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The role of women in Shakespeare's play
The role of women in Shakespeare's play
The role of women in Shakespeare
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“Sometimes people are afraid of falling in love, because it sometimes comes in a way we never expected.”-Terry Mark. In Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You, the audience is introduced to a truculent, often psychotic, and overall shrew-like girl named Katherine. Katherine is seen by many as a shrew and overall bother to her peers in 10 Things I Hate About You, and also her fellow residents of Padua in Taming of The Shrew. While Katherine does put on a hard exterior towards the beginning of the storyline in both adaptions, her complete disposition shifts. The play Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare and the movie 10 Things I Hate About You both express the emotional changes in Katherine’s character, as we see her shrewish …show more content…
behavior that was hated by everyone begin to dissolve, showing how one person can be capable of changing someone through love and affection. In the beginning, Katherine for takes in having a hostile attitude towards everyone around her besides the close friends she favors. Katherine spoke to Bianca, “You lying brat, it’s Hortensio, isn’t it?” (Taming of The Shrew 2.1.) as she strikes her abusively. This is one example of the many times Katherine used foul language towards someone, and not just that, but physical abuse as well which was how she mainly presented herself through aggressive actions and behaviors. In 10 Things I Hate About You, Kat would always say rude comments and strong remarks in her class towards Joey, who was a boy she had an unrelieved past with. This was one out of various scenes where Kat used a foul behavior towards people she despised and whom annoyed her such as Joey did. Each of these examples express the un delightful person Kat and Katherine both were as they presented themselves with high temperaments, but in Taming of the Shrew she used physical abuse as well and not just verbal like Kat did in the modern-day film of 10 Things I Hate About You. As the stories continue a point is reached where we see a breakthrough in Kat’s attitude as Patrick and Petrucio come into play, attempting to “tame” her with their charming nature. Like so, Patrick and Petrucio begin to use their charm towards Kat and Katherine, treating and talking to them, not like everyone else, and not as the shrew they were seen as.
Petrucio told to Katherine, “Kate, take this of me, Kate of my consolation: Hearing thy mildness praised in every town, Thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded—Yet not so deeply as to thee belongs—Myself am moved to woo thee for my wife.” (Taming of The Shrew 2.1.87) This is where we start seeing Petrucio become flirtatious and use compliments to woo Katherine, treating her as a beautiful woman and not an unattractive shrew. In this quote, he is telling Katherine that he wants her as his wife and that her beauty is greater than what people say. Though some of his actions are not as charming and more aggressive, Katherine still begins to develop a heavier liking for him than she did before. In 10 Things I Hate About You, we start to see Kat give a flirtatious side of her back to Patrick as she is at a concert with her friend and Patrick follows her there. As Kat is at the concert she sees Patrick and asks him if he was following her. He asks her if she would go on a date with him, and she begins walking away, letting off a bashful energy towards him as she doesn’t say yes, but doesn’t say no either. You start seeing her tenderness in this scene because she isn’t just blowing Patrick off like she normally would with any other guy, but we see some kind of connection she is starting to have for him. Each of these concepts both progress in revealing a new attitude from Katherine, as both of them begin feeling passionate for Patrick and Petrucio, though Katherine doesn’t show it as easily in Taming of The Shrew as it she does in 10 Things I Hate About You. This all leads to the final effect we see Petrucio and Patrick have on Katherine and Kat, as it is Katherine and Petrucio’s wedding day, and when Patrick takes Kat to
prom. Furthermore, we see a new behavior in Kat and Katherine that truly shows the impact Patrick and Petrucio had on their character, and their emotions. “Would Katherine had never seen him, though!” (Taming of The Shrew 3.2.117) This is what Katherine said right as she left crying from where Petrucio and her were going to get married because he did not show up. When she says this, she is telling Tranio that though Petrucio might be a good man she wishes she had never laid eyes on him because she felt hurt. This example indicates that Katherine really did have feelings for Petrucio because she was genuinely upset he did not show for the wedding, breaking her heart through the words she says as she wishes she never laid her eyes on him. During the prom scene in 10 Things I Hate About You, Patrick brings Kat to prom and they enjoy their time together, until the secret of Patrick being bribed to tame her is exposed. This is when Kat becomes upset and mad of trusting him, leaving the Prom flustered with emotion. This is where we grasp that she had completely fallen for Patrick and the way he treated her, which made her feel more special than she had ever felt from anyone else, therefore once finding out about the bribery she was highly flustered. Both of these examples give harsh scenes of Kat and Katherine leaving in a heartbreaking and upset commotion, revealing that they did really care and grow love for Patrick and Petrucio making them feel foolish after getting let down. However, it does not end like this, because in the end each of them end up being forgiven, creating a new, true romance between Kat and Patrick, and Katherine and Petrucio expressing that love truly can change someone. In conclusion, Katherine’s character as an individual, changes with a great extent throughout both storylines, showing that love and affection can change someone and release emotions they’ve never expressed before. As conveyed, Kat and Katherine both went through a huge character shift from being the angry mannered, and aggressive shrew they once were to gradually pursuing a personality admired by Patrick and Petrucio, finally seen as being “tamed.” In Taming of The Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You, the biggest change we see is in Katherine due to Patrick and Petrucio actually seeing and treating her as a person, and more than just a “shrew.”
