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Feminism approach taming of the shrew
The taming of the shrew as a comedy
The taming of the shrew as a comedy
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In The Taming of the Shrew one of my favorite characters was Katharina daughter’s of Baptista a wealthy merchant. I personally choose her as my special character because Katharina Minola is a blazing, spirited woman, and as such the male dominated world around her does not quite know what how to deal with her.
Katharina was the main protagonist in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. As the title mentioned, she was the shrew, which meant, the woman whose violent personality will be controlled by her husband. For Katharina, the development of her personality was very much influenced by her interaction with other characters, namely Petruchio her husband, Bianca her sister and Baptista her father and among others. The aim of this paper is to explain the reasons of Katharina’s behavior, her development throughout the play, and gradually fell in love with Petruchio. Her falling in love will be the result of the success of Petruchio’s taming strategies.
Since the very beginning of the movie, Katharina was a furious character who rebelled against everybody and everything. There were various reasons for such behaviors. I can think that her rage arisen from unhappiness. She acted like a shrew because she was miserable and desperate. Moreover, she expressed jealousy about her father’s treatment towards her younger sister Bianca. But this jealousy is justified, because her father continually humiliated her in public. Many examples can be found in this movie, for example: when Baptista offered Katharina to either of Bianca’s suitors, he first wanted to have Katharina off his hands. Kate bounded her sister’s hands in order to torment her, because throughout the movie Bianca acted as the perfect woman. She was the favorite of her father and ...
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... she has realized that her life was better than when she was a shrew. The love between Katharina and Petruchio became sincere and profound. The Taming of the Shrew seemed to express the clever lesson that women like Katharina endured during this time period when they do not obey to their husbands. The marriage of Kate and Petruchio was finally based on that of love and mutual respect.
I my opinion, although I admire Katharina’s personality, I strongly believe that she went a little to far with her attitude. Despite of her beauty, no men wanted her as a wife because of her arrogance and negative energy that surrounded her. I would never act the way she did because being the daughter of a very wealthy merchant means that you are an educated person. Marring with Petruchio was one of the best things for her because in life it is usually good to taste your own medicine.
In the early acts, Katharina’s attitude appears as if she does not care at all about
One thing that makes Petruchio's and Katherine's marriage unperfect, is that he originally only married Katherine for her money. Petruchio only came to town to find a rich girl to marry. Odysseus may have cheated on Penelope, but at least he truly loved her. Petruchio also married
In Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew the elements of farce are exemplified in terms of character, plot, and writing style. The stereotyped characters in The Taming of the Shrew are typical of a farce. Katherina is an outstanding example of a farcical character. Katherina, although stereotyped as a boisterous shrew, can be portrayed as a person needing sympathy due to Baptista's favoritism. The quote, "She is your treasure, she must have a husband: I must dance barefoot on her wedding day…" (A. II S. 1 L. 36-37), makes it obvious that Baptista favors Bianca. In terms of plot, Shakespeare devises the plot to resemble a situation comedy. Although the subplot is more romantic, both the subplot and the main plot revolve around the principle of a favoristic father who is outwitted by his child and her lover.
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
"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
The first of many situations was when she states that “ I see a woman may be made a fool if she had the spirit to resist” (line 225-226 The taming of the shrew), which means that as a woman she had such strong apparent beliefs of feminism to be opposed to that idea but at the end she let herself be made a fool and her spirit of resisting wasn’t apparent anymore and because of this she has gone on to “Unto the taming school” (4.2.54) to let herself become a proper wife and no longer display the traits of feminism and only be the idea that women must do what their husband says without any say about it because as Laura Hollins Hughes states that “ A play that climaxes with an apparent happy ending in which a woman is offering to make herself a doormat to her husband” is the same as Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew becoming the opposite of twho she is and becoming a doormat that “Any well educated woman in the 20th or 21st century should approach with great caution because you might be in great danger of reaffirming a patriarchal society”(Hughes) which in the era where is written women were portrayed as
By charming her with kind words, Petruchio is able to manipulate Katherine into marriage and woo her, but in an unaccustomed way, as Kate is not used to men being so nice and direct with her. Petruchio is able to achieve this end by manipulating Katherine’s words. He twists what Kate says and makes it seem as if she is coming on to him sexually, while in reality he is the one implying the sexual innuendo. This manipulation can be seen when they have an argument about whether or not the wasp carries his sting on his tail or tongue, and Petruchio says “What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again, good Kate. I am a gentleman—” (II, 1; 230-231). By contorting the words he ...
...is also helping herself gain power. Also, the speech lets you know that she is aware of the difference between public and private behavior and just because she is “giving in” to her husband, she knows that she will not always have to do so, especially in private. It also shows that Kate has grown in maturity and can handle things in an adult way, such as give and take, instead of having to use physical force. It shows that instead of a tamed shrew, she is a women that knows how to get what she wants but goes about it in a different way at the end of the play than at the beginning.
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 fact that they fell in love is meant to show how they were tamed. Kate gives a speech about how she understands how she should be subordinate to her husband. Petruchio has tamed her because she allows him to be in charge of her. “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” (Shakespeare Vii 177-179).
When someone is a female their first thought should not be weak or nurturing, just as when someone is male their first though shouldn’t always be powerful. Unfortunately it has becomes so ingrained in societies mentality that this is the way that things work. The Taming of the Shrew is a past writing piece that expands on a mentality that is modern. The male gender cannot be put into this same constraint. Petruchio is the epitome of what society would describe a male as. He thinks he is in charge and always the superior to women. He expects Katherine to always do what he tells her to do, because he believes that is her duty as his wife. Moreover he should not be expected to do that for her. Furthermore, Bianca is what many would describe as the perfect woman. She is nurturing and she does not speak out against what she is told. When she does speak she always speaks like a lady. She exists merely for decoration in the home and to serve her husband. Katherine is the inconsistency in this stereotype on femininity. Her purpose in the novel originally is to rebel against this biased thought on female gender roles. Katherine is not afraid to speak out against the things that she is told to do. If she disagrees with something she will act on it and she is just as strong as the men in the novel; which is why many of the men actually fear her. Katherine is not submissive and does not believe that the only reason that she exists is to serve a husband. Katherine does not want to be just the damsel in distress, she wants to be in charge. At the end of the novel there is a switch in the personalities of Katherine and Bianca. This alteration provides the purpose of showing that gender is not something that someone can be confined in just because they were born a female. A woman can have many different traits and still be feminine. It is impossible to put femininity in a box because there are no real qualities for what
In the taming of the shrew, the play focused on two women in particular, Baptista's daughters, Bianca and Katherine. These women lived in this environment that gave men power for all their lives...
Shakespeare, Wiliam, and Sylvan Barnet. The Taming of the Shrew. . Reprint. London: New American Library, 1998. Print.
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.
Bianca and Lucentio are considered stock characters in this play for many reasons. On the surface of things, Bianca is a sweet, mild-tempered young woman. She shows obedience towards her father and fosters his favoritism for herself by playing the part of a noble victim who cannot marry until her shrewish sister is wed. "Bianca is the epitome of a stock character. She is the sweet, innocent girl that all the g...