NationMaster - Encyclopedia: The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare. It was one of his earlier plays, probably written in 1593 or 1594. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Augustus Egg, Travelling Companions, painted in 1862 Augustus Leopold Egg (May 21, 1816 - March 26, 1863) was a Victorian artist best known for his modern triptych Past and Present (1858), which depicts the break up of a middle-class Victorian family. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... For other uses, see Play (disambiguation). ... Events May 18 - Playwright Thomas Kyds accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe. ... Events February 27 - Henry IV is crowned King of France at Rheims. ...

The Sources

The basic elements of the story are present in the 14th-century Castilian tale of the "young man who married a very strong and fiery woman".^[1] The play's subplot, involving the characters Bianca and Lucentio, derives from Ludovico Ariosto's I Suppositi, either directly or through George Gascoigne's English version Supposes (performed 1566, printed 1573).^[2] Statue of the poet in Reggio Emilia. ... George Gascoigne George Gascoigne (c. ... Events January 7 - Pius V becomes Pope Selim II succeeds Suleiman I as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Religious rioting in the Netherlands signifies the beginning of the Eighty Years War in the Netherlands. ... Year 1573 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. ...

Date and text

The subject of the performance and publication of The Taming of the Shrew is complicated by the existence of an alternative version of the story, The Taming of a Shrew, which is "now generally believed to be either a pirated and inaccurate version of Shakespeare's comedy or else a "bad quarto" of a different play, now lost, which also served Shakespeare as a source...."^[3] While A Shrew was printed in 1594, 1596, and 1607, Shakespeare's play was first published only with its inclusion in the First Folio in 1623. Bad quarto is a term and concept developed by twentieth-century Shakespeare scholars to explain some problems in the early transmission of the texts of Shakespearan works. ... The title page of the First Folio with the famous engraved portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout The First Folio is the name given by modern scholars to the first published collection of William Shakespeares plays; its actual title is Mr. ... Year 1623 (MDCXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Performance

The earliest known performance is recorded in Philip Henslowe's Diary on June 13, 1594, as "the Tamynge of A Shrowe." This could have been either play, but since the Admiral's Men and the Lord Chamberlain's Men were sharing the Newington Butts theatre at the time, scholars have tended to assume that it was Shakespeare's play. It was definitely the canonical Shakespearean version that was acted at Court before King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria on Nov. 26, 1633. (It was "liked.")^[4] After numerous adaptations and sequels, Shakespeare's play, uncut, returned to the stage in 1844 in a Benjamin Webster production.^[5] Philip Henslowe (c 1550 - January 6, 1616) was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur. ... Events February 27 - Henry IV is crowned King of France at Rheims. ... This Elizabethan theatrical company was first known as the Lord Howards Men, named after their patron Charles Howard. ... The Lord Chamberlains Men was the playing company that William Shakespeare worked for as actor and playwright for most of his career. ... Newington Butts is a short road in Southwark, London, England, leading south-west from the Elephant and Castle. ... Charles I (19 November 1600 â€“ 30 January 1649) was King of England, King of Scotland and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. ... Queen Henrietta Maria (November 25, 1609 â€“ September 10, 1669) was Queen Consort of England, Scotland and Ireland (June 13, 1625 - January 30, 1649) through her marriage to Charles I. The U.S. state of Maryland (in Latin, Terra Mariae) was so named in her honour by CÃ¦cilius Calvert, son... Events February 13 - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition. ... Jan. ... Benjamin Nottingham Webster (September 3, 1797 - July 3, 1882), English actor, manager and dramatic writer, was born in Bath, the son of a dancing master. ...

Famous recent productions include the 1960 Royal Shakespeare Company production with Peter O'Toole and Peggy Ashcroft, William Ball's 1976 Commedia dell'arte-style staging at the American Conservatory Theatre, and the New York Shakespeare Festival's 1990 production starring Morgan Freeman and Tracey Ullman set in the old west. The longest running Broadway production was the 1935 Theatre Guild staging with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, which ran for 129 performances. Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a British theatre company. ... Peter Seamus OToole (born August 2, 1932, uncertain but presumed correct date[1]) is an eight-time Academy Award-nominated Irish actor. ... Dame Peggy Ashcroft DBE (22 December 1907 â€“ 14 June 1991) was an acclaimed Academy Award-winning English actress. ... This article is about an American stage director; for other people named William Ball, see William Ball (disambiguation). ... Year 1976 Pick up sticks(MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Commedia redirects here. ... The American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is a prestigious theater company in San Francisco, USA that offers both contemporary and classical theater productions and a wide range of classes. ... New York Shakespeare Festival is the traditional name of a sequence of shows organized by the Public Theater in New York City, most often being held at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... Dawsons Creek director, see Morgan J. Freeman. ... Tracey Ullman (born December 30, 1959) is a English comedian, actress, singer, dancer, screenwriter, and author, who is most famous for being the host of her eponymous variety television show. ... Broadway theatre is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... The Theatre Guild was a theatrical society founded by Lawrence Langner in New York City in 1918, with the purpose of producing noncommercial american and foreign plays. ... Alfred Lunt photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1932 Alfred Lunt (August 12, 1892–August 3, 1977) was an American actor. ... Lynn Fontanne (December 6, 1887 â€“ July 30, 1983) was an Emmy Award winning actress who was a major stage star for over 40 years and who with her husband Alfred Lunt was part of the most acclaimed acting team in the history of the American theater. ...

