Taming of the Shrew #

During Shakespeare’s time, there were no copyright laws protecting writers from continuations or plagiarism of works. Most theatre had a group of writers who often collaberated or competed with each other. Christopher Marlowe wrote plays about Jews and Hamlet, but so did Shakespeare.

The Taming of the Shrew had an earlier anonymous version titled: The Taming of A Shrew, seemingly supporting theories that Shakespeare’s version was co-authored, or written by someone else entirely.

A theory put forward by Shakespearean scholar Peter Alexander in 1926, accepted that The Taming of A Shrew was simply an attempt to record the live production version of the play from memory.

John Bell writes: In the earliest comedies there is a trace of the harridan in Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew. Putting aside for a moment the gender politics, it has to be acknowledged that The Taming of the Shrew is a very funny and brilliantly constructed comedy, - a farce, a social satire and the roles of Kate and Petruchio have been a much sought after and enjoyed by generations of actors.

Performed today, the play can still evoke outrage and accusations of misogyny. But Shakespeare’s thinking is more subtle, more complex.

Given the social structure of 16th century England, Kate must learn to conform, to swear to ‘love, honour and obey’ her husband. But Katherina is a feisty and original young woman who defies her father’s plan to sell her off to the highest bidder. It takes a fellow maverick, Petruchio, to spot Kate’s superior qualities and put them both through a boot camp of a courtship in order to arrive at a contract that can accommodate them both in a marriage of true minds, one more satisfying than the conventional marriages around them.

Having entered the realm of comedy, Shakespeare’s women begin to exhibit a more beguiling femininity and we begin to wonder how much his personal situation was impacting on his writing. He was married at eighteen to Anne Hathaway who was eight years older, and with her he had two daughters, Judith and Susannah and a son Hamnet. This must have had some impact on a soul as lively and sensitive as Shakespeare’s, and given him fresh insights into women, as well as an increased empathy with them.

The women of the comedies are, on the whole, smarter than the men, they outwit them and teach them valuable life lessons.

We see money and status being valued by various characters. In Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio’s materialistic attitude is unveiled when he states the importance of wealth after his friend Hortensio tells of Katherina’s wealth. “If wealthy, then happily in Padua.” (1.2.73) The importance of wealth is later apparent when Baptista choses Lucentio (Tranio in disguise) when has proven that he is wealthier than Gremio.

In Taming of the Shrew the character Lucentio obviously deeply love/adore Bianca from the first time he sees her, equally his equivalent Cameron does the same when he first lays eyes on Bianca. “I burn, I pine, I perish” shows the extent of his desire for her. However whilst in Taming of the Shrew Lucentio becomes a ‘better’ person (is able to obtain Bianca in the end not due to her becoming worse) whilst in 10 Things I Hate About You, Cameron eventually realises the Bianca is no ‘angel’ and even asks “Have you always been this selfish?” This is a form of role reversaling which is also seen when it comes to the submission of women and feminism.

Women marry men hoping to change them; men marry women, hoping they won’t change.

Katherina clearly reflecting the values of patriarchal society. The treatment of the female characters is now something we would see as degrading and sometimes abusive when it comes to Petruchio’s method of taming. They were often seen as objects, however it is unclear whether Shakespeare was merely reflecting his society or trying to challenge it.

Often forgotten is the opening sequence with Sly, where his treatment of his ‘wife’ is different to that of the noblemen, “Are you my wife, and will not call me husband?” (…….) He also later insists that he personalise his wife’s name by calling her “Alice Madam, Joan Madam” and finally calls her “Madam Wife.” We are not sure whether Shakespeare is mocking Sly, who is really a drunken tinker, or if he using Sly’s way of thinking to juxtapose the other men in Taming of the Shrew. However due to what would be considered extremely sexist in a post?-feminism world, adaptations are made which can change the meaning of the play.

Analysis #

Due to the treatment of the women’s roles in Taming of the Shrew it is often considered to be a controversial play. Most of the power is held by male characters, Baptista over his daughter, Petruchio over Katherina clearly reflecting the values of patriarchal society. The treatment of the female characters is now something we would see as degrading and sometimes abusive when it comes to Petruchio’s method of taming. They were often seen as objects; however, it is unclear whether Shakespeare was merely reflecting his society or trying to challenge it.

Katherina had no freedom to choose a husband. In this play the Kath’s lack of any discussion with her father about her future, conveys that it was unlikely for a girl or women to even think to stand up against her father in this period. However ironically, Bianca, the character who first seems to conform to her place in her society ends up eloping with Lucentio (however not totally against father’s will).

John Bell sees the farcical or comedic nature of the play.

