The Shrew Gender Roles

:

Throughout The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare manipulates mostly female gender roles of the time period. Kate is a prime example of his commentary, because she swings, through the duration of play, from one extreme of femininity to the other, from extreme outspokenness to extreme submissiveness. The ideal role of a woman is clearly laid out at the beginning of the play, when Gremio and Hortensio are pining for Bianca, yet Baptista tells them, “That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter/ Before I have a husband for the elder” (I.i.12). Shakespeare mocks, from the beginning, the societal norm that an older daughter should be married off before the younger, as it’s just so shameful for a woman to be unloved and unwed. Bianca, at the start

A woman—namely the wives of significant male characters in the play, Kate, Bianca, and the widow—is still supposed to be quiet, visually appealing, and amicable. The criticisms of Hillary Clinton, that she should smile more, stop yelling so much, and that a woman is too emotional to be an effective president, that one might often hear in the news during this 2016 presidential election, are proof enough that women just aren’t women if they aren’t properly submissive and quiet, and the stereotype that all females are emotional. This is shown in the book in the induction, when the Lord is attempting to fool Christopher Sly, and tells one of his servants, “And if the boy have not a woman’s gift/To rain a shower of commanded tears,/An onion will do well for such a shift” (Induction.ii.5). I would argue that these stereotypes are not accurate but are nevertheless relevant; not every woman is emotional, and they shouldn’t be told to quiet themselves for the sakes of others. Likewise, a man is not a man unless he is big, strong, unemotional, and the breadwinner of any relationship. Do you know many stay-at-home dads? Men are called weak for playing a traditional woman’s role. Petruchio and the other men in the play are always telling Kate to be more feminine and quiet, and the time period wouldn’t allow a woman to make money for herself, so that was up to the men, and while the men

Kate and Bianca were laughably different in personalities, both at the beginning and end of the play, as they seem to switch places somehow, once married. They ended up in two completely different relationships as well, Kate in one with a man just as fiery as she, and Bianca with one as seemingly mild as she. One was loving, the other was a business contract. Switching back and forth between the two stories emphasized the strange situations that each couple was in. How did it go unnoticed and then so easily forgiven that Lucentio and Tranio switched places, and that the pedant was allowed to play Vincentio for so long? Kate and Petruchio’s relationship was the focus of the play, and the most outrageous; though cruel, it is vaguely comedic to a modern audience—and far more so for an audience in Shakespearean times—when Petruchio starves Kate and pretends “That all is done in reverend care of her” (IV.ii.59). Now, they are humorous for the same reasons. Every romantic relationship is different, and many aren’t set in perfect circumstances. It’s just so fun to giggle about your friends’ dates in high school because of the awkwardness associated with romantic