Characters

Minor Tinker may mean: Tinker (profession), the profession of metalsmith To tinker, verb. ... A page is a young male servant. ... Petruchio is the primary male character in William Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew. ... Mary Pickford, a perpetual ingenue The Ingenue is a stock character in literature and film and a role type in the theatre, generally a girl or a young woman who is endearingly innocent. ... Look up pedant in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

A haberdasher is a person who sells small items via retail, commonly items used in clothing, such as ribbons and buttons, or completed accessories, such as hats or gloves. ...

Synopsis

An introductory act, called by editors an "induction", sets up The Taming of the Shrew as a play within a play. A Lord decides to play a joke on a sleeping drunk named Christopher Sly. Dressed as a lord and slipped into a fine bed, Sly is told when he awakes that he is a great lord who has lost his memory, and his ale-house rambles were but a dream. Some players offer for his entertainment the comedy of Kate the Shrew. A story within a story is a literary device or conceit in which one story is told during the action of another story. ...

After these scenes, Sly has only two lines and Shakespeare all but abandons the "play within a play" device. The conceit is frequently omitted from productions. The Taming of a Shrew contains the conclusion of the frame play as well as its beginning; some modern stage productions have employed its version of the Sly framework.

The Induction contains two interesting allusions, to "Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot" (Ind.,2,21) and to "Cicely Hacket" (Ind.,2,89). Wincot was a tiny village four miles south of Stratford-upon-Avon, and a Hacket family lived there in the 1590s. ^[6] Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon is a town in Warwickshire, England. ...

Lucentio has come to Padua to pursue his education; his servant Tranio urges him to indulge the other pleasures of youth as well. The wealthy merchant Baptista Minola enters, with his daughters, the shrewish Katherine (called "Kate") and the sweet-tempered Bianca. Baptista tells two suitors of Bianca, Gremio and Hortensio, that none may marry Bianca until after Kate has a husband. The rivals agree it will be hard to find someone for Kate, for even though her dowry will be large, her temper is volatile. Meanwhile, Lucentio vows to woo Bianca himself. Padua, Italy, (Italian: IPA: , Latin: Patavium, Venetian: ) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, the economic and communications hub of the region. ...

Fortunately, Hortensio's friend Petruchio arrives from out of town, looking for a rich wife. He says he cares nothing for her temper nor her appearance, as long as he can "wive it wealthily". Hoping that Petruchio will solve the problem of Kate, and hearing that Baptista wants his daughters to have tutors, Bianca's three suitors contrive plans to woo her in person.

Kate and Bianca are at home fighting. Kate has tied up Bianca and beats her, when the pack of suitors arrive. Hortensio has disguised himself as a music teacher, so that he can spend time with Bianca and woo her secretly. Gremio has another plan: he has hired a Latin tutor named Cambio for Bianca, leaving himself free to negotiate dowry terms with Baptista; he does not know that this tutor is actually his unknown rival Lucentio. Meanwhile, under orders from Lucentio, Tranio has disguised himself as Lucentio so he can negotiate dowry terms with Baptista and keep Baptista busy while the real Lucentio woos Bianca. Petruchio comes as himself.

Baptista sends the tutors to instruct the girls, while he discusses financial arrangements with Petruchio. Hortensio soon emerges with his lute broken over his head, courtesy of Kate. Petruchio expresses admiration at her spirit. Kate herself comes to dissuade him, but for once has met her equal with words (Kate insults Petruchio, who turns each of her insults into sexual innuendo). When Baptista returns, Petruchio tells him that he and Katherine have gotten along together so well that they've agreed to be married next Sunday (Kate's reply that she'd rather see him hanged first is explained away by Petruchio as being part of a private agreement between him and Kate "that she shall still seem curs't in company"). Baptista delightedly approves the match.

Next, Baptista considers whether Lucentio (who is actually Tranio) or Gremio shall marry Bianca. Each claims to love her, so the deciding factor is the wealth they bring. No matter how much Gremio promises, Tranio can outbid him by claiming that he will inherit much more from "his" father Vincentio. Baptista agrees that Bianca will marry Lucentio, provided Vincentio confirms the inheritance within a week. Tranio ponders who he can get to play Vincentio.

The disguised tutors Cambio (Lucentio) and Lito (Hortensio) continue their wooing (with Bianca seeming to incline more towards Lucentio, much to Hortensio's chagrin), until Bianca is called away to help Katherine dress for her wedding. The wedding of Katherine and Petruchio is a very strange affair; Petruchio dresses oddly, breaks nearly every custom, and departs with Katherine even before the wedding feast. Bianca observes that her sister "being mad, is madly mated." Following this, Baptista instructs Bianca and her soon-to-be-husband "Lucentio" to take the places of Katherine and Petruchio at the head table.

Hortensio, believing Tranio (as Lucentio) who says Bianca has shown him some affection, brings him to Baptista's house. In hiding they see Bianca flirting with Lucentio (as Cambio). For her apparent inconstancy he has Tranio swear with him that they give up courting her and leaves to find a widow to marry "ere three days pass."

En route to, and at his country estate, Petruchio begins his "taming" of his new wife. He keeps her from sleeping, invents reasons why she should not eat, and buys her beautiful clothes only to rip them up. When Kate, profoundly shaken by her experiences, is told that they are to return to Padua for Bianca's wedding, she is only too happy to comply. By the time they arrive, Kate's taming is complete and she no longer resists Petruchio. She complies in Petruchio's game, demonstrating her subordination to his will by agreeing that she will regard the moon as the sun, or the sun as the moon, if he demands it. She has understood her husband's method at last.

