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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
In William Shakespeare's comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare reveals Hortensio as having a degrading tone towards Bianca showing that he does not commend her. Shakespeare uses diction and syntax to depict the difference between true love, and the absurd love that men believe to be real in this play. The first way Shakespeare displays this tone is through the diction Hortensio uses as he is talking with Gremio about competing for love from Bianca. After Kate’s tantrum, Baptista explains to the suitors how they cannot marry Bianca until Kate is married. Hortensio exclaims to Gremio that, “he who runs fastest gets the / ring” (1.1.142-143). Here, Hortensio refers to Bianca as a ring. Him being the one that wishes to marry her, gives her the identity
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.
It seems that the key to a happy and successful marriage is money. This comedy written by Shakespeare uses disguises and that also is a key part to the play. Although it is intended to be a comedy, there is sometimes a black cloud hanging over it. For instance the way in which Katherina is treated doesn’t always seem to be funny; instead it is quite cruel and degrading. “She eat no meat today, nor none shall eat; last night she slept not, nor tonight she shall not.” (Page 62, act 4 scene 1 line 182-183)
A long time ago, a drunken man fell asleep outside an alehouse. This man, Christopher Sly, was discovered by a mischievous lord who took him into his home. The witty lord then convinced Sly that he was a lord, as well. The lord then put on a play for him. The play, The Taming of the Shrew, was about the two young daughters of Baptista. The youngest daughter, Bianca, wished to wed but her father, Baptista, would not allow this until his eldest daughter, Katherina, was married. Under normal circumstances, it would be easy to find a husband for Katherina with all her beauty, but all her beauty was covered by her shrewd personality. By this time Bianca's suitors were growing very impatient, so they decide to team up and find a husband for Katherina. In jest they mentioned their plan to a friend, Petruchio, who surprisingly agreed to marry Katherina. All her beauty and wealth were enough for him. Katherina reluctantly was wed to Petruchio and she was taken to his home to be tamed. With Katherina out of the way, Bianca was now allowed to marry Lucentio, who offered her father the highest dowry for her. In the final scenes of the play, Katherina proves that she is tamed by winning an obedience contest at a dinner party. Katherina is now even more in accordance with her wifely duties than Bianca. A fare is a type of comedy based on a ridiculous situation. The Taming of the Shrew, an eminent example of a farce, is the first of three farces written by Shakespeare.
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.
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.
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.
So we can see that the whole process of love and marriage starts off in quite a different way to how would today. There is also the financial aspect to consider. This played an enormous part in choosing a partner. Shakespeare makes it clear that young men in his time were not so concerned with finding love, but instead were looking for wealth. "I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; If wealthily, then happily in Padua."
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.
The second reason the bond survives is that Petruchio is strong enough to accept the fact that Katherine has a mind and, more importantly, he loves her for that reason. Petruchio cleverly weaves the relationship into the framework of society without compromising the integrity of the relationship. Petruchio does this by comparing Katherine’s attitude to repulsive clothing. Carefully and calculatingly, Petruchio forges a relationship that is envied by all who witness it. Called "cursed Kate" throughout the play, Katherine is openly jealous of the attention her sister is receiving, whereas she, because she speaks her mind, is being bypassed and even avoided in the wooing process.
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.
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.