In Shakespeare's play “Taming of the Shrew”, the main character, Petruchio employs several different techniques to control the shrewish Katharina. At the beginning of the play, he deceives Katharina's father in order to marry her against her wishes. During the wedding, he humiliates her. After the wedding, he deprives her in order to control her. At the end of the play, Katharina's obedience to Petruchio's request proves that he has tamed Katharina.
Petruchio begins to tame Katharina by deceiving her father. When Petruchio and Katharina first meet, she rejects Petruchio's offer of marriage. She argues with him and hits him. In order to marry Katharina, Petruchio assures Baptista and Katharina's sister's suitors “...we have 'greed so well together, that upon Sunday is the
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wedding-day” eventhough Katharina accuses her father of not caring about her as he wishes “me wed to one half lunatic.” Despite Katharina's protests that she has not agreed, the others believe Petruchio's explanation that Katharina is affectionate in private but they have agreed that she will continue to “be curst in company.” Because “the company” have personal interests in Katharina marrying, Petruchio's deception succeeds. Next, Petruchio utilizes the tactic of humiliation. On the wedding, Petruchio mocks Katharina by arriving exceedingly late for the wedding. She rants “Now must the world point at poor Katharina, and say, 'Lo, there is mad Petruchio's wife, if it would please him come and marry her!'” When Petruchio finally arrives, he rides a horse and sports an outlandish costume of old and mismatched garments which Tranio describes as “unreverent robes.” During the ceremony, Petruchio “stamp'd and swore”, called for wine and “threw the sops all in the sextons' face.” After that, he kissed Katharina “with such a clamorous smack...all the church did echo.” Following the wedding, Katharina entreats Petruchio to stay for the bridal dinner. Petruchio insists that they both depart. Katharina angrily resists. He describes her as “his goods” and threatens to fight anyone who attempts to take her away from him. As the wedding couple exit, the guests jeer and jest that the pair are “madly mated.” Once at Petruchio's house, he further domesticates Katharina by depriving her of comforts.
The servants prepare a meal for them. When it arrives, he claims that the food lacks sufficient quality and throws it around the room. Katharina protests that “the meat was well.” However, Petruchio counters “for this night, we'll fast for company.” Then, he proceeds to find fault in the bed and removes the pillow, sheets and covers. He claims he does this “in reverend care of her.” In fact, his goal is “to kill a wife with kindness.” When Petruchio arranges for a tailor and haberdasher to outfit Katharina for her sister's wedding, Petruchio argues that the cap is “a cockle or a walnut-shell, a knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap” and insists on a bigger one. Katharina responds that “gentlewomen wear such caps.” Petruchio retorts “When you are gentle, you shall have one too.” They have a further disagreement about the gown. Katharina states “ I never saw a better-fashion'd gown” while Petruchio protests “he means to make a puppet of thee.” Because Katharina persistently opposes Petruchio, he deprives her of food, sleep and clothing while claiming these items are not prepared well enough for
her. At the end of the play, Petruchio justifies his methods. After he deceives her family and humiliates and deprives her, Katharina demonstrates obedience to her husband. Petruchio, Hortensio and Lucentio bet their wives will come to them when summoned. However, only Petruchio's wife complies. Futhermore, she brings the other two wives with her and berates them for their disobedience. Katharina displays her submission to Petruchio by placing her hand below her husband's foot “in token of which duty, if he please, my hand is ready; may it do him ease.”
Different Interpretations of the Relationship Between Kate and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew
In the play Taming of the Shrew, a man named Petruchio attempts to tame a mean spirited woman named Kate. Much to Kate's chagrin Petruchio convinces her father that Kate loves him so they will now be married. Through several maneuvers to try and squash Kate's pride, Petruchio is met with strong resistance at first when he finds she can equal him in verbal back and forth. The fact that Petruchio could match Kate surprises her as well. Eventually, Kate sarcastically gives in with her speech about the sun and moon on the way to her sister's wedding. Finally after all his calculating moves throughout Petruchio successfully breaks Kate's spirit which is evident in her final speech.
