Independent Women In Taming Of The Shrew

Have you ever asked yourself what it was like to be a strong independent person in the past? Strong independent women especially were rare in history. In the play Taming of the Shrew written by William Shakespeare shows this by portraying an independent woman named Kate not wanting to get married but is forced by a man who’s name is Petruchio. Although she has been tamed by being married, at the end of the play Kate reveals that she has maintained control of her spouse without him knowing. Also in the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, shows a independent woman named Eliza who wants to be self employed in a flower shop but is a peasant and cannot escape poverty because of her way of lower class speech. To fix this she asks a linguist named

Mr.Higgins to help her with a higher class way of speaking, but he is very rude to her so she leaves him after she learns to speak. These characters are the same in the sense of personality. Some people may not think they are the same because the characters are in different times. Although this is true they are in different eras, but human traits have not changed much over time.

In the sense of wanting independence. especially to a culture's expectations and standards such as marriage. One reason these two characters are the same is in the sense of being strong women, one example of this is that even though Petruchio tries to tame and control Kate she still maintains control of him. The evidence of this is the hand under foot speech. The speech explains to the wives to obey their husbands but maintain some control. On the other hand Eliza tracks down Higgins to be taught, the evidence is that she finds his address and comes in. This is an example of her being strong because Eliza shows that she can take care of herself and does not need a man to do her bidding.The Similarity between the two is that they do not need the men but prefer to have them. Another reason they are the same is they are rebellious towards society's expectations. One example of Kate being rebellious is she will not get married and is not looking for suitors. Evidence that this is rebellious is everyone is calling her a shrew also no one likes her. The reason it is rebellious is because marriage was expected at that point in history and everyone thought it was taboo to not be

married. Eliza is rebellious because she wants to talk/act like an aristocrat, even though she is just a peasant. Evidence of this is when Higgins warns her of the punishment if she got caught in the palace. It is highly Illegal for her to enter the palace ball without permission. Regardless of society's expectations these two did what they felt was right although, it was not the expectations of their society at the time. These aren't the only reasons they are the same, One example is how they manipulate men. Although they live in different times their attitudes are the same also, today there are a lot of expectation shattering independent women.