The Taming of the Shrew Essay Example - English

William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is an English play which belongs to the dramatic marriage comedy genre. In the early modern England, marriage was considered to be the epitome. Most of them were arranged for social, financial or land purposes, and the spouses needed parental consent. This was especially the case for the nobility and the upper classes. Companionship marriages, however, were also possible: mutual consent and affection between the spouses were the core of these marriages. In The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare depicts both of them with his characters Katherina and Bianca. He uses the convention of the marriage comedy genre to contrast with the unusual behavior of Katherina, and to spotlight the differences between the two kind of marriages.

In The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare shows to young people that it is possible to get through their parents’ refusal to marry who they want, and proves them that it is possible that feelings and passion can ultimately lead to marriage. Bianca Minola’s love story with Lucentio follows perfectly the generic conventions of the genre. In marriage comedies, there is supposed to be a problem followed by chaos, and ending by harmony. The issue is that the rich man Lucentio wants to marry the beautiful Bianca. Her father Batista, however, does not want to ‘‘(…) bestow my youngest daughter/Before I have a husband for the elder’’ (1.1.43). The chaos occurs when Lucentio, trying to overcome the obstacle, disguise into a tutor to be with his beloved. When the problem is overcome, everyone must remove their disguise in order to restore the harmony, that is to say after Katherina’s marriage. In the early modern England, everyone is supposed to respect one’s social status, and act upon it. The clothes represented the person’s social status. It is, therefore, impossible for the characters to keep their disguise: Lucentio for example his a rich man, but his disguise is the one of a middle-class man, he has to return to his initial clothes. Shakespeare respects the convention of the early modern English society. Bianca is the perfect woman: she is a ‘sweet beauty (1.1.51), she plays musics, and she is well-behaved. Lucentio’s love is driven by passion and not reason, it does not want to marry her for social purposes or for money. As he says to his servant Tranio, he ‘’found the effect of love in idleness’’(1.1.50).

Tranio, however, says

‘’Affection is not rated from the heart’’ (1.1.50) but more from the money, and land possession. Lucentio marries Bianca but without her father’s consent, as he says ‘’Have you married my daughter without asking my good will?’’ (5.1.160) which he finally accepts knowing that the tutor is finally rich. Shakespeare emphasizes again the fact that money is important in upper-class families. Baptista would have probably not been able to accept the marriage is Lucentio really was just a tutor. Their marriage is the perfect representation of a companionate marriage: they both have affection for each other and wanted to get married. The spouses are supposed to be equal whereas in the conduct literature, women are submissive to their husband. Bianca’s and Lucentio’s marriage was supposed to be the happy ending, and so the end of the play. Shakespeare, however, decides to not finish here, but instead shows their lives after the marriage. In the last scene, Petruchio, Hortensio and Lucentio are having a bet about who of their wives are going to obey if they ask them to come see them. Only Petruchio’s wife obeys him. The last cue is Lucentio saying ‘‘Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam’d so.’’ (5.2.174). Bianca was the perfect unmarried woman, unfortunately for Luciento, she is not the perfect wife. Now, he wants to tame her, as her sister was. However, they are supposed to be in a companionship marriage, and so being equal. Shakespeare challenges the fact of having both a hierarchy in the marriage, combined with companionship. It does not seem possible to have them both. Bianca and Lucentio’s love story should be supposed to be the main plot of The Taming of the Shrew, but Shakespeare choose two other characters to be in the center of his novel.

The main plot concerns Katherina and Petruchio’s love story. It is not a conventional one. Shakespeare does not follow the generic convention of the dramatic marriage comedy genre, that is to say the usual problem, chaos and resolution scheme. Indeed, there is no problem of parental consent at all in the beginning. As her father says to Petruchio ‘‘God send you joy, Petruchio! \’Tis a match’’ (2.1.83). He wants her to be married and see no objection to the demand of Petruchio. Petruchio, however, only wants to marry her for her money, he wants ‘‘one rich enough to be Petruchio’s wife’’ (1.2.49). Financial purposes is classic in early modern English marriage. He also wants to marry her for the challenge of taming her, as he says he is ‘’born to tame’’(2.1.77) Katherina. In this relationship, Shakespeare puts aside the desire between the two future spouses. He wants to spotlight the economic and social purposes of marriage. In the early modern England, women do not have anything to say concerning the choice of their husband. Katherina’s father agrees to their union, so she has to marry the man. It is only the society which desire to see women married, Katherina is a prisoner of the society she lives in. Katherina denies her role of maid and wife, she does not want to be married. Due to her hostile behavior against these conventions, Katherina is considered as a shrew by the same society. She is called ‘’shrewd ill-favour’d wife’’ (1.2.48) by Hortensio, and Gremio compared her to ‘‘hell’’ (1.1.37). Katherina was also considered to be a shrew because of her attitude towards her husband just after their marriage. She still does not believe in his authority over her, as she says herself ‘‘a woman may be made a fool/ If she had no a spirit to resist’ (5.2.103). In early modern England, being a shrew implied that the women were often mocked and humiliated. They were often publicly punished such as being thrown in the river or making worn scold’s bridle. Katherina does not suffer these punishments but she is tamed by a husband, and in cruel ways. ‘She eat no meat to-day, not none shall eat/ Last night she slept not, not to-night she shall not’ (4.1.118), Petruchio wants ‘‘to kill [his] wife with kindness’’ (4.1.118).

Petruchio wants to change her behavior, and to do so, he wants to be too kind. He is using physiological punishment to succeed. Katherina’s behavior is the unconventional problem that the couple encountered which is resolved by her change of behavior at the end of the play. She says to her sister and the Widow ‘’Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper/Thy head, thy sovereign (…)’’ (5.2.172). Her transformation is their happy ending, she is now a perfect wife, even more perfect than Bianca. The readers, however, have the feelings that she has not been tamed. Shakespeare is not respecting the convention of the genre for his main plot. He probably wants the readers to focus on Petruchio’s and Katherina’s marriage. Even if it is hard to see if Shakespeare wants to validate Petruchio or criticize it, this bent of convention highlights the relationship of Petruchio and Katherina, and overshadow the subplot. Shakespeare wants likely to criticize the taming of women. Her final speech can be seen as an entire act, when she says about women ‘’they are bound to serve, love and obey’’ (5.2.172), she does not think it. She does this for survival. She finds a way to make her husband happy, and stop him taming her. Indeed, at the end of a typical dramatic marriage comedy, harmony must be restored, everyone must play their social role. Hortensio and Lucentio drop their disguise to become again the men they were at the beginning of the play. Katherina has to accept her social role that is to say her wife role. In the end, she agrees to everything he says. For example, she says ‘‘And be it the moon, or sun, or what you please/And if you please to call it a rush-candle/ Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me’’ (4.5.147), she does not have her own speech. Before she was tamed, her marital life was completely different than her sister’s, Katherina’s home was only the place where she is being punished, and where Petruchio was struggling to have the authority over her.

Shakespeare respects the convention of the dramatic marriage comedy genre for his subplot. He chooses, however, to bend these conventions to challenge the patriarchal values of his time for his main plot. Opinionated women should not be tamed for him. He uses the nemesis of two sisters and their marriage to express his opinion.

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