Taming Of The Shrew Gender Roles

Have you ever heard of two stories in different time periods with characters following the same actions? This occurs in two different plays. Taming of the Shrew is a play written by William Shakespeare. In this play a high-class noble man, Petruchio, finds a woman, Katherine, he would like the marry but makes the decision to tame her as well. Pygmalion is a play written by Bernard Shaw. A low-class flower girl, Eliza, is taken in by a man who is willing to change Eliza into a proper lady. Petruchio and Higgins are basically the same characters. Some people may not think these two characters are the same because Higgins and Eliza do not fall in love and get married like Petruchio and Katherine do. In Pygmalion Higgins and Eliza do have

You have wounded me to the heart” (Shaw 80). This was said after Higgins and Eliza got into an argument and she threw a slipper at him. This is evidence that Higgins cares for Eliza as he tries to teach her at the same time. Petruchio and Katherine fall in love and do end up getting married. Although these things are true, the story line does change for the majority of the plays. The men are still trying to make their women better. One reason why they are the same is both men are trying to tame their women. In Taming of the Shrew, during the reception of the wedding Petruchio says to Baptista “If you knew my business, you would ask me to go rather than the stay” (Shakespeare 119). Petruchio is telling Katherine’s father if he knew that Petruchio was trying to tame Katherine as well as marry her, he would want Petruchio to leave. This is evidence that Petruchio has made the decision to go through

They are selfish, and arrogant. Petruchio is selfish by showing up late to his wedding, poorly dressed. “Gentlemen, I think you frown. Why does this good company gaze, as if they saw some wondrous monument, some comet or unusual wonder” (Shakespeare 113)? He shows up late and poorly dressed for the purpose of not letting society dictate only what he looks like and he is trying to show Katherine who the boss is here. Petruchio is not thinking of how poorly Katherine will feel, or how others may look at her. He is arrogant by thinking he is better than Gremio and Hortensio. “Tush, tush! You might as well frighten little boys with monsters” (Shakespeare 59). Petruchio says a long speech about him not caring what a woman looks like, how she talks, or how she acts. He is overly confident about being able to handle any women without being afraid of her. Higgins is very selfish when it comes to teaching Eliza how to speak proper English. “Come back to business. How much do you propose to pay me” (Shaw 27)? Higgins is only in it for the money at the beginning and only worried about how much he is going to get paid if he decides to teach Eliza. Higgins has a very arrogant attitude throughout the story. “But when I saw we were going to win hands down, I felt like a bear in a cage hanging about doing nothing” (Shaw 75). This was Higgins response to Pickering as he was discussing how well Eliza