The Construction of Femininity In Taming of The Shrew

The Construction of Femininity In Taming of The Shrew

In Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare tells the story of two sisters

with conflicting personalities representing constructions of

femininity. I will be looking at the different constructions of

femininity throughout the play and the different ways a female can be

constructed through illusion.

At the start of the play, a tinker called Sly has a trick played upon

him. The trick is a trick of illusion, making him believe he is a

lord. He is told he has a mock wife. However, The fact that his 'wife'

is the ultimate deception being a boy. Shakespeare constructs the text

so that you can guess that it is a boy dressed as a girl from the

comments he makes about the suggestive remarks that Sly makes to Page.

Sly's wife is illusory as is our communes of the two women. This is

also a hint of what they might be seeing in the play that follows, is

also in illusory. The play could be seen as Shakespeare discussing

what really constitutes femininity and what is illusory.

Katherine and Bianca in the main play eventually appear to be

deceptive as well as the "Wife" Sly story. The story constructs the

appearances of both women through the men's words, giving you a idea

of how both women are seen through men's eyes. The descriptions show

the extent of how both women are locked into their identity that has

been constructed for them, for example, Act 1 Scene 2; the

conversation with Hortensio and Petruchio is discussing the two

sisters.

'And wish thee a shrewd ill-favored wife?

Thou'd thank me but a little'

Hortensio believes that Katherine is not suitable for his friend.

Petruchio believes that none is ever bad, they are always unbind from

the spell, he refers...

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...ianca and Hortensio who marries a widow, both

abused Kate saying she was a shrew and not a good figure to marry.

Both men however end up with shrewish wives and are both socially

mockable and degraded. Petruchio, by having Kate come to him is

elevated in social status by comparison. But equally so is she. She is

seen to be the socially preferable and she gets her revenge on the men

who constructed her as shrewish at the beginning.

Shakespeare has ended the play just how the Sly story begins at the

start of Taming of The Shrew. The introduction Scene 2 shows Page

dressing up as Sly's obedient 'wife' and that is just how the play

ends with Kate the obedient wife of Petruchio. However Kate is a real

wife of a real man who has managed to tame her into a socially

acceptable figure but also he is just the way she was which was the

figure he fell in love with.