Meanwhile, Tranio persuades a travelling pedant to pretend to be Vincentio. Baptista is pleased to meet Lucentio's father and agrees to the wedding. Petruchio and Kate return to Padua to attend Bianca's wedding, meeting the real Vincentio along the way and telling him about his "son"'s impending marriage. Vincentio joins them in their journey to Padua. Look up pedant in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

After their arrival, there is great confusion as all disguises collapse. However, everyone ends up married; Lucentio to Bianca and Hortensio to a rich widow. During the banquet, Petruchio brags that his wife, formerly untamable, is now completely obedient. Baptista, Hortensio, and Lucentio are incredulous and the latter two believe that their wives are more obedient. Petruchio proposes a wager in which each will send a servant to call for their wives, and whichever wife comes most obediently will have won the wager for her husband. Baptista, not believing that his shrewish Katherine has been tamed, offers an enormous second dowry in addition to the wager.

Neither Bianca nor the widow responds to the call, Bianca informing her husband that she cannot come because she is busy and the widow ordering Hortensio to come to her. Kate does come, winning Petruchio a second dowry. Kate ends the play with a monologue explaining that wives should always obey their husbands and lords.

In the rarely-performed epilogue that returns to the Christopher Sly storyline, Sly awakens from his drunken sleep to find everyone else gone and himself returned to exactly the way he was before. However, thanks to his "dream", he now knows just how to deal with his own shrewish wife and leaves to put his plan into action.

Criticism

The Taming of the Shrew has been the subject of much criticism. In particular, feminists have attacked the play, and in particular the play's final scene, as offensively misogynistic. Others have defended the play by highlighting the (frequently omitted) induction as evidence that the play is not meant to be taken at face value and the fact that Petruchio submits himself to the same treatment to which he submits Kate. One recent production by the American Players' Theater used part of the induction and an added ending to avoid the controversy surrounding the play; in their version, the entire play is actually Sly's dream that he is Petruchio, a dream from which he is awakened by his shrewish, real-life wife. Feminists redirects here. ... Misogyny is an exaggerated pathological aversion towards women. ...

Critical History - Authorship

Throughout the years, critics have debated the issue of the play's authorship. The existence of another play, The Taming of a Shrew, which surfaced around the same time as The Shrew, has led to this examination of authenticity. This play is described by Wentersdorf as having “similar plot lines and parallel though differently named characters” (202). Leah S. Marcus addresses this point of contention in her article “Levelling Shakespeare: Local Customs and Local Texts”. She discusses the idea held by some critics that Shakespeare authored both works, and that A Shrew is simply an earlier quarto version as opposed to the later Folio version of the The Shrew. However, she notes that some critics have also taken a different approach to the Folio and quarto idea; they have rejected the idea of “A Shrew” being a work of Shakespeare’s. She states that the reason for this, apart from the many differences in the text, is “because it identifies the acting company with an audience of lowlifes like Sly” (172). Marcus writes that this is seen by editors as out of character for Shakespeare, and, therefore, it is a blatant indication that he did not write A Shrew. Karl P. Wentersdorf introduces the idea that both plays were penned by Shakespeare, but A Shrew may have been abridged, which would explain the differences between the two versions. Christopher Sly, for instance, has a greater role in the quarto text, but departs prematurely from the Folio. Wentersdorf admits, though, that his theory is mostly based on speculation so there is no way of knowing for certain why Sly disappeared from the later text (214).

Other critics in the 20th century, such as Mikhail Morozov, have maintained the idea that Shakespeare may not have been entirely original in his writing of the play, suggesting that the ideas from The Taming of a Shrew were those of another author (Makaryk 286). Also, in discussing Shakespeare’s other plays, the critic Kenneth Muir declares that he did in fact borrow content from other authors, and cites The Taming of the Shrew as an instance of this (28).

Critical History - changing views over time

The history of criticism of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is saturated with controversy. Many people today might assume that the play was easily and well received by all in Shakespeare’s time, based on prevailing societal oppression of women. On the contrary, a significant number of critics as well as audience in Elizabethan England were similarly taken aback by the play’s harsh, misogynistic language. “Since its first appearance, Shrew has elicited a panoply of heartily supportive, ethically uneasy, or altogether disgusted responses to its rough-and-tumble treatment of the ‘taming’ of the ‘curst shrew’ Katherine” (Aspinall 3). Just as there are dissenting opinions on the interpretation of Shrew in modern times, people often disagreed on the play’s true meaning in the 16th century. As “arranged marriages began to give way to newer, more romantically informed experiments” (Aspinall 12), people’s views on both women’s position in society and their relation to men inevitably began to change.

This transformation of society’s perception of women’s role, although gradual and minuscule, affected people’s reaction to the play. Shrew caused a certain tension in the conscience of the audience that is still present among viewers today. Response to Shrew “is dominated by feelings of unease and embarrassment, accompanied by the desire to prove that Shakespeare cannot have meant what he seems to be saying; and that therefore he cannot really be saying it” (Davies 43). Viewers are torn between their feelings of satisfaction with the ultimate “getting together” of Petruchio and Katherine in the end and feelings of mortification at the extremely misogynistic rhetoric.

