The Taming Of The Shrew Essay

I must and will have Katherine to my wife. (Act 2, Scene 1, Page 13)

In essence, all Petruchio did was teach Kate not to be so brash and rebellious. He showed her how awful her actions looked, and on her own, she made the decision to change her demeanor. She could have remained bitter and feisty, but it would have been in vain, and I believe that she realized that her actions had been no worse than the vanity and shallowness she witnessed in the people of Padua.

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).

"Kate the curst" and "lusty wench" are just few of the many names used by the villagers to describe Katharina (Draper 93). Her sarcastic attitude and violent temper ruin all of her ladylike qualities. In order to tame her, Petruchio must act in the same manner in which Katharina acts. "Their war begins as mutual sexual provocation, which, after marriage, is replaced with childish tantrums" (Bloom 29). Petruchio plans to deprive her of what she is accompanied to, such as sleep and food; he does this in such a cunning manner in which she cannot possibly be mean to him, for he is acting the way in which she acts. Petruchio counterpoises his method of fighting fire with fire by constant praise of those

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.

This story also depicts that a woman is not suppose to be strong and opinionated. Kate is viewed by most suitors as undesirable because she speaks her mind and doesn't let the male population walk all over her (Dolan 32). She is very precautious of the intentions of the men that claim they would like to marry her. Throughout the story it's made clear that Petruccio's objective is to "tame" Kate so that she will be suitable to be a wife. It's not that it's in her nature to be mean but she has a different that on the role of a wife. She indeed believes that she should be good to her husband and do all that things that are expected of her but feels that it should be deserved. Her husband needs to be worthy of all of her affection and attention. Not only that, he needs to love her in such a way that makes her want to be a good woman to him (33).

In the story "Taming of The Shrew" by William Shakespeare, we see the daily life of characters living in the Italian town of Padua. In this story, Lucentio brings his servants, Biondello and Tranio, to Padua. Soon, Lucentio sees a beautiful woman named Bianca which shifts his focus. The only problem is that Bianca can't get married until Kate get married due to a rule made by their father, Baptista Minola. At first, this seems like it is not a possibility to Bianca, as Kate is considered the "Shrew" and seems to not want to change her ways. Although she acts like this at the beginning of the book, we begin to see big changes throughout the book. These changes occur because Kate is a dynamic character, and there are many examples to prove this.

In Act 5, Scene 2, lines 152-196, of The Taming of the Shrew, Katherine portrays her “transformation” from an undesirable shrew to an obedient wife as she depicts to Bianca and Widow the respect and loyalty that a woman’s “lord, life, [and] keeper” deserves (162). After being encouraged by Petruchio, whom had recently placed a bet with Lucentio and Hortensio on whose wife would be the most obedient, to lecture the two women on their wifely responsibilities, she remarked on the harsh burdens of a man compared to the composed lifestyle of a woman. While Lucentio and Hortensio were lead to believe that Petruchio finally tamed Katherine into a devoted and subservient wife, the reality was that her words were full of hidden sarcasm; the shrew was

   William Shakespeare's comedy, The Taming of the Shrew illistrates the difficulty of trying to tame a headstrong, stubborn, and a high-spirited woman so that she will make a docile wife. The one attempting to tame Kate, the shrew, is Petruchio. They contend with each other with tremendous vitality and have a forced relationship. In contrast, there is another romantically linked couple who seemingly possess an ideal relationship. These young lovers, Bianca and Lucentio, share a love that is not grounded in reality, but in fantasy. These two sub-plot characters are stock characters and Shakespeare creates the irony of the play through the differences between the two couples. It

In the beginning, a lot of what we learn about Kate comes from what other people say about her. In Act I, she is only seen briefly and she speaks even less, but our picture of Kate is pretty clear. Shakespeare, sets up a teaching lesson, helping us to see the mistakes of our own judgment. When Baptista announces that Kate must marry before Bianca may take suitors, Gremio describes Kate by saying "She's too rough for me" (1.1.55). Later in the scene, Gremio reiterates his

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 the play, Taming of the Shrew, we experienced a glimpse of stereotypical life in Shakespearean time with male dominance and expectations. The play introduced us with the main characters Petruchio, Kate, Bianca, Baptista, Lucentio, and Hortensio. Petruchio came to Padua to marry the “shrew of the city” Kate. As the story progresses, we notice how Petruchio tries to tame the shrew by himself being a much greater shrew. Petruchio would always have to be the correct one when it came to a discussion with Kate, even when he was obviously incorrect.

“The Taming of the Shrew” is about the spoilt, aggressive daughter of Baptista, a rich man of Padua, Katherina and how her marriage to Petruchio changes her to become obedient and appreciative towards her husband. The play delineates the expectations society had for wives and women in general. Women would often be thought of as weak, fragile being who were created to “serve, love and obey” the wishes of men, which is what Katherina comes to understand at the end of the play. At the beginning Katherina is portrayed as the “shrew” of the play who is in need of taming. The word “shrew” means a bad-tempered or aggressively assertive woman and this a description that fits the personality and behaviour of Katherina.

Since Sly was so easily hoodwinked, it can only be assumed that he was not very intelligent. Also, although Shakespeare does not tell us what happened to Sly, the reader can guess that he did not go through a permanent change, because even after he accepted his ‘lordship’, he still acted like a drunk. Unlike Sly, Kate is incredibly quick-witted and sharp tongued, which was a frowned upon characteristic for women at that time. Since she has a mind of her own, and a mind to speak her own mind, Kate does not fit into the social role that is provided for her in the 16th century. She most likely began to act shrewish because of the excess amount of favoritism that her father showed to Bianca, her self-consciousness about her undesirability to most men, and her revulsion of the fact that in her society, her only hope to find a place is through a husband, to whom she must submit. So when Pertruchio finally seems to tame her, is she acting, or did she suddenly become a compliant, docile wife? Personally, I like to think that Kate is putting on a show in order to some kind of peaceful home life, rather than having Pertruchio rail on and on in his attempt to domesticate