Taming Of The Shrew Research Paper

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.

“When love speaks the voice of all the gods makes heaven drowsy with the harmony,” Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, scene II.

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

‘The Taming of the Shrew’ is a play written in 1593 by famous playwright William Shakespeare. It concerns a number of men who are trying to win the heart of a beautiful young maiden, unfortunately she can only be wed once her older, rather disagreeable sister is. This play was adapted into the movie,’ 10 Things I Hate About You’ in the late 90s and many notable changes were made to the story. The changes to the plot, setting, and characters were made to modernise the play and make it more appealing to a wider audience. These differences will be explored throughout this essay.

In Shakespeare’s plays it is important to understand the historical context of women in the Elizabethan Age and their role. The Shakespearean era consisted of a misogynistic and patriarchal society which contrasted with Queen Elizabeth being the head of the state. Even though the most important person in England was a woman, the common woman was still very limited in her power and in her independence. Women in this era were dependent on men socially, economically and sexually. Married women were not allowed to be in the public without their husbands, they were bound to the domestic area. Women in general were believed to be less rational than men and always needed male protection and guidance. As they were thought to be incapable of caring for themselves, it was the men’s duty to control their sexuality; the father had to guarantee that his daughter marries as a virgin and the husband had to control his wife so she would only bear his children. Economically women were dependent on men because they were not allowed to have their own business or be involved in trade. They were seen as objects of bartering that men traded with and treated as if they were property. Women were believed to be passive objects, this idea of male dominance above women is represented in theology and philosophy and even supported by medical science: “The fact that female sex organs were inside was

In the article “The Taming of the Shrew: Inside or Outside of the Joke?” Shirley Nelson Garner shows us that the play The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare mostly depicts male dominance and female brutality. Garner implies that the play was directed against women, and that both modern males and females would find the play insulting and disappointing. According to Garner, “It plays to an audience who shares its patriarchal assumptions: men and woman who personalize patriarchal values” (Garner 218). Garner dislikes the play because as a woman she believes the play degrades females.

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.

During the time of Shakespeare women lived in a male dominated society. Women In this period had virtually no legal power and lost all right to own all personal property when they married. Men were expected to be the heads of the households. Once a boy turned eight he no longer was required to obey his mother. The ideal woman was believed to be a virgin and a faithful wife. Female honour and social respectability were tied so closely to sexuality that death was often presented as preferable to the loss of female chastity. The relationships between Men and Women In this play do reflect the status between them at the time.

In the Elizabethan era, men were looked at as the dominant figure in the relationship. The ideal male of that time was supposed to be assertive when it came to making the decisions for the couple. However, there were some women that felt otherwise. The women of the Elizabethan era were morally obligated to be obedient to their husband. In The Taming of the Shrew, written by William Shakespeare, Katherine is a woman who ignores the normal standards of a wife. She is so rude that no man wants to marry her. Ironically, there is one man who is willing to try his hand at marrying Kate. This man’s name is Petruchio and he knows that Kate is stuck in her shrewish ways, but he feels that he can guide her in the right direction to knowing her role of

Battle of the Sexes would have been another appropriate title for this play because the entire play is women verses men, men verses women. This battle of the sexes shows no boundaries between the rich and poor, young or old, man or women. The basis of all the rivalry stems from the fact that the men in this play look at the women as if they were objects, instead of human beings with feelings. This theory that women are merely objects creates an environment that the women have to adapt to and survive in and the environment of a person will depict what he or she will become, resulting in a battle between the sexes.

In Western society, women are part of a very prosperous age, where they are seen as equals to men; however, this is not the case in Shakespeare’s time. The issues and gender roles forced upon women during England’s Elizabethan era are highlighted by Shakespeare in many of his plays. In Shakespeare’s, Hamlet, the women in the play are powerless, which can be seen through their lack of control over their sexuality, their lack of voice and their lack of independence.

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;

	Today women have many rights. We can vote, work, and even voice our own opinions. In the past women were seen as mothers and housekeepers, always taught to respect, listen, and serve there husbands or the man of the house. In those days this was considered normal, therefore women had no choice but to obey and do as they were told. In Hamlet, Shakespeare portrays a similar relationship between women and men. He allows men to hold the higher position in the causing, them to treat women as lesser people and believed that women should listen to them and do as they were told.

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.