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Gender relations in taming of the shrew
Gender relations in taming of the shrew
Gender relations in taming of the shrew
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Ben Annakin Ms.Day English Honors 10 22 May 2017 Taming of the Shrew Theme Essay The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare’s is a comedy about marriage and Taming of the wife. This comedy highlights the themes of transformation, gender roles and marriage in the eyes for Shakespeare and his views of these topics. The comedy revolves around this event where these two suitors Gremio and Hortensio are pursing this. Beautiful women Bianca. Then comes along Lucentio who at the sight of Bianca instantly falls in love with her. The comedy goes on to show the crazy things they do to win her over and how to get rid of her ill tempered sister Kate.These themes play a major role and riddled throughout the comedy and help us understand the overall …show more content…
message of the play.m The first major theme was the theme of transformation of characters throughout the play both mentally as in personality and physical.This first quote is from Gremio talking to Baptista“l met, Signior Hortensio.Trow you whither I am going?
To Baptista Minola.I promised to inquire carefully about a schoolmaster for the fair Bianca, and by good fortune I have lighted well.On this young man, for learning and behavior ( ). This quote shows the transformation in a physical manner because Gremio played himself by trying to hire a tutor for Bianca and look like a good suitor while in reality he hired Lucentio who is also trying to woo Bianca over ,so his idea really bit him in the butt. This next quote is from Kate’s monologue “To painful labor both by sea and land,To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe,”(). This quote shows how Kate his mentally change and become tamed. She shows her appreciation for what her husband does for her and has become a lot less self-centered. This theme of transformation helps express his overall message to his audience that people will change because of their love for …show more content…
someone. The second theme Shakespeare highlights is gender roles and how gender played a huge part in how man are the ones pursing the women and how everything revolves around the mans needs not the women's.
This first quote is from Lucentio talking to Traino “In the other’s silence do I sue the maid’s mild behavior and sobriety, peace Traino”(). This quote shows what a men is looking for in a women during this time period. Lucentio is complementing how quiet and obedient she is to Baptista and how this makes her a great wife. The other quote is Grumio “Katherine the crust. A title for a maid of all titles the worst”(). This shows how Grumio has no respect for women and thinks he may talk about them in dirty ways. He treats her as something less then him almost as a second class citizen and she is inferior to him. Both of these quotes display how women of this day are expected to serve their men and the good qualities of women are being silent and listening to their husband. Shakespeare included this in his play to show this is how women and make it easier to better understand his overall message and why men are the ones doing must of the
changing. The last major theme form this play is marriage and how marriage worked in this time. How marriage is more of a business and a financial situation and how love isn't always the top priority when considering who to marry. This quote is from Baptista talking to Traino dressed as Lucentio “Now I play a Merchant’s part and venture madly on a desperate mart”(). What Baptista is saying here is basically I'm playing banker and for the most part he is only concerned with the dowry money. Shakespeare is showing how marriage is messed up back then and it is a finically move not a love one so Kate will have to learn to love. The second quote is from Petruchio“I come to wive it wealthily in Padua ;If wealthily, then happily in Padua. In this quote Petruchio is being blunt and saying I'm marrying for the money basically. That is marriage will not make me full of joy because of love but out of money. This theme of marriage shows how marriage is not a bond of love but a finically move for both families. Shakespeare wants to display this theme to shown deception that is going on in marriage and how marriage money and power grab. In conclusion, Shakespeare’s Taming of the shrew is a comedy about how crazy marriage is. He displays these themes of transformation, gender roles and, marriage to show his greater message deception and how things aren't always how they seem. He does this by showing how people dress up in costume and change their identity and by this idea of marriage and how it is suppose to be about love but is truly just about money. Lastly he uses gender in marriage to allude to the fact that marriage really isn't a man loving a women and a women loving a man but rather it is all up to the man and what is best for him.
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.
William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is an interesting story that demonstrates the patriarchal ideas of how a marriage is suppose to be according to society, what is acceptable of a woman's role in a relationship. It's a story that has many things to show for it's been remade, and remade, even slightly altered to better relate to the teenage audience.
“The Taming Of The Shrew” by William Shakespeare is a work of satire created to criticize the misogynistic outlooks of the 16th century. With this play, Shakespeare is trying to say that the idea and role of women in his society is deeply flawed and should be fixed, as well as to make other social commentaries, such as on the treatment of servants. Through exaggeration and parody, Shakespeare makes society look silly.
"Women have a much better time than men in this world; there are far more things forbidden to them." -Oscar Wilde. This quote embodies the fight over gender roles and the views of women in society. Taming of the Shrew deals with Kate and Bianca, two sisters who are at the time to he married off. However, suitors who seek Bianca as a wife have to wait for her sister to be married first. Kate is seen as a shrew because she is strong willed and unlike most women of the time. In his 1603 play The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare enforces traditional gender roles and demonstrates how little say women had in society. He accomplishes this through the strong personality of Kate, Baptista 's attitude towards his daughters as transactions, and
Katherine and Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew. & nbsp; The Taming of the Shrew brings out the comedic side of Shakespeare. where irony and puns carry the play throughout. In my paper, I will. concentrate on the irony of the play, the introduction of the two. sisters. These two sisters begin off with the elder, Katherine, viewed as. a shrew, and Bianca as the angelic younger of the two. However, as the play proceeds, we begin to see the true sides of the two sisters and their roles totally turn around. I will try to analyze the method in which Shakespeare introduces the two sisters and how he hints at their true identity.
The Taming of the Shrew written by William Shakespeare depicts the common roles of men and women in the early seventeenth century. Shakespeare writes of Petruchio and Kate, a male and female who sharply oppose each other. Petruicho must "tame" his wife Kate without breaking her true inner spirit.
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 tribulation's which present themselves in their everyday lives. The characters bring up a traditional concept of male domination. Through the play we see the need for domination through Petruchio, and the methods he uses to dominate. While these ideas of male domination have remained a constant throughout the years, however recently there has been a change toward equality.
In Shakespeare time, marriage was seen as a wealthy and social commitment and didn’t involved love. In the Elizabethan Era, women were believed to be inferior to men and were expected to obey men without exceptions. Marriage was seen as business relationships were money was involved, this explained the relationship between men and women and their interests in marriage. Marriages between wealthy families were very common in that time, and were expected to increase the family fortune. For marriage women were expected to have their own ‘dowry’ which in that time was their money and properties they inherited after marriage. However, in their marriage the women lose all their possessions and came to be their husband’s properties. A good example of a marriage done by social commitment is the marriage between Petruchio and Katherina. The only reason Petruchio wants to be with her is because of her money. As a result this shows how men show no romance towards women.
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 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 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 at attitude to repulsive clothing. Carefully and calculatingly, Petruchio forges a relationship that is envied by all who witness it.
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.
The Taming of the Shrew examines gender roles and patriarchy and how they are depicted in sixteenth-century relationships. In the sixteenth century, certain duties were expected of both man and wife. Men were expected to be the dominant figure and women as submissive. Men held all power in relationships and marriages, while women were expected to answer to them.
Ever since people started to settle into their way of living, certain expectations over a certain culture is shaped by what the elders pass down. Over generations, the culture slowly changed yet it shapes to what makes society for what it is and what is expected to come from people in that certain time period. So how does this change occur within these generations? In The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, it becomes evident that the older generation influences the younger generation and proves what is expected from its time, especially when it comes to family.