William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew

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William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew 'The Taming of the Shrew' is a play written by Shakespeare in Elizabethan times to examine many complex ideas, including those of social roles and marital harmony. These two in particular relate to the character of Kate, and the way her circumstances change and the way she reacts creates the main interest of the play. At the beginning of the play, we meet Katherina, also known as Kate, as a fiery, wilful, aggressive and apathetic young woman of the Italian town of Padua. We learn she is known for these undesirable traits, and laughed at by the men and women of Padua alike, and a common target of hurtful ridicule. All the strain of this is merely worsened by the apparent perfection of her sister, Bianca. As much as Katherina is rebellious, shrewish and undesired, Bianca is her opposite and has many suitors. Bianca fits the Renaissance female ideal in her unassuming, graceful, intelligent and mild nature. The light in her father, Baptista's eye, and the heart's desire of so many, Bianca is a source of much jealousy and insecurity for Kate. Katherina is clearly intelligent and independent, and so refuses to play her social role as the 'maiden daughter'. Instead, she would always insult and degrade all men she came across, and fiercely deter all suitors, much to the anguish of her father, determined to have her wed. Kate detests society's expectations of her, like how she should obey her father and show grace and courtesy to all her suitors. However she must also see that she must even... ... middle of paper ... ...ssert blame onto someone else. However, her current devoted and passive nature means she jumps to the defensive, in this action being graceful, polite, calm and subdued, much like the idealised woman of the period, and the initial perception of Bianca. By this stage, Kate has become very subdued, and is far more close to the perception of ideal womanhood held at the time. She has changed completely, and her surrendering continues to amaze an audience remembering the past behaviour of this shrew. She has changed very much in demeanour, as she now fits a social role model of being a wife, though at this stage still integrating the details. She is undeniably more passive, calmer, sweeter, more graceful and thus, more desirable, and we see such a great change on the character that this man Petruchio has had upon her.

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