Now that he has entered the realm of comedy, Shakespeare’s women begin to exhibit a more beguiling femininity and we begin to wonder how much his personal situation was impacting on his writing. He was married at eighteen to Anne Hathaway who was eight years older, and with her he had two daughters, Judith and Susannah. This must have had some impact on a soul as lively and sensitive as Shakespeare’s, and given him fresh insights into women, as well as an increased empathy with them.

The women of the comedies are, on the whole, smarter than the men, they outwit them and teach them valuable life lessons.

Quotes of motifs: #

Shakespeare has TRANIO tell Lucentio that learning should be fun:

No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en: In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

PETRUCHIO on tacitunity:

Signior Hortensio, ’twixt such friends as we Few words suffice;

Wooing: #

Luciento on first seeing Bianca:

Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
If I achieve not this young modest girl.

Parody of Caesar’s: I came, I saw, I conquered

PETRUCHIO:

I will attend her here,
And woo her with some spirit when she comes.
Say that she rail; why then I’ll tell her plain
She sings as sweetly as a nightingale:
Say that she frown, I’ll say she looks as clear
As morning roses newly wash’d with dew:
Say she be mute and will not speak a word;
Then I’ll commend her volubility,
And say she uttereth piercing eloquence:
If she do bid me pack, I’ll give her thanks,
As though she bid me stay by her a week:
If she deny to wed, I’ll crave the day
When I shall ask the banns and when be married.

…. PETRUCHIO

Father, ’tis thus: yourself and all the world,
That talk’d of her, have talk’d amiss of her:
If she be curst, it is for policy,
For she’s not froward, but modest as the dove;
She is not hot, but temperate as the morn;
For patience she will prove a second Grissel, (grizzel?)
And Roman Lucrece for her chastity: (Rape of Lucretia)

Clothing #

We wear clothing for a variety of reasons; for warmth and protection, modesty, occasion and distinction. The more regalia worn, the higher the rank, however cloaks and vestments may also be used to cover up a multitude of sins. Power dressing has always existed, so women wear solid colors, high heels and shoulder pads. Men wear suits, collars and solid ties. Today’s trend is toward more casual wear. The minimalist dress is often referred to as a fig-leaf.

In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet claims:

“Clothes maketh the man."

Mark Twain was a great humorist, added his own twist to Shakespeare’s words with this quote,

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society." he wishes to impress upon us the importance of dressing well. Twain compares well dressed people to stark naked ones, who don’t have an opinion of fashion and style.

Fashion is the most universal form of self-expression, whether it’s a sign of tragic self-effacement or delightful defiance that so many women use clothes to make a statement about themselves. Our relationship with clothes changes as our relationship with ourselves shifts so at all times our dress sense should reflect our real selves.. Sometimes we like to dress up; at other times we dress down.

Most of Shakespeare’s plays revolve around characters adopting disguises. Rosalind in As You Like It, adopts a new name and male disguise. Cross dressed as a man, she commands more respect than as a woman. Viola in Twelfth Night dresses in the same clothes as her missing twin brother, which of course generates a lot of comedy out of mistaken identity.

In The Merchant of Venice, three women assume male disguises: Jessica, the daughter of Shylock, who disguises herself as a boy in order to escape her father’s house and elope with Christian Lorenzo; Nerissa, who dresses as a legal clerk in order to attend her mistress Portia in the garb of a male barrister.

King Lear makes the following observation:

Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; robes and furr’d gowns hide all.

Plate sin with gold and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; arm it in rags, a pygmy’s straw doth pierce it……

The Taming of the Shrew

Medieval dress codes delineated status. In order to reverse their roles, Lucentio and Tranio merely swap their overcoats.

Petruchio arrives for his wedding with:

BIONDELLO

Why, Petruchio is coming in a new hat and an old jerkin, a pair of old breeches thrice turned, a pair of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled, another laced, an old rusty sword ta’en out of the town-armory, with a broken hilt, and chapeless; with two broken points:

Biondello

O, sir, his lackey, for all the world caparisoned like the horse; with a linen stock on one leg and a kersey boot-hose on the other, gartered with a red and blue list; an old hat and ’the humour of forty fancies’ pricked in’t for a feather: a monster, a very monster in apparel, and not like a Christian footboy or a gentleman’s lackey.

TRANIO

‘Tis some odd humour pricks him to this fashion;
Yet oftentimes he goes but mean-apparell’d. BAPTISTA I am glad he’s come, howsoe’er he comes.

BAPTISTA

Why, sir, you know this is your wedding-day:
First were we sad, fearing you would not come;
Now sadder, that you come so unprovided.
Fie, doff this habit, shame to your estate,
An eye-sore to our solemn festival!

PETRUCHIO

But where is Kate? I stay too long from her:
The morning wears, ’tis time we were at church.

TRANIO

See not your bride in these unreverent robes:
Go to my chamber; Put on clothes of mine.

PETRUCHIO

Not I, believe me: thus I’ll visit her.

