In William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, it is an epic battle of the sexes. In the era that this play was written (Elizabethan), women were told what to do, how to act, and who to be. That is why Katherine is such a fascinating yet confusing character in this play. In this piece, the protagonist Kate is very complex and has many different, unique sides to her personality, which is frowned upon in this time. Before Katherine even spoke in this play she was this horrible, shrewish girl. When introduced to Katherine at the beginning of the play she is a smart mouth girl with a horrible temper. She is not afraid to freely express herself which often leads to her being very outspoken or violent. After meeting her husband (that only wanted to wed her because of the dowry he would receive) those characteristics begin to change. It is only then that we start to see a much softer, pleasant side to Kate. It is Petruchio who provokes her slow, but sincere transformation. She becomes more “tame” as some would say and without a doubt, Katherine goes through a very large attitude change. At the end of the play, Kate’s friends and family are appalled by her miraculous change. They believe that Petruchio is the reason for this. And although Petruchio did go through many obstacles to tame Kate, it was love that truly tamed her. Kates character was written in the Elizabethan time. During this time the women were no more than a piece of property to men. The main job of women is to
I must and will have Katherine to my wife. (Act 2, Scene 1, Page 13)
Katherina may be a shrew, but Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew does not truly show a study of how a selfish, spoilt individual is made to conform to society’s expectations, or be tamed into a ‘proper’ woman. At the end of the play, Katherina is not, necessarily, tamed - she just realizes what she must to do in order to get the things she wants. Two main examples of her submitting to Petruchio in order to achieve her desires are in Act 4, scene 5, (the sun versus moon scene) as well as Act 5, scene 2 (the kiss me kate scene and her final monologue).
The Taming of the Shrew, written by William Shakespeare, is historical proof that flirting and temptation, relating to the opposite sex, has been around since the earliest of times. Because males and females continue to interact, the complications in this play remain as relevant and humorous today as they did to Elizabethan audiences. This is a very fun play, full of comedy and sexual remarks. It's lasting impression imprints itself into the minds of its readers, for it is an unforgettable story of sex, flirting, and happiness. The Taming of the Shrew remains as relevant today because of its relation to the age-old story of the battle of the sexes and dynamics of marriage, as well as the woman's struggle with both of these.
In the play Taming of the Shrew, written by William Shakespeare, many characters are reshaped and given new personality traits. Petruchio is known as being a cocky man who intends to help tame a shrewish young lady named Kate. There are many critics that believe Petruchio is solely obnoxious and a bully but through out his interactions with Kate it is shown that he truly cares about the well being of others. Of course at the beginning of Petruchio’s plan to tame a young lady he is acting off of his confidence and trying to impress those around him but this soon changes once he begins to interact with Kate. Petruchio proves that his ways have changed and he is only taming Kate to make her feel better about herself, “Petruchio uses psychological methods, not aggressive or barbaric ones, to tame Kate, which alls her to still be witty and intellectual, but also happily married, at the end of the play”(Natale,98). Petruchio truly believes that by taming Kate he is preforming a good deed and helping her accept herself in this process.
“When love speaks the voice of all the gods makes heaven drowsy with the harmony,” Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, scene II.
In the Shakespearian play: The Taming of the Shrew, deception is one of the major concepts. A tangled web is created in the play through deception of character behavior and the change between clothing and class. Most of the deception in the play have particular motives behind them and create dramatic irony. Shakespeare has used dramatic irony to create a comedic play.
The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, and has weathered well into our modern era. For all the praises it has garnered throughout the centuries, it is curious to note that many have considered it to be one of his most controversial in his treatment of women. The "taming" of Katherine has been contended as being excessively cruel by many writers and critics of the modern era. George Bernard Shaw himself pressed for its banning during the 19th century. The subservience of Katherine has been labeled as barbaric, antiquated, and generally demeaning. The play centers on her and her lack of suitors. It establishes in the first act her shrewish demeanor and its repercussions on her family. It is only with the introduction of the witty Petruchio as her suitor, that one begins to see an evolution in her character. Through an elaborate charade of humiliating behavior, Petruchio humbles her and by the end
Shakespeare wrote his plays without a thought that they would ever not be performed on stage. Many of Shakespeare’s plays have been performed since his death 400 years ago. And with time comes advances, as many of Shakespeare’s play have been adapted from text to film. Some films take Shakespeare’s original plot and twist it to be more modern, while others stick with the classic. In Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film version of The Taming of the Shrew, he recreates Shakespeare’s loved play. Although Zeffirelli stays close to Shakespeare’s original text, he does omit and add lines and scenes that weren’t originally in the play. Zeffirelli also adds body language and stage directions where they aren’t in the play. These directorial decisions change the way the romance looks between Katherina and Petruccio in the text. The relationship between the two characters in Zeffirelli 's film is attempted to be seen as more consensual than in the text.
William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is an interesting story that demonstrates the patriarchal ideas of how a marriage is suppose to be according to society, what is acceptable of a woman's role in a relationship. It's a story that has many things to show for it's been remade, and remade, even slightly altered to better relate to the teenage audience.
Also, Katherine herself apprehended the error of her ways, making the women feel sheltered and making the men feel self-assured about their dominant position in society. The audience presumably went home contented, because such a shrew was tamed, and could be tamed so well. Katherine’s soliloquy reinforced the moral values of the Elizabethan era, making the conclusion of the play more enjoyable and entertaining. The final scene of The Taming of the Shrew shows ”the triumph of the unconventional over the conventional”, it shows that Katherina and Petruchio’s marriage, which has started rather unconventionally, seems to have better chances of being a happy. Shakespeare speaks out in clearly favors of the unconventional concept of love present in the relationship between Petruchio and
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.
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
One of the many factors that William Shakespeare implements throughout all of his comedic plays is the element of disguise and trickery. This element is shown through his works of As You Like It, Taming of the Shrew, and Twelfth Night. The primary purpose for using disguise and trickery is for deceit. The deception involved with changing characters’ identities is used for momentary gain. In the end, the concluding outcome of such deceit leads to exposure of a higher truth. The characters most closely involved with these occurrences of deceit normally acquire something about themselves by the end of the play. Disguise is additionally used to generate misunderstandings, internal conflict between the characters, and the comedic component of the play.
William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew In the play the taming of the shrew I will be discussing about Katherine & Petruchio’s behaviour towards each other through words, body language and stage craft. In the Elizabethan times men kept women as possession the women had many hard times coping without freedom & limited to what they could do out side also women were accompanied by men at all times because they were thought as being vulnerable.
The most famous remakes of the of the 1500’s play, were Gil Junger’s 1999 adaptation ‘10 Things I Hate About You’, and Franco Zeffirelli’s 1967 version of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. Both films show elements of similar society ideologies, such as masculinity and femininity which are portrayed through the main characters; Katherine, Kat, Petruchio and Patrick. Some characters show signs of severe misogynistic characteristics, for example, as the dominant Petruchio ‘tames’ the dominant Katherine until she is submissive. To help corroborate with this is the quote “For I am be born to tame you Kate, And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate. Conformable as other household Kates.” This quote proves that he believes Katherine should be like other females and that he wants to control her until she composes to his