to wait for her sister to be married first. Kate is seen as a shrew because she is strong willed and unlike most women of the time. In his 1603 play The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare enforces traditional gender roles and demonstrates how little say women had in society. He accomplishes this through the strong personality of Kate, Baptista 's attitude towards his daughters as transactions, and
Men in Petruchio’s time would have been expected to flatter women they were trying to woo. Petruchio does just that. ‘The prettiest Kate of Christendom’. Men were expected to woo women because i...
Katherine reveals this attitude in Act 2 Scene 1, lines 31-35, "nay, now I see she is your treasure, she must have a husband; I must dance barefoot on my wedding day, and for your love for her, lead the apes to hell." Talk not to me, I will sit and weep!.. " This anger is not concealed, it serves to provide motivation as to why a rational person would rebuke Petrucchio so rudely upon first encountering him. Katherine surely realizes that Petruchio is interested in her for ulterior motives other than love. Be it purse that the dowry will bring or the actions of an insincere lunatic who, "woo's a thousand.
...ironic use of manipulation before and after the wedding, Petruchio is able to tame Kate. Or so he thinks. The only real change is that Kate agrees with him, but she only does this to get her way. Therefore she is manipulating him by pretending that he has been able to tame her. He has not tamed her, because she also utilizes the art of manipulation. Before, Kate’s only defense against patriarchy is to be outspoken; now, she negotiates her own sense of power within patriarchy by using manipulation. Shakespeare’s critic of the patriarchal social structure is therefore just, because not only are women denied the same legal power as men, but their manipulative power is also disregarded and considered a weakness. Therefore women are not to be blamed for utilizing this powerful form of control, because that is what the patriarchal social structure forces them into.
In Taming of the Shrew Hortensio mentions that Katerina is a shrew, but Petruchio does not care because she is wealthy. Petruchio could have easily found another woman, but with money involved Petruchio does what he can to “win” her love by attempting to talk with Katerina and eventually takes his time to try and tame Katerina. “When Petruchio first meets Baptista, Petruchio inquires about the dowry, once Baptista replies, Petruchio immediately demands to sign the contract. Baptista tells Petruchio to first win her love. Petruchio acts and has a one to one debate with Katerina, Petruchio does not win her love but tells Katerina he will marry her anyways, resulting in Petruchio tricking Baptista in winning Katerina’s love” (Shakespeare, Act 2 Scene 1 Lines 110-308). The paraphrase examines Petruchio increased desire to marry Katerina after being told about the dowry or money involved by attempting to win her love and deceiving Baptista of achieving to win Katerina’s. In 10 Things I Hate About You Patrick has an increased desire to attempt again and date Kat after being offered more money. Patrick takes the money and takes her out to different places, however, Patrick ends up falling in love with Kat and money began to no longer play a role for him showing a difference between the play Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You. In the scene where Joey confronts Patrick about his failed
She announces that, “And place your hands below your husband's foot, In token of which duty, if he please, My hand is ready, may it do him ease” (5.2.193-195). Katherine believes that it is a woman’s duty to serve her husband and his every need, which conflicts her original attitude from the beginning of the play. Katherine’s monologue about a woman’s role proves that Petruchio has successfully “tamed” Katherine to the point where she has fully embraced her constructed role as a woman in
This depiction of Petruchio conforms to Shakespeare’s technique of using false realities, in order to create humour. This can also be seen in the false identity that Petruchio puts forth in his quest for dominion over Kate (that of the eccentric egomaniac). However, these false realities are not enough by themselves, as the audience has nothing to go by but what they see before them, and so they are not to know that this is not Petruchio’s true personality, and so Shakespeare employs another essential element of humour: he lets the audience know what is truly transpiring, while the characters themselves remain oblivious to the truth. He does this using a soliloquy, in which Petruchio states the strategies he shall use in order to tame Kate:
During The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare has used pleasure and pain in order to tell the story of Petruchio and Katherina’s courtship. This is problematic for modern day audiences, as they do not find the courtship methods that Petruchio employs to woo Katherina particularly comical. However, it could be argued that Shakespeare crafted The Taming of the Shrew precisely for this reason, to feature his views on patriarchy and to make the audience see what was happening through a new perspective. The Elizabethan audience would have been shocked at the methods used in order to achieve the taming, even though it was well within a man’s right to discipline his wife if she was deemed unfit. From the very beginning of The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare indicates that this play will not follow traditional rules of decorum, and that it is intended to both give pleasure and cause pain in order to make both Elizabethan and modern audiences take note of his underlying message.