Kate and The Taming of the Shrew describes the progression of the outspoken and headstrong Kate, wife of Petruchio, as she gradually transitions into an almost perfect example of an archetypal loyal wife. This classic female archetype can be expressed through blind and ignorant support of their husband without any personal opinion or any priorities and objectives other than to satisfy the needs and desires of their husbands. While Kate begins possessing traits that oppose the loyal wife archetype due to her strong willed personality, her shift to obedience. However she continues to think with cunning strategy throughout the entire play, regardless of her weakened mental state caused by Petruchio limiting her food and sleep.
The Renaissance may have been a time filled with the revolutionary concepts but the people of this time still regarded woman as mere property. This milieu formed the Taming of the Shrew, a play about an outspoken Katherina who gets tamed into a “good wife” by Petruchio. “She [Good Wife] is the eye of wariness, the hand of labour, and the heart of love, a companion of kindness, a Mistress of Passion, an exercise of Patience, and an example of experience. “ (Good and Badde)The methods used by Petruchio, to tame her such as starving Kat, are not seen as revolt...
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
.... She now obeys what is asked of her by Petruchio like such as when she is told to lecture the other wives about how to be a good wife, “Katherina, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women, what duty they do owe their lords and husbands.” Without arguing and saying a word against what is asked of her she gives her advice, “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee.”
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 a labelled as a shrew may led 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 back then.
Petrucio enjoys verbal sport and a non-conventional sense of humor. Petrucio surrounds himself with neither tame nor conforming people. You can even see this in his servants. His servants like him very much and enjoy his entertainments. An example of this is when Petrucio and his servant man Grumio get into a disagreement about knocking on the gate. Reflective of this is Petrucio’s methods to “woo” Katherine. His methods are game like and outrageous. Such as when he beats up Grumio because Kate’s horse stumbles, or showing up late to the wedding. While showing Katherine how ridiculous she is about things, he is also making her feel special, which is something she never felt in life. He also says that “This is the way to kill a wife with kindness.” (IV,i 211) This is his courting method of when he makes the wife feel to good for everything surrounding her. When they eat dinner once he complains “Endanger choler planteth anger…. since of ourselves are choleric”. (IV, I 177) While Petrucio may not agree with what society has determined to be proper, he is aware of the importance to conform. He knows the ways of society and that he must demonstrate this to Katherine, who has no regard for public presentation.
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.
Taming of the Shrew: Male Domination. The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare, deals with marriage. The ideas explored are primarily shown through the characters of Petruchio and Katharina. We are introduced to the trials and tribulations which present themselves in their everyday lives.
The first Shakespeare play which Zeffirelli adopted to the cinema, The Taming of the Shrew, deals with the theme of gender roles. In a grander scale the play explores the behavior expectations of males and females both in society at large and within a domestic relationship. For many years, most critics agreed that the heart of the play suggested male domination and female submission, especially to the authority of their husbands, as the accepted male-female dynamic. This view went unchanged for many years and audiences widely accepted Petruchio's “taming” of Katherina as politically correct.
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
Katherine reveals this attitude in Act 2 Scene 1, lines 31-35, "nay, now I see she is your treasure, she must have a husband; I must dance barefoot on my wedding day, and for your love for her, lead the apes to hell." Talk not to me, I will sit and weep!.. " This anger is not concealed, it serves to provide motivation as to why a rational person would rebuke Petrucchio so rudely upon first encountering him. Katherine surely realizes that Petruchio is interested in her for ulterior motives other than love. Be it purse that the dowry will bring or the actions of an insincere lunatic who, "woo's a thousand.
During The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare has used pleasure and pain in order to tell the story of Petruchio and Katherina’s courtship. This is problematic for modern day audiences, as they do not find the courtship methods that Petruchio employs to woo Katherina particularly comical. However, it could be argued that Shakespeare crafted The Taming of the Shrew precisely for this reason, to feature his views on patriarchy and to make the audience see what was happening through a new perspective. The Elizabethan audience would have been shocked at the methods used in order to achieve the taming, even though it was well within a man’s right to discipline his wife if she was deemed unfit. From the very beginning of The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare indicates that this play will not follow traditional rules of decorum, and that it is intended to both give pleasure and cause pain in order to make both Elizabethan and modern audiences take note of his underlying message.