Evidence of at least some initial societal discomfort with Shrew is that another playwright at the time, John Fletcher, felt the need to respond to Shakespeare’s controversial play with one of his own. Fletcher wrote The Woman's Prize, or The Tamer Tamed as a sort of sequel to Shrew, in which Kate has died, and Petruchio is remarried to a young girl named Maria. His new wife, however, decides to tame Petruchio; thus the tamer becomes the tamed. Although Fletcher’s sequel is often downplayed as merely a farcical mockery of Shrew, many critics acknowledge the more serious implications of such a reaction. For example, Linda Boose says that “Fletcher’s response may in itself reflect the kind of discomfort that Shrew has characteristically provoked in men and why its many revisions since 1594 have repeatedly contrived ways of softening the edges” (179). If audience were fully comfortable with Shakespeare’s original text, playwrights would feel no need to continually edit, reform, and rewrite some of the more brutal scenes. John Fletcher (1579-1625) was a Jacobean playwright. ... The Womans Prize, or the Tamer Tamed is a Jacobean comedy written by John Fletcher. ...

After the 17th century, The Taming of the Shrew greatly decreased in both popularity and performance, compared to Shakespeare’s other plays. In its rare surfacing, the play was most often an adaptation of Shakespeare’s original. In the 18th century, however, there was a revival of The Taming of the Shrew, as it was once again performed the way Shakespeare had intended. “As the 18th century demanded a greater realism and a more authentic Shakespeare, both on stage and in print, a newfound admiration for Petruchio accumulated rapidly” (Aspinall 26). Incidentally, when playwrights stopped trying to rewrite Shrew to remove the gender-based tension, the play was more commonly accepted just the way it was. Viewers began to believe that Shakespeare literally intended for Petruchio to be the hero of the play, righteously yet humorously taming a much too wild Katherine. The brutality with which Petruchio “handled” Kate was overlooked in favor of a more trivial, joking nature.

Societal changes in the form of shifting gender roles in the 20th century presented both old and new problems to The Taming of the Shrew. For example, as women achieved higher social status with the feminist movement in the 1960s, wife “scolding” was seen for what it is—cruel and unusual abuse. These new, progressive views of women of course impacted the way critics viewed Shrew. “In short, Kate’s taming was no longer as funny as it once had been for some readers and spectators; her domination became altogether disgusting to modern sensibility” (Aspinall 30). In light of the contemporary awareness of relatively egalitarian gender roles, it is basically impossible to enact this play without some element of subversiveness. Two tactics are the most common in performing Shrew, while maintaining artistic integrity and coherence. One way is to “steep the play in irony, such as Columbia Pictures 1929 Taming of the Shrew where Kate winks as she advocates a woman’s submission to her husband” (Aspinall 30). The belief that Kate’s final speech, the most contested part of the play, is purely ironic makes it easier for the audience to stomach the shocking submissiveness of Kate’s words. Another strategy employed by directors is to emphasize the entire play’s farcical elements, such as relying on the role of Sly and the metatheatrical element.

In regard to these two prevailing methods of performing Shrew, there are still many various reactions to the play. As aforementioned, the range goes from those who see the play as pleasantly entertaining to those who are morally repulsed by it, and then there is every view in between. Although the undeniable controversy of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew causes constant quarreling and confusion, it is also the reason for the play’s continual intrigue and dynamism.

Language Critique

Language is central in the plot of The Taming of the Shrew. Katherine is a shrew based upon her sharp tongue and harsh language to those around her. Petruchio aims to tame her language through his own rhetoric. Shakespearean critic Joel Fineman, suggests the language illustrates the differences of male and female language, and specifically the different types of female language. Shakespearean language critic, Tita French Baumlin, suggests Petruchio uses strategies such as: linguistic disguises and lies to change Katherine's language (237). Baumlin also emphasizes Petruchio's rhetoric in addressing others and Katherine in order to be successful in his taming plot. Petruchio's rhetoric includes referencing Katherine to animals, specifically a falcon. The importance of language in The Taming of the Shrew is also demonstrated through Katherine's final speech. Katherine refers to the traditional political roles and physical discrepancies to describe the relationship between a husband and wife. Phyllis Rackin, another Shakespearean critic, emphasizes Katherine's traditional and physical analogies in her final speech (28). Critic, John C. Bean, emphasizes Katherine's language as sincere. Overall, language becomes central in the plot of the play as well as Petruchio's plot.

Types of Female Language: The importance of language can also be seen through the differences in language between Katherine and other women in the play, specifically Bianca. Critic Joel Fineman suggests that female language is split into two types in The Taming of the Shrew, good and bad represented by Bianca and Katherine respectively. Bianca is continually illustrated by her appearance using sets of images, motifs, and figures of speech; whereas, Katherine is heard (Fineman 407). Lucentio says, "That which is stark mad or wonderful froward/But in the other's silence do I see/Maid's mild behavior and sobriety" (1.1.69-71). Even Bianca's language is seen (Fineman 407). Bianca speaks numerous times in the play, however her speech is metaphorically silent (Fineman 406). Katherine is too vocal in speech; whereas, Bianca's speech is shown as the ideal for women. Shakespeare represents these two types of female language through Katherine and Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew.

