Taming of the Shrew Character Profile

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Taming of the Shrew Character Profile

· Romantic comedy

Time and place written

· Around 1592, London

Date of first publication

· 1623

Tone

· The overall tone of the play is light and comic, though the

exploration of larger social questions, such as the proper relation of

the sexes in marriage, lends much of the comedy a more serious tone.

Settings (Time)

· Unspecific, though presumably sometime during the Italian

Renaissance

Settings (Place)

· Padua, a city-state in Italy prominent during the Renaissance

Major conflict

· Petruccio's attempt to "tame" Katherine; that is, to assert his

authority in their marriage and overcome her hotheaded resistance to

playing the role of his wife

Rising action

· Petruccio and Katherine's early verbal conflicts; Katherine's many

scenes of shrewish behavior, including her attack on Bianca; the

various disguises and subterfuges of the subplot; Katherine and

Petruccio's comical wedding

Climax

· There is no single moment of intense action in the play, but rather

a long process of development culminating in Katherine's fully changed

behavior. It might be possible to see a climax in the wedding scene in

Act III, or in Katherine's decision in Act IV to submit to Petruccio

when he says the sun is really the moon, or her agreement to throw

shame to the winds and kiss him in the middle of the street in Act IV.

Falling action

· The banquet at Lucentio's house in Act V, scene ii

Themes

· Marriage as an economic institution; the effect of social roles on

individual happiness

Motifs

· Disguise; domestication; fathers and ...

... middle of paper ...

...ass young maidens-in-waiting. At the very least, they are

supposed to occupy these roles-but, as the play shows, in reality,

Kate wants nothing to do with her social role, and her shrewishness

results directly from her frustration concerning her position. Because

she does not live up to the behavioral expectations of her society,

she faces the cold disapproval of that society, and, due to her

alienation, she becomes miserably unhappy

Kate's development over the course of the play is basically determined

by her gradual adaptation to her new social role as wife. She complies

with Petruccio's humiliating regimen of taming because she knows on

some level that, whether she likes the role of wife or not, she will

be happier accepting her social obligations than living as she has

been at odds with everyone connected to her.

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