Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The taming of the shrew summary
A critique essay on the movie taming of the shrew
The taming of the shrew summary
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The taming of the shrew summary
A Blossoming Shrew A journey full through the ups and down of stubborn love and feelings of change consumes readers on a roller coaster of alluring emotions. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare address Katherine Minola as she fluctuates from a loathsome shrew into a virtuous lady. Particularly, Katherine originates as a wrench that even her suitors, Bianca, and Baptista find her irritating. Additionally, Katherine shows her irritation and vengeance towards Petruchio as he tries to capture her love and change her despicable nature. Moreover, Petruchio urges Katherine’s transformation as she blossoms into an honorable lady. For starters, Katherine holds the title of a wrench which causes feelings of utter discontent to be held by her suitors, Baptista, and Bianca. When Baptista requests suitors to consider a marriage with Katherine, none can tolerate …show more content…
Petruchio tries to win the heart of Katherine for marriage, bearing her with compliments, but Kate believes that she will be “wed to one half lunatic, a mad-cup ruffian and a swearing Jack” (100). Katherine, bewildered and reluctant as ever, recognizes something is up as no man has ever shed her with compliments and empathy. Likewise, when Petruchio attempts to woe Katherine, his manners distraught her, and she tells him if “[she] be waspish best beware [her] sting” but Petruchio’s “remedy is then to pluck it out” (92). Thus even though everybody else tends to steer away from Katherine, Petruchio remains willing to put the effort into freeing her of the stingy behavior she possesses. Consequently, when Katherine reluctantly marries Petruchio he starves her and yells at all his cooks becoming “more a shrew than she” (152). Katherine perceives how uncouth Petruchio remains to his servants and it causes her to reveal pity for them, transforming Katherine into a gentler
A very prominent theme in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is society's double standards of men and women. In the play, Katherina is a very free-willed, independent woman who wishes to follow her own path in life and is not dependent on a man for her happiness. Petruchio is also free-willed, independent and speaks his mind freely. However, where Petruchio is praised for these characteristics, Katherina is scorned and called names. Petruchio is manly and Katherina is bitchy for the same traits.
In the play, Taming of the Shrew, this character is known as Petruchio. In act 1 scene 2, Petruchio insists on meeting Kat no matter who tells her of his behavior, for he was only looking at one factor – that she had a rich father. Upon meeting Baptista, Petruchio insists on meeting Katherine. “Lucentio” and Petruchio battle, promising this and that to Katherine until Baptista finally chooses Petruchio. Upon meeting Katherine, she immediately is biting at his heels. With his quick wit he is responding with equal amounts of insults which frustrates Katherine. Every insult Katherine throws at Petruchio he manages to throw back a sexual innuendo. further along into the story with Kate and Petruchio. Petruchio
The scene starts off Katherine terrorizing her sister, the men all introducing themselves, and Hortensio being hit by a lute. Katherine is eventually brought out to met Petruchio and they are left alone. Petruchio takes to calling Katherine by “Kate”, wriling her up. Kate begins to insult her suitor without hesitation. They then engage in an argument, which was more along the lines of clever puns and metaphors thrown to and fro. It then ends in Kate hitting Petruchio and his response being they will be married on Sunday, “will you. nill you”.
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.
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 ...
Patrick and Petruchio’s desire to date Kat or Katerina is influenced by money. In Taming of the Shrew Hortensio mentions that Katerina is a shrew, but Petruchio does not care because she is wealthy. Petruchio could have easily found another woman, but with money involved, Petruchio does what he can to “win” her love by attempting to talk with Katerina and eventually takes his time to try and tame Katerina. “When Petruchio first meets Baptista, Petruchio inquires about the dowry, once Baptista replies, Petruchio immediately demands to sign the contract.
The major theme is portrayed by the attitude towards marriage shown in Petruchio and Kate’s relationship. First the relationship was started entirely against the wife’s will, and for the fiscal benefit of the husband, with no intent of love involved. This is especially shown when Kate walks onto the roof of her father's house. The first thing that Petruchio does is states his worries about loosing not Kate, but his "20 thousand crowns," that he was promised if he wed Kate. Petruchio used his wife only as a stepping block, and later after "taming" her, used her as a status symbol. His method of "taming" her was suppressive, and locked her into a position she did not willingly want to be in. After she was tamed, she stopped speaking of her feelings and misgivings honestly, and suppressed them. In a relationship, the second most important thing is to be able to openly share and reveal your feelings, which is not what the play of this play shows. In the play, Kate is forced to suppress her feelings just to get food, or to be able to visit her friends and family. Petruchio "tames" Kate by rewarding her for being obedient, and punishing her when she disagrees with him.