Katherine's Shrew Language: Katherine first appears in the play as a shrew that often offends those around her with her language (1.1.61-65). Through this language she drives away potential suitors, family members, and friends (Baumlin 238). Some critics interpret Katherine as unhappy because of this. She used her offensive nature to "protect the vulnerable inner self from exposure, assault, and change" (Baumlin 248). Katherine uses language to insult and discourage Petruchio. Katherine and Petruchio compete with their language. They both use animal language to insult one another (2.1.194-230). However, it seems Petruchio 'wins'. This is specifically seen through Petruchio's forcing Katherine to switch the words moon and sun at the end of the play (4.5.1-22). Katherine's language drastically changes from the beginning to end. She at first defies Petruchio and his words, but later is shown through her language to succumb to his own rhetoric.

Petruchio's Rhetoric to Katherine: Petruchio wants to replace Katherine's language with the language of a tamed woman. He renames her, challenges her verbally, treats her as an animal, and persuades/manipulates her into using his use of words. He specifically uses falconry language in referring to Katherine and describing his relationship with her (4.1.188-211). Petruchio is her master and he will train her to appropriately respond to him. Petruchio's use of puns on Katherine's name also illustrates the importance of language in the plot (2.1.185-195). He uses these puns to refer to Katherine as cake and a cat, objectifying Katherine. Petruchio is eventually seen as accomplishing his goal when Katherine tells Petruchio that she will use Petruchio's language (4.5.18-22). Petruchio creates a new world through new words for Katherine (Baumlin 247).

Petruchio's Rhetoric to Others: Petruchio often denies that Katherine is a shrew to others. Through this process, Petruchio further emphasizes the importance of his own rhetoric (Baumlin 243). Petruchio not only uses his language to change Katherine, but to also change Katherine's reputation. Katherine verbally lashes back on Petruchio when he attempts to rename her. Immediately after Katherine insults him, further illustrating her shrew-like language, Petruchio positively describes her (2.1.243-256). He also describes her pleasantly to her father to further change the perception of Katherine by others (2.1.290-298). Katherine's reputation as a shrew is a result of her language and reputation. Petruchio uses language to change both factors.

Katherine's Final Speech: Katherine's final speech has various interpretations based upon the language of the speech and the play in its entirety. Most critics can be split into two different categories of perceptions of Katherine's speech: revisionists and antirevisionists. Revisionists view Katherine's speech as ironic. Katherine was not sincere in her statements, but sarcastic. Antirevisionists believe that Katherine's language was sincere and that Petruchio tamed her. However, various readings exist. Some critics see the use of the traditional political language of physical references rationalizing the submission of wives to husbands (Rackin 28). Others view the presence of the physical description of women during the speech, the historical context of boys playing female parts, and the reference of a man falsely being attracted to a boy dressed as a woman in the play within a play, as farcical (Rackin 55). Others view the language of the speech written by a man, performed by a man, and viewed by a male audience as male performance of ideal female compliance (Rackin 55). Others view the language of the speech as completely sincere. Katherine is "liberated into the bonds of love" (Bean 66). The language is also important due to its focus on women's warmth and beauty rather than the traditional focus of her sinfulness (Bean 70). Katherine's language in her final speech can viewed in many different ways due to its unique language.

Feminist Interpretations

Three modes of feminist criticism of Shakespeare, discussed by feminist writer Carolyn Ruth Swift Lenz is compensatory criticism, which focuses on strong women; justificatory criticism, which focuses on male power; and transformational criticism, which combines and extends the other two perspectives. (Lenz 119)

The first, compensatory criticism focuses on assertive women. On the powerful, prominent, eloquent women characters in Shakespeare's plays; we celebrate their virtues, compensate for traditional criticism, which minimizes or stereotypes them. (Lenz 119) These include the shrewish-ness of Kate in The Taming of the Shrew. Kate’s mistaken identity is her appearance of her being rude and defiant, and the reader sees her love and obedience. On the outside, Kate appears harsh, cruel and frightening to all of the characters, even her own father is scared of her monstrous temper, begging anyone to marry her. In Act 5, Katherina removes her cap from her head, liberating herself from the subordination to her husband Petruchio, and even stomping on the hat, this destroying the traditional values of society (Helms 195). On one level, it is Petruchio's conflict to tame Kate or live with a shrew the rest of his life, to tame Kate is also to reveal her actual personality.

The second, justificatory criticism, emphasizes what the first mode neglected - women's inferior position and the frequency of male power in Shakespeare's plays and in the period. In this, we must acknowledge that women characters are as often victims as heroines, that they are in the end defined and also define themselves in relation to men, most often to men they love. This justifies, or at least accounts for, the inadequate roles of women. (Lenz 120) In this, we see that the heroine is silenced by the marriages at the ends of the plays. The most controversial part of the play, comes with Kate’s speech of submission in Act 5, some say that she is giving up on her values, and saying that men are the supreme being, however, the true way she depicts this speech, is with a wink to the audience, in the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1990, Kate ended her speech “by ‘accidentally’ sending Petruchio sprawling. The first predicament that supports the theme is Petruchio's relationship with Katherina. Shakespeare is not saying that female bitterness or male aggression is acceptable, but perhaps a touch of a woman’s wildness will keep a man’s life from getting boring (Hodgdon 542).

