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Taming of the Shrew Paper
Gender roles have normally been dominated by men, with women unwillingly submitting to them. In William Shakespeare’s, The Taming of the Shrew, this idea is presented with the characters Kate and Petruchio. Kate brings about a new attitude of women becoming dominant that is not accepted by Petruchio or the rest of society. Without any support to help her, Kate is unable to keep her own character and conforms to be an obedient wife. In the play Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare uses the character Kate to display men’s power to break down a woman’s confidence and to portray the patriarchal relationship in marriages of the time. Kate proves to be a dominant and strong woman in the beginning of the
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Kate loses her dominant nature after she is married and becomes an obedient, loving wife. Some others oppose the idea that Kate is changed for the worse, but rather they believe that she is in a mutual relationship. Henze describes it as, “That distinction between a practical joke and the comedy very of life is evident... and Kate, who is well-suited for her role as the obedient wife at the end of the play...” (391). Truly, Kate is not “well-suited” for her role, but is rather forced to become her role. If it were up to her, Kate would continue to live unmarried, but she is instead pushed into marrying Petruchio. Kate learns things from her husband that she later tells other women at his command. After Kate is summoned by Petruchio at her sister Bianca’s wedding, she is asked to repeat what Petruchio has taught her with which she announces, “To watch the night in storms, the day in cold, / Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe, / And craves no other tribute at thy hands / But love, fair looks, and true obedience - Too little a payment for so great a debt” (Shakespeare 166-70). Despite Kate’s true thoughts on marriage that she exhibits throughout the play, she tells the other women the things that her husband has asked her to tell. In the end, Petruchio “wins” with himself being the head of the relationship. He gains what all other men want; an obedient wife who will submit to anything he
The relationship between Kate and Petruchio is completely different from the love of Bianca and Lucentio. "Kate is a neglected, hurt, and humiliated daughter who disguises her grief from herself as well as others with a noisy shrewish temper" (Craig 342). She has a fiery disposition and a reputation for reacting violently to people. The challenge of capturing her is Petruchio's real attraction to her. He can be seen as a rough, unfeeling, greedy, "swash-buckler" who cares nothing for Kate's feelings (so long as she has money). "
Petruchio wears the psychological mask of a guy who only has eyes for money. He makes his mask clear to the reader when he tells Hortensio to “wife wealthily” adding “you don’t know the power of gold.” after being told about Katherina’s bad behavior, not to mention her temper. It appears that Petruchio marries Kate for her money, but immediately starts to “kill her with kindness”. He begins going so by depriving her of food and sleep because he claims that neither the food from the kitchen nor the bed is good enough for her. Petruchio puts on a show of bad temper towards his servants for every fault, showing Kate what it is like to live with a bad-tempered person. For the first time in her life, Kate finds herself trying to get someone else to control their anger. Petruchio also shows Kate that she will get the things she wants when she learns to agree with what her husband says. By treating Kate in this manner, Petruchio seems cruel, but there is a reason for it. If he were truly interested only in money, he could have left Kate at home and gone out on his own. In the end, his efforts to improve his wife have worked. He improves Kate’s life, so that she does not continue to live an unhappy life. Because of Petruchio, Katherina the shrew is happily married in the end, and comes to be a good example to
In Taming of the Shrew many of these events were particularly significant in terms understanding Kate’s disposition throughout the story. Kate’s character, being dynamic, goes through a very important inner change toward the end of story. At first, Kate was described as rude, sharp tongued, and stubborn. Kate was an envious woman who would punish her sister so she could get answers out of her. She would also yell at her father for not cherishing her as he did to her sister. This, however, changes when Kate meets Petruchio who, unlike others, has a tolerance for Kate. Petruchio successfully tames her to behave properly. His taming methods consisted of starving her, having her wear the clothes he likes and making her do things that were
The theme of gender is evidently explored in the Shakespearean play ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ through the relationship of Petruchio and Katherine. Gender solely determines power in the Elizabethan times. Women were expected to be obedient and submissive, they were not to have an opinion or voice. “If I be waspish,
In addition, Kate’s final monologue, also in Act 5, scene 2, tells the audience a lot; about the play itself, as well as the society in Shakespeare’s era. On face value, Kate’s final monologue seems to be a long lecture about serving your husband, no questions asked. “Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot, / And place your hands below your husband’s foot” (v, ii, lines 92-3, page 221). However, Shakespeare gave Kate the last word in the play, a sign of her consistent power and control. As well, her monologue can be perceived as quite ironic. Kate is aware of the beliefs about how women in the household should act and, as clearly portrayed throughout the entire play, the role Petruchio has been trying to get her to fill. By playing along fullheartedly with society’s expectations, in front of the large audience of guests, Kate becomes “truly tamed” - or just incredibly
In the Elizabethan era, was an era with a deeply rooted gender role that shaped the expectations put on English society of the time, that provided the background to “The Taming of the Shrew”. The disregard for women during the century shows the challenges faced by women and the general implications for relationships and societal structures. Petruchio's methods of "taming" Katherine exemplify how misogyny shapes the theme that transformations are not always genuine. When Petruchio insists, "I will be master of what is mine own; / She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house," (Act 3, Scene 2), he reveals the possessive nature ingrained in societal expectations.