William Shakespeare’s comedies Much Ado About Nothing and Taming of the Shrew have a similar theme: they both contrast the stories of a mature couple and an immature couple. In Much Ado About Nothing Beatrice and Benedick, the mature couple, are trying to find the courage to love, while Hero and Claudio, the immature couple, are learning the importance of maturity within a relationship. In the same way, Katherina and Petruchio, the mature couple in Taming of the Shrew, are finding the capacity to love, while the Bianca and Lucentio, the immature couple, are learning that appearance isn’t everything in a relationship. I believe that the two mature female leads, Beatrice and Katherina, have some thought-provoking similarities and differences.
“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.
We see the girls in both “The Taming of the Shrew” and “10 Things I Hate About You” become very close to a boy, but for extraordinarily different reasons. This coincides directly with the idea that marriage was arranged during the time of Shakespeare, and now it is typically a mutual relationship between two people.
The characters from both films are different with different names and different personalities, for example Walter Stratford from ‘Ten Things I Hate About You’ is an overprotective father who will not allow his daughters, Bianca and Kat to date. “Rule number 1: No dating. Rule number 2: No dating till you graduate.” Is what Mr. Stratford said to Bianca when she asked to date, but then later changed the rule to “You can date when Kat dates”. Believing Kat would never date. But in ‘The Taming Of The Shrew’ Baptista is looking for suitable suitors for his daughters Bianca, and especially Katherina the shrew. Baptista also treats the marriage of his daughters as a business, with making sure Katherina get
Ten Things I Hate About You is a 1999 film based upon the play The Taming of the Shrew written by William Shakespeare in 1593. The storyline of these two texts is about a boy named Cameron (or Lucentio in the play) who falls in love with Bianca, a popular girl at his school. Due to her father’s orders, she isn’t allowed to date anyone until her older sister Kat (known as Katharina in the play) does. The trouble is, Kat is the opposite of Bianca - unpopular and not intending to date anyone any time soon. In an attempt to solve this problem, Cameron persuades Joey (both Hortensio and Gremio in the play), a wealthy boy who also has feelings for Bianca, to pay Patrick (or
In Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, the character Kate is the ‘shrew’ of the play. A shrew is a bad-tempered or aggressively assertive woman. In Elizabethan times, being labelled a shrew may lead to punishments and public humiliation. Modern day readers may look at Kate being labelled as a shrew and disagree as society today has changed since then and women are not inferior to men as they were back then. Kate is often presented by Shakespeare more positively as a complex and vulnerable character due to the fact she receives abuse from other characters in the play, an example of this is: ‘”Mates”, maid?
"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
In the play The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, Petrucio recognizes, respects and desires Katherine’s strength of character. Petrucio is a clever man who sees beyond facades because he uses them himself. (II, i 46) (II, I 283 - 89) He is stimulated by Katherine’s sharp tongue and harsh actions. He proves this many times throughout the play.
many years. She is hurt and she seeks revenge. This is seen in Act II. Scene I, when Katherine sums up her own state: "I will go sit and weep." Till I can find an occasion of revenge" (35-36). It is an immature response. but the only one she knows, and it serves the dual purpose of cloaking her. hurt. The transformation, which she undergoes near the end of the play, is not one of character, but one of attitude. At the end of the play, we find out that her negative attitude becomes a positive one. & nbsp; The shrew is not a shrew at all beneath the surface. & nbsp; The play begins by introducing Katherine with her father's words of shame towards her when he offers his eldest daughter to the two suitors of Bianca. The audience is then given their first impression of Katherine.
Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You Essay Money is a very big factor in determining one’s decisions, even in a marriage. The play Taming of the Shrew consists of 3 suitors who try to woo Bianca, but their father proclaims her first daughter, Katerina, who is considered a shrew, must first marry in which a rich young man, Petruchio comes into the play to attempt to marry and tame the shrew. The movie 10 Things I Hate About You consists of practically identical plot. Instead, it consists of the father, Walter Stratford and his two daughters, Bianca and Kat and two boys, Cameron and Joey who wish to date Bianca, Bianca herself is interested in dating. Walter Stratford, the father, states his oldest daughter Kat is required to date first before Bianca can.
In Shakespeare's time, the ideal wife was subservient to her husband, and it was the husband's inherent duty to take care of his wife's money, property, and person, including both physical and moral welfare. If a man's spouse proved rebellious, he had the right to physically brutalize her into submission. This social phenomenon of domesticating an unruly woman as one might an animal was the inspiration for The Taming of the Shrew. Kate fits the stereotype of the shrewish woman at the play's outset and the Renaissance ideal of the subservient, adoring wife by the play's close, but her last speech as the final monologue of the play-rightly interpreted-undercuts her stereotype.
Over the past 400 or so years since Shakespeare wrote _The Taming of the Shrew_, many writers, painters, musicians and directors have adapted and reformed this play of control and subjugation into timeless pieces of art. In _10 Things I Hate About You_ and Kiss Me Kate from two very different times in the twentieth century, and paintings of Katherina and Bianca from the late nineteenth century, the creators of these adaptations have chosen to focus on the role of the two main female characters in the play. The ideas surrounding these women have changed through the years, from Katherina and Bianca simply being young women who deviated from the norm of Shakespeare’s time to women who embody feminist ideals and stereotypes of the more modern world.
Kate never finds out that Petruchio was paid to marry her. Petruchio and Patrick both use deceitful tactics in order to be with their respective loves. They disguise their true feelings and motives for being with their girl. Both Kat and Katherine fall in love with the man who was paid to be with her.
In Shakespeare's, "The Taming of the Shrew" the relationship between the sisters Katherine and Bianca appears to be strained with rampant jealousy. Both daughters fight for the attentions of their father. In twisted parallel roles, they take turns being demure and hag-like. Father of the two, Baptista Minola, fusses with potential suitors for young Bianca and will not let them come calling until his elder, ill-tempered daughter Katherine is married. The reader is to assume that meek, mild-mannered, delicate Bianca is wasting away while her much older, aging, brutish sister torments the family with her foul tongue. Katherine seems to hold resentment toward Bianca. Her father favors Bianca over Katherine and keeps them away from each others' torment. When gentlemen come calling, Bianca cowers behind her father and Katherine speaks up for herself. "I pray you sir, is it your will to make a stale of me amongst these mates?" (1.1.57-58) Bianca and Katherine dislike each other feverishly. Katherine torments Bianca with words and physical harm. She binds her hands, pulls her hair then brings her forth to her father and the gentlemen callers. Bianca denies liking any of the visitors and portrays herself an innocent that merely wants to learn and obey her elders. She says, "Sister, content you in my discontent to your pleasure humbly I subscribe. My books and instruments shall be my company, on them to look and practise by myself." (1.1.80-84) Because Katherine speaks freely and asserts herself she is labeled as "shrewish." When Hortensio describes her to Petruccio, he spews out that she is "renowned in Padua for her scolding tongue." ( 1.2.96) He gilds the lily further by clearly telling of her fair fortune if suitable man comes courting and wins her hand in marriage. Petruccio sees dollar signs and rushes onwards in grand dress and fluently gestures to court the gracious "Kate." When he first begins his ritual of winning the family and Katherine to his love, he is seeking his fortune in her dowry. The mention of her being at all undesirable does not put rocks in his path.
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.