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Male dominance in the hamlet
Women in Shakespeare tragedy
Women in Shakespeare
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In Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, it is very arguable to say that it could either be an anti-romantic play or a romantic play. In my interpretation of this play, I think that it could be construed as a very unromantic and misogynistic play, with nothing based off love and only money and pettiness. Shakespeare proves this countless amount of times in this play by displaying Petruccio and Lutencio’s points of views towards the women that they marry. This play was upmost very unromantic and this paper gives light to how these men mistreated women throughout this theatrical production. Katherina is a perfect character that displays how unromantic this play is, Katherina is a very troubled person in this play, she is as they call the “shrew”. …show more content…
In the scheme of things women are still told to shut their mouths and hold back their opinion’s so they do not come off as annoying or unattractive. A perfect example of this would be the movie adaptation of this play, 10 Things I Hate About You. In this movie, you have the same characters like Katherina and Bianca except in a high school setting. Katherina is still seen as a shrew for not holding back her tongue and she is penalized for it. Unlike this play, 10 Things I Hate About You is romantic and these characters’ result in loving relationships instead of the alternative, of how the Taming of The Shrews relationships are based off money. Furthermore; multiple times throughout this play, language is used to show that women are inferior to men. In the final scene of the play Petruccio and Lurencio finally win Kate and Bianca over but it takes “taming" and money to get them; nevertheless, very unromantic. These marriages in this play lack all senses of finding love, Lurencio is simply infatuated with Bianca and even makes a bet on her to see who can have her, he also seems to be more interested because of her dowry. Since women had to be tamed and paid for, this reveals that women were like objects to these men, that are bought and not …show more content…
It doesn’t stop there either; these marriages are based purely off convenience. At the end of the day Katherine is supposed to marry a man so she is taken care of, there was no love there. The only character in this play that at least had a semi romantic marriage was Bianca and that was based off the fact she was quiet and beautiful, which is very superficial. This has nothing to do with love or romance. Not only this, the only reason Katherina was getting married in the first place was purely for the fact that she had to so Bianca could get married. Furthermore, she was tricked because Petruchio didn’t want to marry her at all, it was all about convenience for Bianca. The two relationships in this play that were supposed to be romanticized, are awfully sorrowful in many ways Moreover, Petruchio only has a financial interest in women in general, which is shown many times during this play. Petruchio makes his objectives obvious when he asks Hortensio if he knows of a suitable bachelorette with a rich dowry: “If thou know / One rich enough to be Petruchio’s wife, / As wealth is burden of my wooing dance… / I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; / If wealthily, then happily in Padua.” (1,2.). For Petruchio, it is all about the dowry he is about to inherit, further proving that this play is upmost
Dorabella, like Eve, falls for the deception easily, but Fiordiligi, like Adam, is a bit more resilient but gives in when, Dorabella the Eve says it is harmless to Fiordiligi. Both of the women could not help themselves; the desire overcame the “love”. Deception is continuous in this play. Even Despina the maid is in disguise to help the men for her own desire of money. Don Alfonso was the one that urged, that tempted the two young men’s minds of whose “love” was more pure and faithful.
Women in the Elizabethan era were presented as very obedient to their husbands and respectful to them also. They had no power and no say, they were treated badly and nothing would be done to stop the behaviour. In modern society most women have as much say as the men, they are not expected to stay at home and clean etc, and instead they go to work as well. Some women are like Katherina before she was supposedly tamed, very out spoken, yet inequality still exists.
In the beginning of the play, Katherine resembles a shrew due to her rude remarks and actions towards others. For example, Kate builds up jealousy and ties up Bianca then strikes her. Questioning with envy Kate asks, “Of all thy suitors here I charge [thee] tell whom thou lov’st best. See thou dissemble not” (2.1.8-9). Kate reflects a
"That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter Before I have a husband for the elder. " (Lines 50 and 51) Here we have an example of how the father is dictating the future of his daughter's in a way that would not happen in today’s Western society. In view of the strict rules surrounding love and marriage, such as formal courtship and chaperoning, Lucentio has to pretend to be a schoolteacher in order to get close to Bianca with whom he has fallen in love. "You will be schoolmaster, And undertake the teaching of the maid- That's your device." (Act 1 Scene 1, lines 193-195) Today it is unlikely that a young man would need to go to these lengths in order to woo a girl.
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.
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.
It captured the essence of the characters that he created but with a more modern twist. Julia Stiles, as Kat Stratford, provides the tough exterior necessary to play the “shrew.” She does not care about what other people think and is resistant to love much as Shakespeare intended. Kate, in the play, conveys a sarcastic tongue much like Kat does in the movie. In the end, Julia Stiles captures Kat’s “taming” as she admits to being in love with Patrick.
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.
In Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew the elements of farce are exemplified in terms of character, plot, and writing style. The stereotyped characters in The Taming of the Shrew are typical of a farce. Katherina is an outstanding example of a farcical character. Katherina, although stereotyped as a boisterous shrew, can be portrayed as a person needing sympathy due to Baptista's favoritism. The quote, "She is your treasure, she must have a husband: I must dance barefoot on her wedding day…" (A. II S. 1 L. 36-37), makes it obvious that Baptista favors Bianca. In terms of plot, Shakespeare devises the plot to resemble a situation comedy. Although the subplot is more romantic, both the subplot and the main plot revolve around the principle of a favoristic father who is outwitted by his child and her lover.
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.
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.
The story is about two sisters Katherine and Bianca. Bianca has a suitor who would like to marry her, Lucentio, but the only way that he will be able to marry her is if her older sister is married first. When Petruccio arrives to Padua he agrees to court and marry Katherine because she will provide a lovely dowry. Rumor has it that Katherine is a cynical, unruly, and extremely unpleasant female. Bianca on the other hand is the typical image of a lovely woman, beautiful, soft-spoken, and very feminine.
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.
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.
Due to the patriarchal society of the Elizabethan era, women were expected to succumb to men and follow their orders. Shakespeare created Katherina in order to challenge Elizabethan society’s view that a dominant woman was a symptom of disorder . She has little respect for men and speaks bluntly A prime example of this is when she tells Hortensio that she will, “Use you like a fool.” Katherina employs the use of mockery, violence and a rhyming couplet in order to indicate her disdain of Hortensio. The simile also serves to demonstrate that she does not...