The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, and has weathered well into our modern era with adaptations into popular television series such as Moonlighting. For all the praises it has garnered throughout the centuries, it is curious to note that many have considered it to be one of his most controversial in his treatment of women. The "taming" of Katherine has been contended as being excessively cruel by many writers and critics of the modern era. George Bernard Shaw himself pressed for its banning during the 19th century (Peralta). The subservience of Katherine has been labeled as barbaric, antiquated, and generally demeaning. The play centers on her and her lack of suitors. It establishes in the first act her shrewish demeanor and its repercussions on her family. It is only with the introduction of the witty Petruchio as her suitor, that one begins to see an evolution in her character. Through an elaborate charade of humiliating behavior, Petruchio humbles her and by the end of the play, she will instruct other women on the nature of being a good and dutiful wife.
The taming of the shrew focuses on the coming together of a couple to eventually be bonded in marriage, however there are obstacles to overcome. “Before I have a husband for the elder:” (I.i.51). Batista couldn’t not allow marriage to his younger daughter, whom was more beautiful and mild manner. Another obstacle was the fact Kate was difficult to get along with and wasn’t well like by others. “I know she is an irksome brawling scold:/If that be all, masters, I hear no harm (I.ii.184-185). As said by Petruchio to Gremio, Petruchio is warned by Batista Kate’s father to be ready for her unkind words when he meets her and has been warned by his friends, he takes it on as a challenge. “Now, by the world, it is a lusty wench;/I love her ten times more than e 'er I did:(II.i.160-161). Upon meeting Kate he woe’s her with his flatter and desire to marry her. Kate replies with insults and sarcasm. “Petruchio sees beneath Kate’s defensive shield of a sharp tongue into her true worth, and taming, transcending its offensiveness to modern sensibilities, is the process
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
She is not underscored by her subservience to petruchio in public, for "the sun breaks through the darkest cloud" and so do Katherine’s assets, though the public facade of subordination to her husband.
The Taming of the Shrew is one of the earliest comedies written by William Shakespeare. The Taming of the Shrew focuses a great deal on courtship and marriage. Especially the life after marriage, which was generally not focused on in other comedies. Notably, the play focuses on the social roles that each character plays, and how each character faces the major struggles of their social roles. Which plays into one of the most prevalent themes of The Taming of the Shrew. The theme of how social roles play into a person’s individual happiness. This is displayed through the characters in the play that desperately try to break out of the social roles that are forced upon them. This exemplified through the character, Katherine, an upper-class young maiden-in-waiting, who wishes to have nothing to do with her role.
William Shakespeare's comedy, The Taming of the Shrew illistrates the difficulty of trying to tame a headstrong, stubborn, and a high-spirited woman so that she will make a docile wife. The one attempting to tame Kate, the shrew, is Petruchio. They contend with each other with tremendous vitality and have a forced relationship. In contrast, there is another romantically linked couple who seemingly possess an ideal relationship. These young lovers, Bianca and Lucentio, share a love that is not grounded in reality, but in fantasy. These two sub-plot characters are stock characters and Shakespeare creates the irony of the play through the differences between the two couples. It is through his use of stock characters and irony that the differences between the two couples are revealed.
Bianca, the younger of the two sisters, wishes to be married to Lucentio, a rich man who her father approves and loves, but there is a problem. In Elizabethan times, the older sister must be married before the younger sister can be wed. Once Kate and Petruchio are married, Bianca and Lucentio are finally able to be together, and Kate is whisked away from her family to live with her new husband. It seems as though life in this household is a culture shock to Kate; she is not accustomed to living with multiple men in what is essentially an Elizabethan era bachelor pad. As all other Shakespearean men, Petruchio wants Katherine to wait on him hand and foot, but this lifestyle is not sufficient for Kate.
of the men who desired Bianca needed somebody to marry Kate, as it was customary