The third, transformational mode examines the relative position and authority of men, women and the relations between culture and literary texts. It loosens the interaction between the confining culture and the witty heroines, between the idealization and humiliation of women, between patriarchal structures and female sub-cultures. The goal is not only to balance the omissions and inadequacies of traditional criticism by supplementing it and is not just to justify the appearance of women by understanding the culture from which it springs but to transform criticism. (Lenz 145) In this we can examine the relations between the genders in different genres. We can explore interactions between male fears of being feminized, male fears of women, and male control over women. Although interested in the subject of feminine language and writing, American feminist critics of the 1970s and early 1980s began by analyzing the texts, without deeply looking at the language, but by closely reading the text and historical background. Mistaken identity is the main conflict of this play, yet it also serves to tell the reader or audience what the theme is. Feminist criticism in literature began to grow rapidly in the late 1970’s, when the feminist theory began to be applied to literary matters. Petruchio uses humiliation when taming Kate, depriving her of food and sleep in his way of taming her. When Petruchio speaks about Kate he speaks of her as a piece of property, always eluding to the fact that he is in control of her and not the other way around. Kate instills fear in Petruchio he knows that she is the one that is ultimately in control not him. He needs her for her dowry and his climb up the social ladder, he desperately wants to impress others in his social circle. In the end Kate comes through for Petruchio in the end by submitting to him in her final speech, proving to others that he can tame the women that no one else dared too.

Cruelty in The Taming of the Shrew

There are several themes that critics believe are represented in The Taming of the Shrew. One possible theme is cruelty (Krims). According to critic Marvin Krims, cruelty is represented more vividly by the aggression in the play than gender issues, which is another common theme (Krims 59). This theme is represented in the entire play including in the Induction (Krims 51). This section of the play prepares the audience to view a play that makes a joke out of the cruelty shown in many aspects and through all of the main characters of the play (Krims 51). Kate and Petruchio demonstrate their cruelty to others as well as to each other throughout the play (Krims 51-52). While reading or watching the play the reader or audience may find the actions that the main characters take towards one another comical, but if they were to consider two people in reality treating each other this way they would be appalled (Krims 51-52).Kate and Petruchio express cruelty in different ways, they nevertheless both exude cruelty. While Kate physically shows cruelty when she ties her sister’s hands together, bashing Hortensio over the head with his lute, striking Petruchio, and beating a servant Petruchio takes a differnet approach. Petruchio displays cruelty through more psychological means. He does things like misunderstanding Kate on purpose, dismisses her personality by projecting his wishes on her, humiliating her at their wedding, and being vindictive on their wedding night (Krims 52). The way that these characters treat one another makes Kate’s final speech come across at forced and put in place to cover up pain, and also as a final humiliation for Kate (Krims 52, 53). According to Marvin Krims cruelty is a more central theme than the common interpretation of gender issues because the play is a more broad representation of human cruelty, not just cruelty between the sexes ( Krims 59).

Another common theme, according to critics, is gender relations. This is displayed in Kate’s final speech where she dwells on womanhood, and the role of women in marriage (Burns 46). This speech seems to simultaneously belittle women while also explaining the essential and central place of women in relationships with men (Burns 45). It makes sense that gender relations would be a theme as historians have claimed that “rebellious women” were a point of concern for men during the late 16th and early 17th century (Detmer 273). Related to gender relations the theme of domestic violence has a role in the play as well (Detmer). The way in which Petruchio treats Kate in Taming of the Shrew in some ways makes domination of another, specifically one’s wife tolerable, as long as physical force is not used (Detmer 247). While the mental dominance that Petruchio used could have been seen as a more civil way to dominate one’s wife it is still equally oppressive as physical abuse (Detmer 275).

Male Dominance in The Taming of the Shrew

In the sixteenth century it was seen as permissible for men to beat their wives to maintain control over the family. Rebellious women were seen as a concern for Englishmen, because women were supposed to be subservient. Taming of the Shrew was seen as innovative because, although it did promote male dominance, it did not condone violence towards women, which was an accepted practice at the time. “…emphasized that the play’s attitude was characteristically Elizabethan and was expressed more humanly by Shakespeare than by some of his sources,” (West, 65). Although Petruchio never struck Katherine, he used other tactics to physically tame her to show his superiority. Critics such as Emily Detmer see this just as a modern take on perpetuating male authority, “…legitimizing domination as long as it is not physical,” (Detmer, 274).

Many other critics, such as Natasha Korda, agree that even though Petruchio did not use force to tame Katherine, his actions still promoted male superiority by making Katherine his property. Two examples of this came while Katherine and Petruchio were still becoming familiar with each other. Petruchio offered to marry Katherine and save her from her impending spinsterhood because she had a large dowery. This implies that the worst thing that could have happened to a woman of the time was to not marry, to not belong to a man. Another way in which Katherine was treated as an object came later when they were introduced. To judge her physically, Petruchio asked Katherine to walk for him. After she does this, he remarked on her “princely gait.” This implied that she had his approval, and she was physically good enough to belong to him. Even though Shakespeare did not write Petruchio as a violent force, he still used Petruchio to demonstrate the common role of women of the era. “The object of the tale was simply to put the shrew to work, to restore her (frequently through some gruesome form of punishment) to her proper productive place within the household economy,” (Korda, 110). Petruchio did not use violence, however, his domination over Katherine was highlighted by his treatment of her as his property.

