Theme Of Taming Of The Shrew

The universal nature of the themes in The Taming of the Shrew,  beg analysis and social critique. This comedic farce, by William Shakespeare, creates an elegant depiction of a modern life and romantic love with all of its masks and pretensions. It is easy to assume the perspective of a psychotherapist while witnessing the drama of Katherine and Petruchio’s love affair unfolding. Concepts like “emotional repression” and “therapeutic catharsis” neatly fit the “taming” scenario. In fact, this play offers many new insights into what it takes to create an enduring, viable marriage—if one understands it from a very contemporary, psychotherapeutic or

The Taming of the Shrew written by Shakespeare, is a play that focuses on the gender and class variations of the Elizabethan Era. The two main characters, Katherina and Petruchio, have been used to highlight these inequalities as the play details the tense relationship of these two bold personalities. Two modern film transformations of the original play have been made in 1967 and 1999, and have allowed viewers to develop an understanding of how the idea of love has changed since the Elizabethan Era. A common topic frequently argued is whether these two films are an exercise in misogyny – or a love story about a man liberating a woman. After studying these two texts in depth, I believe that the 1967 film, The Taming of the Shrew, is an exercise in misogyny, while the 1999 film, 10 Things I Hate About You, is a romantic comedy about a teenage boy liberating a teenage girl.

Katharina, also known as Kate, is the main protagonist and her fiery personality is the focal point of the Shakespeare play, “The Taming of the Shrew”. Her outspoken and quick-witted disposition is at odds with polite society thus earning her the offensive moniker ‘Shrew’, which essentially means a bad-tempered despicable old hag. Contrary to belief, she is, for the most part, an opinionated woman who has the courage to speak those opinions loudly to men that would prefer she’d be quiet. Throughout the play Kate’s demeanor evolves and shifts much like the incredible metamorphosis of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly; in this case a lovely socially acceptable butterfly. This essay will analyze Katharina’s performance throughout the play hence concluding that she is not befitting of the moniker Shrew.

Using certain shapes of materials and color helped the audience understand the scenery of the play, being able to understand what time period this took place. The lighting through the play was great, being able to clearly see in detail for each scene. For example, when the Stage manager introduces the people in Grover's Corner, is was clear and easy to see what type of life style they live. Grisel Torres did an excellent job with the angles, colors, and shadows throughout the play, really emphasizing the emotion and lighting for each scene. Allison Mortimer, the costume designer, did a good job figuring out what each character should wear and allowing the audience to decide which class each character fits in society. The costumes looked like they were somewhat middle class and even looked vintage at times. I wasn't sure if they were recreated or not. Changing costumes for different scenes made it easier to understand the aspect of the scene and allowing the audience to understand what will happen.

The motif in the (almost) finale chapters of The Taming of the Shrew, was language and communication. In this section of reading several of the characters learn how to communicate effectively with each other. For example, the newly weds Katherina and Petruchio had a rough patch in the beginning, but by and by are learning to get along with each other. Katherina was horrible to everyone at the beginning of the play, now in Pisa her husband, Petruchio gives her a taste of her own medicine. First, he starves her, “What, did he marry me to famish me?” (4.3.1960). Second, Petruchio has a dress and hat made for Kate, and purposely finds fault in the garments and destroys them. Katherine even tries to say that they are beautiful and that every gentlewoman at that time was wearing them, to which her husband replies “When you are gentle, you shall have one too, and not till then.” (4.3.2034-2035). Thirdly, when off to see Baptista, Kate argues about what time the would get to Padua if they left at a certain time, because of this Petruchio refuses to leave,

Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, the indication of a woman being the possession of her husband, and having to do everything that he proposes her to do is presented. Katherine has to acquire appropriate manners toward a man in advance before her sister Bianca can wed. Bianca wishes to marry one of her suitors/bachelors, but she can’t due to tradition because the older sister has to marry first.

William Shakespeare, an internationally renowned playwright, wrote many texts that are still performed to this day. The Taming of the Shrew is no exception. Because of its popularity, the text was released as a film in 1967 and 1999. The original adaptation follows a similar storyline to the Shakespearean text. It incorporates the same values and ideologies of love depicted in the initial play created in 1590. 10 Things I Hate About You is somewhat of a modernized film version of the earlier text; it compliments more modern cultural values. Based on my beliefs and interpretations of both films, I have reached the conclusion that The Taming of the Shrew is an exercise of misogyny. This contradicts my perspective of the more recent film adaptation;

Associate Professor of English, Amy L. Smith in her article, “Performing marriage with a difference: wooing, wedding, and bedding in The Taming of the Shrew (Fall/Winter 2002-2003), claims that the marriages shown in the play do not focus on gender hierarchies, gender-based inequalities, and expectations of social convention that are dictated by the male dominant culture; instead , they escape from them without eschewing gender altogether. To support her argument, Smith does the following: first, she describes marriage as a unique set of sexual, parental and gender negotiations in a historically patriarchal culture; second, she describes marriage as a performance of dominance and submission that shapes, controls and challenges the marriage

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.

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.

Throughout The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, as you can tell by the title, a shrew is tamed. That shrew’s name is Katherine, the daughter of Baptista Minola with whom she lives in Padua. Petruchio is the fellow doing the taming. He is a gentleman from Verona who arrived to Padua “happily to wive and thrive” (Shakespeare 68). The taming process teaches both Petruchio and Katherine that hard times will come, but they will go through them together; Kate was also confronted with the truth about the way she should treat people and Petruchio was slapped with reality. Needless to say, they were both tamed without having a clue.

The taming of Katherine is

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.

Each outfit gave the characters a second skin that helped the actors tell their character's story. The only costumes I questioned were the veterinarian's bag and the jugglers outfit. The vet's bag looked more like a Marry Poppins carpet bag, and I could not really tell who the character was when he walked out on stage for the first time. The outfit of the juggler (played by Vanessa Killian) seem to be the most modern piece of clothing. Her blue and sliver half sleeves dress did not seem to match the area of everyone's else costumes but did work for her

For the group performance of “The taming of the Shrew” by William Shakespeare that my group, made up of Echo Mendiguren-Dalton, Shannon McGarry, Elias Skora, and Katie Calder, did, we chose Act 2 Scene 1. For props we used a walking stick, a bright green tutu, a purple fedora, a paper mustache, four old red books, a rubber duck, a cardboard guitar, a background done with whiteboard markers, a wooden dagger, and a scarf. I was responsible for the walking stick, the tutu, the fedora, the rubber duck, and the cardboard used to make the guitar. I bought the tutu, and got the cardboard from work, but the rest of the items I was already in possession of. We met outside of class twice to practice the scenes and to organize ourselves to the actions we would be performing, and to also create the guitar and mustache.