The Effectiveness of Shakespeare’s Linguistic Choices in Conveying the Power Struggle Between Katherine and Petruchio

The Effectiveness of Shakespeare’s Linguistic Choices in Conveying the Power Struggle Between Katherine and Petruchio

This essay will study the text ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ by William

Shakespeare. It is a play written in London in 1592 and published in

1623. The play is set during the Jacobean era (1420-1600). The purpose

of the play is to entertain an audience. The secondary purpose may be

to inform a modern audience about power and roles of men and women in

the Jacobean era. During this period of time, a person’s power was

shown by the language they used, so the more quick-witted and

articulate a person was in conversation the more social power they

held. Shakespeare uses various linguistic features in conveying the

power struggle between Katherine and Petruchio.

Throughout the play Petruchio belittles Katherine and damages the face

she presents of herself in an effort to ‘tame the shrew’. ‘Kath. A

joint-stool. Pet. Thou hast hit it. Come, sit on me.’ The face that

Katherine presents is not that of a typical woman. She is very

vituperative and unwilling to conform to society’s expectations of

marriage. And by using this sexual innuendo to counter her insult,

Petruchio performs a face threatening act. He reminds her of his

intent to marry her and the fact that to him, she is just another

woman. The utterance ‘Come, sit on me,’ is an imperative. By using

this Petruchio is suggesting that he feels he has enough power over

her to be able to order her around. This damages her positive face of

self-image, but she counters this insult in an effort to preserve her

face. ‘Kath. No such jade as you, if me you mean.’ The noun ‘jade’

refers...

... middle of paper ...

...he same

way so this would have been a pun, although a modern audience may have

trouble understanding this.

Throughout the play Shakespeare uses many effective linguistic

techniques to show the power struggle between Katherine and Petruchio.

The two characters are of equal intelligence and wit, and this shows

in conversation and how they are able to feed off of each others

words. ‘Pet. For knowing thee to be but young and light – Kath. Too

light for such a swain as you to catch.’ Katherine takes the adjective

‘light’ which Petruchio has used in a negative light and changes its

context to show her in a positive light. Both characters use this to

their advantage. Petruchio to show Katherine that he is equal to her

and able to ‘tame the shrew’ and Katherine to counter his proposal and

show that she does not want him.