Adaptations

Plays

The first known adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew was entitled The Woman's Prize, or The Tamer Tamed, a sequel and reply written by John Fletcher, perhaps around 1611. In Fletcher's play, the recently-widowed Petruchio is remarried to a bride who "tames" him with the help of her friends, driving him from his house and refusing to consummate their marriage until he promises to respect her and endeavor to satisfy her. When the two plays were revived together, in 1633 and in the Restoration era, Fletcher's play proved more popular than Shakespeare's. The Womans Prize, or the Tamer Tamed is a Jacobean comedy written by John Fletcher. ... John Fletcher (1579-1625) was a Jacobean playwright. ... Events June 23 - Henry Hudsons crew maroons him, his son and 7 others in a boat November 1 - At Whitehall Palace in London, William Shakespeares romantic comedy The Tempest is presented for the first time. ... (Redirected from 1633 in literature) See also: 16th century in literature, other events of the 17th century, 1700 in literature, list of years in literature. ... For other uses, see Restoration. ...

In the 1660s The Shrew was adapted by John Lacy, an actor for William Davenant's King's Company, to make it a better match with Fletcher's work.^[7] Lacy's adaptation, Sauny the Scot, somewhat inconsistently anglicized the character names and recast the play in prose. Most significantly, Lacy expanded the part of Grumio into the title role, which he played himself. Sauny is an irreverent, cynical companion to Petruchio, comically terrified of his master's new bride. The conclusion, in which the Katherine-character feigns death, is influenced by Fletcher's play. Lacy's work premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1667; it is known to have been revived as late as 1698. Samuel Pepys saw John Lacy's adaptation on April 9, 1667. More adaptations followed including Christopher Bullock's Cobbler of Preston (1715) and Charles Johnson's play of the same name (1716); David Garrick's version, Katherine and Petruchio, was introduced in 1754 and dominated the stage for a century; Herbert Beerbohm Tree staged it in 1879. William Davenant Sir William Davenant (February 28, 1606 - April 7, 1668), also spelled DAvenant, was an English poet and playwright. ... The Kings Company was one of two enterprises granted the rights to mount theatrical productions in London at the start of the English Restoration. ... Currently home to Lord Of The Rings, the musical. ... See also: 1666 in literature, other events of 1667, 1668 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1697 in literature, other events of 1698, 1699 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Samuel Pepys, FRS (23 February 1633 â€“ 26 May 1703) was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. ... Charles Johnson may refer to one of several individuals, including: Charles R. Johnson, contemporary African_American author Charles Johnson, 18th century Democratic_Republican politician from North Carolina Charles Elliott Johnson, contemporary Democratic politician from North Carolina Charles Johnson, Major League Baseball player Charles B. Johnson, chairman of Franklin Resources, Inc. ... David Garrick by Thomas Gainsborough. ... 1754 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (December 17, 1853 - July 2, 1917) was an English actor-manager. ... Year 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Opera

Operatic versions include A Cure for a Scold, a ballad opera by James Worsdale at Drury Lane (1735), The Taming of the Shrew (1953) by Vittorio Giannini, and the Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari opera Sly. Ballad opera is a genre of 18th century English stage entertainment. ... James Worsdale ( 1692 - June 10, 1767) was an Irish and English portrait painter, actor, literary fraud, and libertine whose lively conversation, wittiness, and boldness allowed him to move among the highest circles of literary life. ... Currently home to Lord Of The Rings, the musical. ... January 7 - President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. ... Vittorio Giannini (October 19, 1903 – November 28, 1966) was an neoromantic American composer of operas, songs, symphonies, and band works. ... Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (January 12, 1876 - January 21, 1948) was an Italian composer. ... For other uses, see Opera (disambiguation). ... Sly, ovvero La leggenda del dormiente risvegliato (English: Sly, or The Legend of the Sleeper Awoken) is an opera in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, after William Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew. ...

Musicals

A number of later works have been derived from The Taming of the Shrew, most famously the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate. Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 â€“ October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter from Peru, Indiana. ... Musical theater (or theatre) is a form of theatre combining music, songs, dance, and spoken dialogue. ... Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with a book by Samuel and Bella Spewack and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. ...

Film

The earliest known film adaptation is the 1908 silent version directed by D.W. Griffith. See The Taming of the Shrew (1908 film). The first sound version on film is the 1929 adaptation starring Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, with "additional dialogue by Sam Taylor." The 1967 film adaptation directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton is the most widely seen version of the play. See The Taming of the Shrew (1967 film); also are the classic 1952 film The Quiet Man; the 1999 teen motion picture 10 Things I Hate About You starring Julia Stiles (as the shrew) and Heath Ledger and the 2003 motion picture Deliver Us From Eva. See also: 1907 in film 1908 1909 in film years in film film Events Thomas Edison formed the Motion Picture Patents Company, with goals of controlling production and distribution, raising theater admission prices, cooperating with censorship bodies, and preventing film stock from getting into the hands of nonmember producers. ... David Lewelyn Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 - July 23, 1948) was an American film director (commonly known as D. W. Griffith) probably best known for his film The Birth of a Nation. ... The Taming of the Shrew is the name of a very early short comedy film, released in 1908. ... See also: 1928 in film 1929 1930 in film 1920s in film 1930s in film years in film film // Events The days of the silent film were numbered. ... Mary Pickford (April 8, 1892 â€“ May 29, 1979) was an Oscar-winning Canadian motion picture star and co-founder of United Artists in 1919. ... Douglas Fairbanks (May 23, 1883 â€“ December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer, who became noted for his swashbuckling roles in silent movies such as The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and The Black Pirate (1926). ... Sam Taylor (August 13, 1895 - March 6, 1958) was a film director, screenwriter, and producer. ... Lauren steiger, born in 1992 at Royal Womens hospital started acting and modelling at the age of 2 and is now currently 15 working in Milan on the catwalks. ... Franco Zeffirelli (born Gianfranco Corsi on February 12, 1923), is an Italian film director. ... For other persons named Elizabeth Taylor, see Elizabeth Taylor (disambiguation). ... For other persons named Richard Burton, see Richard Burton (disambiguation). ... The Taming of the Shrew is a 1967 film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play of the same name directed by Franco Zeffirelli. ... Year 1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Quiet Man is a 1952 American film starring John Wayne, Maureen OHara, Victor McLaglen, and Barry Fitzgerald, and directed by John Ford. ... 10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999 American romantic comedy film. ... Deliver Us from Eva film poster Deliver Us from Eva is a 2003 feature film starring LL Cool J and Gabrielle Union, revolving around LLs character Ray being paid to date a troublesome young lady named Eva (Union). ...

