Gender Roles In The Taming Of The Shrew

Katherine Minola is a character who is pivotal to the progression of the exposition in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. The dynamic Kate faces everything from being unsolicited and undesirable by men, being forced into marriage, and falling in love with someone who undoubtedly mistreats her from the beginning. Being tossed and thrown from one end of the spectrum to the other allows room for drastic change in attitude, values, and behavior. There is much evidence of a revolution of character in Baptista’s daughter and Petruchio’s wife, Katherine. Reader’s can follow the transformation of an untamable shrew of society to a well loved and respectable woman figure of the upper class.

The final line of the play, which states, “‘Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so (Act 5. sc. 2 line 206) ,” reveals Katherina’s strength as a woman once more as she was believed to be untameable for any man due to her previously defiant nature. Nevertheless, the statement also conveys how she betrayed her values as a strong woman and developed to be a proper wife of the Elizabethan era. As is explicitly portrayed through Taming of the shrew, the authority and supremacy of men often result in overpowering strong women to

In specific regards to obedience, Katherine’s forthright nature and defiance of her father clearly put her ahead of her time in The Taming of the Shrew. Since women were supposed to act subservient and dutiful to their male counterparts such as their fathers and husbands, Katherine undermines this belief by simply being unpleasant. Not only is Katherine referred to as “curst Katherine”(1.2.185), but she is also the

Once more, the female voice is forcibly silenced, and encouraged to remain so for the sake of polite society. Katherina is therefore quite refreshing as a character and example. Unfortunately, Kate does succumb to the taming though, delivering a final monologue conveying her willingness to be obedient. Despite what Becon has to say about marriage, this ending was still met with contention by Elizabethan audiences and, a play titled the The Woman’s Prize, Or The Tamer Tamed by John Fletcher was produced in response to Taming. It provides a clear answer to Shakespeare’s inquiry on marriage by serving justice to Petruchio a few years after the events of Taming (Petzold, 1).

In Act II, scene I, two marriage proposals occur that are economic. The […] emotional connect between the women and their love interest contracts made by their father” (Women and Power par.1). Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, comes searching for his fortune. His friend Hortensio tells him that he knows the right woman, but the obstacle is that she is the worst shrew. However, Petruchio does not care. He is sure that he can handle the situation, as long as she has a large dowry. Petruchio’s […] attraction for Kate and Baptista’s requirement that he woo his daughter change the nature of their relationship from a business proposal to one of attraction and, possibly, affection the relationship” (Women and Power par.1). Similarly, Baptista asserts that whoever can "assure my daughter greatest dowery / Shall have my Bianca’s love” (2.1.364-365). The oddly possessive “my Bianca’s love” highlights the patriarchal

Petruchio’s nature in the play comes across as brutish and dominating, not as a romantic suitor courting the brash Kate. But, this is where an in-depth reading of the story has to come into play. This is a story that cannot be taken at face value. Instead, it has to be read with the understanding that this is not a soppy love story, but one where there’s an intertwining of two bold personalities through rather peculiar methods. Shakespeare is depicting a relationship true to Elizabethan times with a

Kate exemplifies women as she is berated in terms of being silenced, physically abused, and brainwashed throughout the course of the play. The tragedy about her force into submission is that Kate is a strong-willed girl. Kate’s strong willingness is unacceptable in the town of Padua where she resides. To the residents of Padua, including her father, Kate is nothing more than a shrew: a bad tempered, defiant, “fiend of hell” whom no man could ever desire as a wife (1.1.90). The only man who steps up and offers to Kate as a bride is Petruchio.

For example, the story itself revolves around making Kate obedient (hence the title name, Taming of the Shrew). Women were expected to be obedient and listen to the man’s every command. Any sign of individuality from a woman was snuffed out. This can be observed by Kate in her final speech: “Such duty as the subject owes the prince even such a woman oweth to her husband; and when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour, and not obedient to his honest will, what is she but a foul contending rebel” (V.II.161-165). Kate implies that home is like a mini-kingdom, which gives belief to the idea that unruly wives/subjects threaten the fabric of the family structure.

This was usually arranged and seen as a way to make some money and not at all beneficial to the woman, meaning modern audiences would be appalled by this behaviour! The women in the relationship were powerless while the man had all the power. She was to be his possession and to do whatever he wishes. Nowadays there is a lot of controversy about how females should be treating equally and have the same rights as the males do. If a modern audience was to watch this play, I think there would be a be a lot of disagreement towards the way that the male got to treat the woman once he had married her. When I was watching The taming of the Shrew, I thought that the way Petruchio was treating Kate was totally unacceptable, but this was tragically customary in Shakespeare’s time.

The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare is about a mean screw name Katherine who becomes tamed by the end of the novel. Katherine fought her husband until the very end. One might say that she became tamed because she had no choice. Another theory could be that Kathrine tamed herself but one thing is certain that without the primary character changing in some way by the experience of the story, the story has less meaning. Katherine sees herself in Petruchio's behavior and they both become tamed in relation to how they were acting prior to marriage.

Katherina is a woman living back in the 1500s, with no equality when it came to women vs man, and barely having a handful of choices when it came to her life, forwarding many centuries later there is Kat, a teenage girl who lives in modern day society, with choices, but no acceptance for herself. The Taming of the Shrew is a comedic play that reflects what the gender roles were like in the 1500s. While 10 Things I Hate About You is a spinoff of the aforesaid play but with a different take on what gender roles are because it is now uncommon in current times. In Katherina’s time period, it was normal for a woman to get married, stay and take care of the home and obey the husband while he went to work. However, in this century, gender roles have

I go through, rushing around the backstage set as I read over my script. They had called me in early due to this emergency. I moved hastily through wardrobe in preparation to go on. The producers tell me we have contact with a few of our reporters out on the field and what they are telling us is horrific. The gruesome details the reporters used to describe the attack were blood curtailing, with each word sending another chill down your spine.

When being who you are is seen as a shrew, everyone around you will believe you need to change or be tamed. Because Kate is know for her sharp tongue Petruchio believes she ends to be tamed. The gender stereotypes in Shakespearean days cause Kate to be treated poorly, emotionally harmed by Petruchio, and eventually robbed of her true personality. Initially in Shakespeare’s day, women’s characters in a play are played by men and women re not treated as equals. In these days, women re inferior to men which is one of the many reasons Kate is considered possession in Petruchios mind. Petruchio believes “women are made to bear, and so are you” (195). Petruchio is only marring Kate for heath and he claims that he is the only person who could possible tame her. When the men who are women are acting, hey are instructed to speak a certain way. Rosenberg states women characters are to speak with a “soft low tongue and low courtesy” (Bloom 2010). Speaking quietly in Shakespeare's day means obedience to command. Arthurs

One of the most notorious topics of interest in the works of Shakespeare is the role women receive in his plays. The way Shakespeare wrote his plays, women were very submissive to men and had no will and choice of their own. Women were extremely reliant upon the men in their lives, believing that they were inferior and thus following their desire for the women’s lives. This included that marriages were usually arranged by a powerful male, instead of giving the woman the opportunity of choosing marriage for love. It is not surprising that Shakespeare portrayed women in a way that was familiar to him and the time era in which he lived. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Taming of the Shrew, both focus on the development of love and not, with

In Shakespeare's comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare has a woman as one of the story's main characters. Katherine Minola (Kate) is off the wall, and kinda crazy. Because of her actions, the “male centered world” around her doesn't know what to do with her.