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.
William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and Movie Ten Things I Hate About You
Examine the different ways in which Shakespeare presents the attitude towards marriage in the play, ‘The Taming of the Shrew.’
Petruchio physically asks her to sit on his lap “come sit on me” in a
Shakespeare's Taming of the shrew Act 1 contains two parts, including the induction. None of Shakespeare's other plays begins with this, in which a full five-act play is performed within another play.
in this play, women are used as a symbol of male power, or lack of it.
Taming of the Shrew: Male Domination. The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare, deals with marriage. The ideas explored are primarily shown through the characters of Petruchio and Katharina. We are introduced to the trials and tribulations which present themselves in their everyday lives.
Kahn, Coppélia. "The Taming of the Shrew: Shakespeare's Mirror of Marriage", Modern Language Studies, 5:1 (Spring, 1975), 88–102
"The Taming of the Shrew" is a great example of Shakespear's use of women. Shakespeare indeed does transcend the stereotypes of his own time.
A long time ago, a drunken man fell asleep outside an alehouse. This man, Christopher Sly, was discovered by a mischievous lord who took him into his home. The witty lord then convinced Sly that he was a lord, as well. The lord then put on a play for him. The play, The Taming of the Shrew, was about the two young daughters of Baptista. The youngest daughter, Bianca, wished to wed but her father, Baptista, would not allow this until his eldest daughter, Katherina, was married. Under normal circumstances, it would be easy to find a husband for Katherina with all her beauty, but all her beauty was covered by her shrewd personality. By this time Bianca's suitors were growing very impatient, so they decide to team up and find a husband for Katherina. In jest they mentioned their plan to a friend, Petruchio, who surprisingly agreed to marry Katherina. All her beauty and wealth were enough for him. Katherina reluctantly was wed to Petruchio and she was taken to his home to be tamed. With Katherina out of the way, Bianca was now allowed to marry Lucentio, who offered her father the highest dowry for her. In the final scenes of the play, Katherina proves that she is tamed by winning an obedience contest at a dinner party. Katherina is now even more in accordance with her wifely duties than Bianca. A fare is a type of comedy based on a ridiculous situation. The Taming of the Shrew, an eminent example of a farce, is the first of three farces written by Shakespeare.
...se Katherine is a, in that time, controversial female character. Females were supposed to be sub missive creatures who listened to there masters, Katherine never listened to anyone which bothered people. She was also rude and violent, ladies were supposed to be polite and were told not to fight. One serious issue is that Petruchio tried such odd way to get Katherine to be have some were on the verge of torture. He did not let her eat or sleep and he forced her to agree with him or she could not do anything she wanted to.
Over time, there have been many remakes of Shakespeare’s works; some of them are bad, while others turn out better than others. The Taming of the Shrew is one of the few that are reenacted quite well. The Taming of the Shrew and the movie 10 Things I hate About You are pretty similar, with few differences between the two. 10 things I hate About You is a film that was released on March 31, 1999 which is based off of the play written by Shakespeare. The film is an updated version with the times to make the fit in modern day society, but the movie is still highly similar to The Taming of the Shrew. The movie and Shakespeare’s play basically have almost all of the same characters, with the exception of a few names. The plot line is really similar
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare is a play that is ahead of its time in its views toward gender roles within society. Katherine is a woman who is intelligent, and is not afraid to assert her views on any given situation. She is paired with another obstinate character in Pertuchio. The Marriage formed between the two is a match made in heaven for two reasons. First Because Katherine is strong enough to assert her views, and more importantly, she realizes when she should assert them. The second reason the bond survives is that Petruchio is strong enough to accept the fact that Katherine has a mind and, more importantly he loves her for that reason. Petruchio cleverly weaves the relationship into the framework of society without compromising the integrity of the relationship. Petruchio does this by comparing Katherine’s at attitude to repulsive clothing. Carefully and calculatingly, Petruchio forges a relationship that is envied by all who witness it.
Battle of the Sexes would have been another appropriate title for this play because the entire play is women verses men, men verses women. This battle of the sexes shows no boundaries between the rich and poor, young or old, man or women. The basis of all the rivalry stems from the fact that the men in this play look at the women as if they were objects, instead of human beings with feelings. This theory that women are merely objects creates an environment that the women have to adapt to and survive in and the environment of a person will depict what he or she will become, resulting in a battle between the sexes.
Sexism is an ever changing concept in today’s world. Every day the concept morphs a little bit, changing the entire definition of what is sexist and what is not. In The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare, the male characters lie to and abuse their women in order to have the women marry them. Lucentio come to Padua to study, but when he sees a beautiful girl, he pretends to be a teacher in order to marry Bianca. Petruchio on the other hand forces a woman to marry him and then trains her to follow his every command. Although the The Taming of the Shrew is frequently regarded as a particularly sexist play, it is not sexist and demeaning towards women.
Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew can be interpreted as a cultural critique of expected female roles (both domestic and maternal) throughout the seventeenth century Elizabethan era—and quite significantly, female subjugation within the framework of marital politics. Modernized adaptations of Shakespeare's play, such as Franco Zeffirelli's 1967 film The Taming of the Shrew, Gil Junger's "10 Thing I Hate About You", and David Richard's, more recent, "Shakespeare Re-Told - The Taming of the Shrew" reinforce the text's central themes of domestication, identity (or loss of) and transformation. These films, however, allow Shakespeare's text to become "a means by which, in Alan Sinfield's words, ‘certain ways of thinking about the world may be promoted