Television

In 1980, the BBC produced a version of the play starring John Cleese as Petruchio. The television series Moonlighting also produced one episode ("Atomic Shakespeare") that recast the show's main characters in a comedic parody of The Taming of the Shrew; The BBC One ShakespeaRe-Told series sets the story in modern-day Britain, with Katherine (played by Shirley Henderson) as an abrasive career politician who is told she must find a husband as a public relations exercise. This modern version still has Kate stating it is a woman's duty to love and obey her husband, but with the requirement that he do precisely the same for her. The 2000 Brazilian soap opera O Cravo e a Rosa was also based on the play (this title means "The Carnation and the Rose" and comes from a children's song about a couple of engaged flowers who had a serious "fight" -- which, in Portuguese, may mean either an awful argument or some physical confrontation). ([1]) Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... â€œCleeseâ€ redirects here. ... Moonlighting is a television series that first aired on ABC in the United States from 1985 to 1989 with a total of 66 episodes. ... For the BBC radio station, see BBC Radio 1. ... ShakespeaRe-Told is the umbrella title for a series of four adaptions of William Shakespeares plays broadcast on BBC One through November 2005. ... Shirley Henderson (born November 24, 1965) is a Scottish actress. ... // The term Public Relations was first used by the US President Thomas Jefferson during his address to Congress in 1807. ... The first TIME cover devoted to soap operas: Dated January 12, 1976, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of our Lives are featured with the headline Soap Operas: Sex and suffering in the afternoon. A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television... Binomial name Dianthus caryophyllus L. The Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) is a flowering plant native to the Near East and has been cultivated for the last 2,000 years. ... For other uses, see Rose (disambiguation). ...

References

Don Juan Manuel, Infante of Castile (May 5? 1282â€“1349), son of the infante Don Manuel and Beatrix of Savoy, and grandson of St. ... Don Juan Manuels Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio (Book of the examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio), known commonly as El Conde Lucanor or Libro de los ejemplos (original Old Castilian: Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio), one of...

Works Cited

Aspinall, Dana E. “The Play and the Critics.” The Taming of the Shrew: Critical Essays. Ed. Dana E. Aspinall. New York and London: Routledge, 2002.

Baumlin, Tita French. "Petruchio the Sophist and Language as Creation in The Taming of the Shrew". Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 29 (1989): 237-257.

Bean, John C. "Comic Structure and the Humanizing of Kate in The Taming of the Shrew". The Woman's Part: Feminist Opticism of Shakespeare. Ed. Carolyn Ruth Swift Lenz. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980. 65-78.

Boose, Linda E. “Scolding Brides and Bridling Scolds: Taming the Woman's Unruly Member.” Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 2. (Summer, 1991), pp. 179-213.

DeRose, Daivd J, Kolin, Phillip C. “Shakespeare and Feminist Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography and Commentary”. TDR (1988-), Vol. 37, No. 2. (Summer, 1993), pp. 178-181.

Detmer, Emily. Civilizing Subordination: Comestic Violence and the Taming of the Shrew. Shakespeare Quarterly, 1997.

Fineman, Joel. "The Turn of the Shrew." Shakespeare: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory 1945-2000. Ed. Russ McDonald. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2004. 399-416.

Helms, Lorraine. “Playing the Woman's Part: Feminist Criticism and Shakespearean Performance”. Theatre Journal, Vol. 41, No. 2, Power Plays. (May, 1989), pp. 190-200.

Hodgdon, Barbara. “Katherina Bound; Or, Play(K)ating the Strictures of Everyday Life (in Underwriting Performance: Appropriation, Legitination, Exchange).”PMLA, Vol. 107, No. 3, Special Topic: Performance. (May, 1992), pp.538-553.

Korda, Natasha. Household Kates: Domesticating Commodities in the Taming of the Shew. Shakespeare Quarterly, 1996.

Makaryk, Irene R. “Soviet Views of Shakespeare’s Comedies”.Shakespeare Studies 15 (1982): 281-313.

Marcus, Leah S. “Levelling Shakespeare: Local Customs and Local Texts”. Shakespeare Quarterly 42.2 (1991): 168-178.

Rackin, Phyllis. Shakespeare and Women. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Swift Lenz, Carolyn Ruth. “The Woman's Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare”. South Atlantic Review, Vol. 46, No. 2 (May, 1981), pp. 119-122

Wentersdorf, Karl P. “The Original Ending of The Taming of the Shrew: A Reconsideration”. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 18.2 (1978): 201-215.

West, Michael. "The Folk Background of Petruchio’s Wooing Dance: Male Supremacy in “'The Taming of the Shrew.'” Shakespeare Studies, 7, 1974.

External links

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