...On The Outside Looking In...

Outsiders.

Everywhere you go there is always someone who is left out of the group, for various reasons. This has been true for as long as documentation shows. In many of Shakespeare’s plays he portrays “others” yet they are not always who you’d expect from his time. These “others,” are obviously marginalized characters who do not fit in with their society. Shakespeare had a tendency to explore things outside the norm, such as Othello being the lead in his play, regardless of being African American. Shakespeare also did not kill Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, even though he was Jewish. The other characters are based more on personalities than race or religion.

In The Taming of the Shrew the most marginalized character would be Katherine. Most of what we know about Katherine, we hear from other characters in the beginning of the play. She is made out to be a vastly obnoxious girl, who will never be married. She does not fit the standards of a woman in Shakespeare’s time, whereas her sister Bianca does. Katherine is labeled as a shrew from early on, and her father becomes determined to find her a husband. Yet all of the potential suitors run scared upon hearing rumors about her vicious and rude nature.

Many of the characters refer to Katherine as a shrew. A shrew is a small mouse-like creature that has sharp teeth. It was often thought to be violent and bite. In Shakespeare’s time, calling someone a shrew was meant as an insult. Many people thought shrew-like people to be ill-tempered, outspoken women. Headstrong and disobedient are more words to describe the shrews of Shakespeare’s time.

                A woman, in Verona, in the time of this play had standards to live up to. She was to be a docile creature, obedient, and introverted. To be lady-like was to agree with your husband, or your parents. Katherine fit none of this until the end of the play. Perhaps had she not followed with the norm of the perfect wife, she would have been killed. She surely would never have found a husband, despite her large dowry. By obeying her husband, she shifts from being the other, to fitting in with the other wives, then becoming even more behaving than them, thus better.

                By labeling Katherine as the Shrew Shakespeare’s sets the audience up to accept her as the outside character in this play. I feel as if, despite being the “other,” she is still a likable character. She is feisty and spirited. Whereas in other plays the “other,” is often a disliked character, not only by the other characters, but also by the reader.

Absence Makes the Bond Grow Stronger.

Father daughter relationships are displayed all throughout history, some more prominent than others. Some father daughter relationships become stronger from the lack of a mother figure in the picture, other’s weaken from the female influence being a strong one. The Taming of the Shrew portrays father daughter relationships well. Baptista, a wealthy man of Padua, has two daughters; Katherina and Bianca. Bianca, who is beautiful and fair, as well as kind and gentle falls prey to the eyes of many men throughout the city. Yet Katherina does not, for she is wild and untamed, rude and often obnoxious. Therefore, Katherine does not acquire the attention of men, she merely scares them away. In order to ensure both of his daughters marry, he makes a rule.

 “Gentlemen, importune me no farther,

For how I firmly am resolved you know—

That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter

Before I have a husband for the elder.

If either of you both love Katherina,

Because I know you well and love you well

Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.”

He directs this statement to Lucentio and Tranio. Baptista is obviously desperate to have a suitor for his older daughter, wanting to make her happy. By this Baptista may be hampering his youngest daughters chances at marrying. It makes me speculate if he was truly thought through what the best for his daughters would be. By setting this limitation for his youngest daughter, in order for his oldest daughter to be happy, he may hurt Bianca. Although his knowledge of the dowry men will receive if they marry Katarina may influence his decision.

            Baptista is obviously dealing with raising two daughters without the help of a dominant female influence. Lacking this female influence makes his decision making process one-sided and therefore he has no one to argue on whether or not his decisions are just. The lack of a mother figure for the girls must be difficult and may influence their choices in men as well. Katherina asks:

“Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not? What, shall I be appointed hours as though, belike, I knew not what to take and what to leave, ha?”

This could give us insight into how Baptista raised his daughters. Perhaps he did not have a firm hand with his daughter’s upbringing. She obviously has become accustomed to coming and going from their house as she pleases, with no reprimand from her father. This makes me wonder if she was spoiled as a child, but then also makes me wonder why Bianca turned out as sweet and kind-natured as she did. You could speculate as far as to say that perhaps Katherina and Bianca’s mother was only in the picture to assist Baptista with Katherina, and perhaps then she was a bad mother anyways, and Baptista ended up doing a good job with his girls in spite of the lack of her in the picture.

"No Fear Shakespeare: The Taming of the Shrew." No Fear Shakespeare: Shakespeare's Plays plus a Modern Translation You Can Understand. Web. 03 Nov. 2010. <http://nfs.sparknotes.com/shrew/>.

Lovely Love in Loving Lies

In The Taming of the Shrew there are many different types of love present, the most prominent being;
1.) Petrucios love for Kat- which would most likely fall under a controlling love, yet a real love all the same.
2.) Kat's love for Petrucio- would maybe be a depserate love, for she has had no one to love her for so long.
3.) Christopher Sly's love for money, would be a greedy love.
4.) Lucentio's love for Bianca would be a shallow love.
5.) Baptista's love for his daughters would be a paternal love.
6. Tranio's love for Lucentio-a familiar love, from being his servant and almost friend.

Five Best

1.      Artese, Charlotte. "“Tell Thou the Tale”: Shakespeare's Taming of Folktales in The Taming of the Shrew." Folklore 120.3 (2009): 317-326. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 4 Oct. 2010.