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.
During the course of the entire play, all of the characters except Petruchio treat Kate with disrespect. Baptista, her father, is especially insensitive to his daughter's feelings. When Petruchio comes to inquire about Kate, he describes her as fair and virtuous woman. Her father neglects to acknowledge that it was possible that his daughter could have those fine qualities (II.i.42-63).
Katherine continues to tell them that any women who does not obey and follow their husbands then they are 'foul contending rebels'. Katherine’s speech is full of love and respect for Petruchio. Right from the moment she met Petruchio, it is unmistakable that she was intrigued by him, it could even have been love at first sight. They are very similar characters and they express their emotions by arguing and insulting each other but deep down they are in love. There are two explanations for Katherine’s final speech. One explanation is that Kate could be filled with so much love and affection for Petruchio that she will withstand his harsh treatments and cruel tests just to be with him. Another explanation is that Kate has admitted defeat by Petruchio and that she respects him and understands that he is now master. Kate always wanted to be married and at last she has, she is no longer the controller but has a strong husband to look after her and keep her in a her place. Finally the shrew has been tamed and at last she is married, and so it is a happy ending for
Kate and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew An exploration of the way Shakespeare presents the characters and relationships of Kate and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew. The relationship between Kate and Petruchio is central to the development of The Taming of the Shrew, as both characters clearly represent and are centrally involved in the main theme of the play, the taming of the "shrew", Kate.
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
Sexism is the stereotyping and discrimination based upon gender. Typically steered towards women, it has played a large part in not only our society today but in the past as well. In the play The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, it is shown in the treatment of the women by their male counterparts. It is most prevalent in the way that fortune-seeking Petruchio goes about taming his aggressive and sharp-tongued wife Katharina. By examining Petruchio’s actions and Katharina’s reactions towards his efforts at taming her, once can see that the play is indeed sexist.
Also, another leading character in the Merchant of Venice was controlled by her father, Jessica. But she couldn't be controlled, she eventually did what she wanted and proved to be a modern woman. Similarly, in the Taming of the Shrew, Kate is expected to marry the man her father, Baptista chooses and she has no freedom and choice of her own will. However, in the Taming of the Shrew, Kate is also being called property by her husband, Petruchio. Petruchio says that, "She is my good, my chattels, she is my house, My household stuff, my field, my barn, My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything;" Not only her father but her future husband doesn't respect her and calls her everything but his wife. Almost all of the woman in Shakespeare's play were treated as property, here you can see Portia and Kate, this clearly means that Shakespeare also agrees with this type of behaviour towards woman and that is why he always shows this behaviour towards the main female protagonists of the play. This type of behaviour towards woman was very common and both these plays have similarly shown how.
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.
In The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare reveals the flaws in gender and class roles by pointing out the flaws in when women always listen to men. For everyone that has strict parents or been in a relationship you understand these examples, the man(dad) is the boss, the women obey the man, and class roles are determined by society. Shakespeare challenges through many situations, the class and gender roles that are determined by society.