In the late twentieth century, it is not unusual for audience members to come away from productions of The Taming of the Shrew with the impression that they have just witnessed the story of a dynamic woman turned into a Stepford wife.1 There are also Shakespearean critics who hold such views. G. I. Duthie, for instance, describes Katherina as a "spirited woman who is cowed into abject submission by the violence of an egregious bully" (147). John Fletcher's 1611 play The Woman's Prize, or the Tamer Tamed, in which Petruchio's second wife treats him as he had treated Kate,2 suggests that even during Shakespeare's lifetime the battle of the sexes within the play had become a battle of the critics outside it.3 Shakespearean scholars on the other side argue, as Charles Boyce does, that far from being a tale of domination, "the play's main plot concerns the development of character and of love in a particular sort of personality" (626). Boyce goes on to say that "The violence in The Shrew--except for the beatings of servants ... is limited to Katherina's own assaults on Bianca and Petruchio" (626). Nor is Boyce alone in his belief that Petruchio is physically kind to Kate; as Robert Speaight writes, "It is only to others that he is rough" (59). Much of the confusion comes from a simultaneous idealization of the twentieth century4 and denigration of the sixteenth, a glorification of the sensibilities of modern critics, directors, and audiences coupled with a condemnation of the "medieval" insensitivity of the playwright. For example, Jonathan Miller, director of the 1980 BBC Shrew, says, "Shakespeare is extolling the virtues of the obedient wife ... in accordance with the sixteenth-century belief that for the orderly running of society, some sort of sacrifice of personal freedom is necessary." He defends his position with an attack, arguing that "If we wish to make all plays from the past conform to our ideals ... we're simply rewriting all plays and turning them into modern ones," a practice he calls "historical suburbanism" (140). However, he is himself engaging in a procedure which might be called historical blurring, allowing certain historical trends to obscure individuals and their divergent opinions.5 No period can be correctly characterized as homogeneous, certainly not a time as tendentious as the Renaissance. To maintain that women's rights were not hotly debated by Shakespeare and his contemporaries is ignorance coupled with arrogance, and to fit the creator of Portia, Rosalind, and Viola into the company of male supremacists requires an adept mental contortionist.
“Then God be blessed, it is the blessed sun, But sun it is not when you say it is not, And the moon changes even as your mind. What you will have it named, even that it is,And so it shall be still for Katherine. (IV.vi.19–23) The relationship of Katherine and Petruchio has changed throughout the various adaptations of the Taming of the Shrew. Things such as the motives to the interaction, even the role of love has changed. These differences between these adaptations were not a mistake but made to appeal to a variety of audiences.
Upon reading Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and Henry V, I have noticed that the issue of gender ideology and identity has been an intriguing study in both Shakespearean comedies and histories. These traditional Western views have, in a sense deemed which roles are appropriate and socially acceptable, in regards to both males and females. This practice of ‘social typecasting’ has given men and women certain socially acceptable characteristics, which has influenced how they should think and act. In this essay I take an in-depth look regarding how Shakespeare dealt with gender identity, and if certain characters in The Taming of the Shrew and Henry V accepted their socially predetermined gender identity or if they rejected it.
The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare’s earliest comedies, and it shares many essential characteristics with his other romantic comedies, such as Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. These characteristics include light-hearted and slapstick humour, disguises and deception and a happy ending in which most of the characters come out satisfied. The play has been dated from as early as 1594 and as late as 1598. (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/shrew/context.html)
Petruchio physically asks her to sit on his lap “come sit on me” in a
"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
Consequently, in the play The taming of the Shrew and the sources of author Elizabeth Hutcheon, Marion Perrett and Dale Priest they have ideas amongst those sources and my three other sources have the common theme of women being objectifified and therefore the idea between those sources is that women’s roles become reversed when they let themselves be shrewed like the character Katherine did when it came to Petruchio. Amongst the first source the moral of it is one that Linda Boose argues that “Shrew and similar terms were transposed from their origin as contemptuous expressions for lower-class males into terms that gendered such hostility, displacing it away from the threat of male class revolt which remained real throughout the era and redirecting
Garner, Shirley Nelson. “The Taming of the Shrew:Inside or Outside of the Joke?” “Bad” Shakespeare: Revaluations of the Shakespeare Canon. Dickinson: Farleigh Dickinson U P, 1988. 105-19. Rpt. in Shakespeare for Students. Ed. Catherine C. Dominic. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 374-78. Print.
In Shakespeare's comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare has a woman as one of the story's main characters. Katherine Minola (Kate) is off the wall, and kinda crazy. Because of her actions, the “male centered world” around her doesn't know what to do with her.
Shakespeare, Wiliam, and Sylvan Barnet. The Taming of the Shrew. . Reprint. London: New American Library, 1998. Print.
In conclusion, Plato argued that comedy blends pain with pleasure and Shakespeare has blended these two elements in order to challenge the Elizabethan audience’s view of women. The Elizabethan audience would have been able to see this by the fact that Petruchio is not serious about the taming because he does not use physical violence against Katherina. However, modern audiences would view this very differently as Petruchio resorts to psychological torture, which affects Katherina much more. The play is clearly a comedy as the characters are one-dimensional and are mostly static, meaning that the play was designed to be unrealistic. However, there is a definite element of cruelty that runs throughout the play that is used in order to make both modern and Elizabethan audiences take notice in order to challenge society’s treatment of women.
Called "cursed Kate" throughout the play, Katherine is openly jealous of the attention he sister is receiving, whereas she, because she speaks her mind, is being bypassed and even avoided in the wooing process. Katherine reveals this attitude in act 2 scene1, 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 to 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...
William Shakespeare is a master of satire, and it is very evident in his work “The Taming Of The Shrew”. His use of exaggeration is impeccable, and he managed to make the entire work one giant parody. Through this satire, he makes a very important social commentary, using his influence to bring new ideas into people’s minds, and make them realize the flaws in their
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.
A Shakespearean scholar expanded on this, “The play enacts the defeat of the threat of a woman’s revolt; it does so in a comic form – thus so offers the audience the chance to revel in and reinforce their misogyny while at the same time feeling good” (Gay). The Taming of the Shrew at many points is just praising the men in the novel despite their behavior and putting down the women for being anything but perfect. The novel makes the actions happening comedic and the reader does not get upset at the things happening, but in reading further into it and comparing in to modern day, it is not hard to see the plain and simple abuse. Although gender roles are still prominent into today’s society they are toned back. In contemporary version of The
Throughout Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare portrayed women as objects or shrews that needed to be tamed. Kate was the daughter of a wealthy man named Baptista Minolta from Padua. She was the oldest sister and, under tradition of the time, had to be married first. Bianca, on the other hand, was the younger daughter and was courted by many. Due to Kate’s wild behavior, the suitors were afraid of her. Along came a man named Petruccio, who was determined to marry her and get the money that would be given to the man who marries her. Through Petruccio, Shakespeare exploited women.