            Charlette Artese discusses the folktales present in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, further indicating how Christopher Sly’s story at the beginning of this play is based on a folktale “Lord for a Day.” Not many people recognize that while reading his play. Also noted is how Shakespeare knew how to adapt his play to the audience. Although he didn’t give the Christopher Sly story an ending, it served the purpose of letting them believe many different possibilities so as to keep them guessing. He did the opposite with the actual play, so to be able to show his audience that his is creative but also traditionally assertive.

2.      Bamber, Linda. Comic Women, Tragic Men: a Study of Gender and Genre in Shakespeare. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1982. Print.

            Bamber addresses in Comic Women, Tragic Men, how for men it was not unheard of to do such evil things like kill people, but for a women to do something so unsightly and gruesome it was extremely frowned upon. This notes the unfair treatment of women in Shakespeare’s time, as well as how they were oppressed. Bamber discusses how a women in Shakespeare shoes would probably not have done any better at explaining the opposite sex than he did.

3.      O'Hara, Stephanie. "Look on fertile France": French Theater in Shakespeare's Time." Shakespeare Studies 32.(2004): 36-46. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 8 Oct. 2010.

            This article discusses French theater in Shakespeare’s time, and how the French placed more of an emphasis on theater during this time. Theater grew to be as popular in that time, as novels are today. The French Renaissance provided the basis for theatrical production, with the war as the muse.

4.      Pechter, Edward. What Was Shakespeare?: Renaissance Plays and Changing Critical Practice. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1995. Print.

            In the book What Was Shakespeare? Pechter does not discuss William Shakespeare the playwright, but rather the poems and plays that Shakespeare wrote in his lifespan, as well as a study of how we perceive the plays and have discussed them throughout history. The book is slightly limited to mostly talking solely about the criticism of the Shakespeare plays though, and not the actual plays. But this makes the book more specified, and unique. It is discussed in this book whether or not evidence for criticism surrounding these plays is legitimate.

5.      "YouTube - The Taming of the Shrew - Petruchio Meets Katharina (1/2)." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 06 Oct. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASKZLGwAdcw>.

            In this video clip it shows Petruchio meeting Katharina for the first time. He contradicts all of her angry nature, and turns it on her to make her think. It appears that she has finally met her match, and he is being almost kind to her, if not kind, at least he is acknowledging her more than most men generally have in the past. He walks in when she is throwing a tantrum, fit to be tied. This gives the audience a visual, as opposed to reading it and figuring out context clues with makes it helpful to understand. This could be used to show a classroom of kids, in order to help them get the play.

Marjorie.

In the book "Shakespeare After All," Marjorie goes on to tell how the introduction of The Taming of the Shrew (which is Sly's experience waking up being tricked into thinking he is a Lord, by an actual Lord) frames the entire story. The beginning is all impersonation, with the page boy pretending to be Sly's wife, the Lord pretending to be a servant, and Sly being a Lord. This then becomes comparable to how Lucentio pretends to be a school master, and his servant pretend to want Bianca's hand in marraige.

With this in mind, Marjorie considers that Kate is a false version of what a woman should be, and in turn that raises the question, what is real? Could it be that Bianca is the version of what a real women is, with her timid and obedient nature?

Marjorie makes the point that Shakespeare has repeated in not only Henry IV, but also Henry I, the habit of disguising things. Such as Lucention whispering his real message to Biance under cover of construing of a passage from Latin. Then she goes on to describe how The Taming of the Shrew has a "taming" plot....duh. This is show by Pertrucios "love test," at the end of the story. Katherine makes her speech, and has learned how to become obedient.



An unapplicable quote...but witty nonetheless.
Katherine: "Asses are made to bear, and so are you."
Petrucio: "Women are made to bear, and so are you."

Works Cited

Garber, Marjorie. Shakespeare After All. New York: Anchor Books, 2004. Print.

The Taming of the Shrew

This story is told in an interesting format, beginning with a poor man named Christopher Sly. Sly passes out in a tavern and a Lord finds it a brilliant idea to trick Sly into believing he is a Lord, equipped with a wife, servants, nice clothes, etc. Once they have managed to half-convince him of his Lordship, they begin to put a play on for him, the play of "The Taming of the Shrew."
The play begins with Baptista talking about how his younger daughter, Bianca, will not be able to recieve a husband, until his older daughter, Katherine, finds one for herself. Many find this an impossible because Katherine is what people in Shakespeare's time, would refer to as a shrew. A bitter girl, with a sharp tongue that is quick to cut anyone who she feels fit to.
Bianca has many suitors willing to marry her, not only for part of her large dowry, but also for her sweet nature. But only one is clever as Lucentio, who disguises himself as a school master in attempts to win Biancas heart over, after falling in love with her after setting his eyes on her. Tranio is Lucentio's assistant who helps Lucentio by pretending to be Lucentio to beg for Bianca's hand in marraige.
Then Pertruio comes along adamant in taking Katherine's hand in marraige.
Through sharp wit and banter, he manages to "train," Katherine to behave better than all the other wives.
Bianca marry's Lucentio, elopes with her. and Hortensio, another man after biance, marry's a widow he spoke of during the play. In the end Lucentio has a banquet to celebrate, and Pertrucio demonstrates how Katherine has learned discipline (or how her spirit has been broken), whilst the other wives behave less than optimally.