Marriage in William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew

Marriage in William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew At the time Shakespeare wrote The Taming of the Shrew the idealistics

and attitudes to not only marriage, but also women were of a whole

different nature. A woman would have had to be married to someone with

the same social status. The man would indeed have to be rich and offer

a safe and secure future. Marriage was based around social standings,

money, trade and a way to make an alliance. At the time queen

Elizabeth was on the thrown and society saw that unless a man owned

property he could not vote. This meant that the average man had no

vote and a wife would only be another asset to his collection.

Elizabethan society saw women not as a partner or friend or an equal

on the contrary, a servant, a way of making money, someone to sleep

with.

An idealistic woman for Elizabethan times would be a woman who would

honour obey serve and have dignity. A woman would not work or have a

choice or opinion on finances or property or any important matters. At

the time to have a wife who would not follow her husband's orders and

commands was a disgrace, and an embarrassment, which is the reason

Petrucio went so far to tame Kate and prove everyone wrong. A woman

had to look after listen to and respect her husband. Women who were

considered shrews or to have a scolding tongue, then she was

considered to be the wrong material for a wife. Men would never want a

woman who dared to undermine her husband. As Henry VIII said to his

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.... Whilst Petrucio think she's tamed she's

not she has just learnt to find a compromise after all its what she

actually wants. Kate has been badly behaved and angry simply because

no one cared enough for her.

Kate shows Petrucio in her speech and all her family just ho he is.

People who have written it off as a piece of dramatic irony or her

giving up were simply wrong and underestimating Kate's intelligence

and character. Her speech was to show to Petrucio that's eh will find

a compromise with him and that they will be all right. When Petrucio

commands Kate to come, normally Kate would have flown in up in arms

shouting and creaming but instead she came because that's what no one

expected she was proving them all wrong and putting them all to shame.

She had the chance to show up her sister and to look better than her.