BAPTISTA

But thus, I trust, you will not marry her.

PETRUCHIO

Good sooth, even thus; therefore ha’ done with words:
To me she’s married, not unto my clothes:
Could I repair what she will wear in me,
As I can change these poor accoutrements,

The servants however are expected to be well dressed:

GRUMIO

………………………………………….the
serving-men in their new fustian, their white
stockings, and every officer his wedding-garment on?
Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without,

PETRUCHIO promises Kate new clothes:

Will we return unto thy father’s house
And revel it as bravely as the best,
With silken coats and caps and golden rings,
With ruffs and cuffs and fardingales and things;
With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery,
With amber bracelets, beads and all this knavery.
What, hast thou dined? The tailor stays thy leisure,
To deck thy body with his ruffling treasure.

Petruchio orders expensive drapers to prepare Katharina’s outfit for Bianca’s wedding, but then rips them up forcing her to wear her everyday clothes.

Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father’s
Even in these honest mean habiliments:
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor;
For ’tis the mind that makes the body rich;
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth in the meanest habit.

Macbeth:

The number of references to clothing in Macbeth signifies Shakespeare’s interest in its importance as a metaphor for power and position.

“lapt in proof"(I.ii.54) armour that proved effective. (protection)

“Why do you dress me
In borrowed robes?”

Macbeth is uncomfortable with this new title, because the witches have just predicted it but he knows the former Thane of Cawdor still lives. Ironically he too betrays King Duncan.

“New honours come upon him
like strange garments, cleave not their
mould but with the aid of use.” (distinction)

Just like new clothing often need to be worn in, new positions take a while to adjust to and become comfortable with.

“I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people
Which should be worn now in their newest gloss.” (distinction)

New clothing, like reputations have to be taken care of so they don’t get soiled.

“And when we have our naked frailties hid
That suffer in exposure”. (modesty and protection)

Raw, naked emotions need time to recuperate.

“Lest our old robes sit easier than our new.” (distinction)

Malcolm and Donaldbain realise they are vulnerable under a new King.

“who wear our health but sickly in this life”. (protection)

Another reference to the fragility and serendipity of life.

“Now does he find his title
hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarf” (V.ii.20) (distinction)

Macbeth’s authority has been eroded and Shakespeare uses the clothing metaphor to illustrate his diminished stature.

Role Playing #

By Kenneth Chan - Facebook

The overarching theme in The Taming of the Shrew—one that echoes through the entire play—is that of role-playing. The thematic resonance on role-playing is literally incessant. It begins with the Induction, where Shakespeare arranges for Sly, to be fooled by circumstances into playing the role of a lord, surrounded by attendants playing their required roles in the elaborate deception, watching a troop of players playing their respective roles in the play-within-a-play.

Then we find the characters in this main action of The Taming of the Shrew also playing roles according to their circumstances and schemes. Tranio plays the role of Lucentio, while the real Lucentio plays the role of Cambio, and Hortensio plays the role of Litio. Biondello is roped in to play the role of servant to the fake Lucentio, and later the travelling pedant plays the role of Lucentio’s father, Vincentio. Petruchio, even though he is not impersonating someone else, is clearly also role-playing for the purpose of subduing Kate, as he clearly informs us in his many short soliloquys.

The role-playing theme is multilayered like the skins of an onion. We peel off one layer of role-playing to find yet another layer of it at a deeper level. Shakespeare opens the play with ever-deepening layers of role-playing. The Induction informs us that we are watching a play-within-a-play, and has the purpose of building the multilayered nature of the role-playing theme.

The players that Christopher Sly is watching are playing their roles (roles that themselves involve role-playing within their play). Sly himself is playing a role, deviously imposed on him by the Duke’s men playing their roles in the deception. Of course, the real-life performers who are playing Sly and the Duke’s men in the play are also playing their roles. And we are watching these performers playing their roles. Does the regression stop here? Are we, who are watching this play, also not role-playing ourselves? We are effectively playing the roles that circumstances in our lives have imposed upon us.

At the end of the play, the audience may suddenly be aware that the Christopher Sly story has been left hanging. There is no resolution to the scheme that tricked Sly into playing the role of a lord. Did Shakespeare forget to provide an ending? This is hardly possible, as even the actors in his time would have reminded him of it.

Shakespeare has deliberately left the Sly story unfinished. Why? It is Shakespeare’s way of informing us that the role-playing does not end with the end of the play. At the end, Sly is still playing his role as a lord. And we are also still playing our roles, in our real lives, after we finish watching the play. This is how Shakespeare expands the theme by leaving it open-ended to encompass all of us in our real lives. Shakespeare leaves us with the sense that this role-playing persists way beyond the conclusion of the last Act.

What is Shakespeare’s key point? It is reflected in the question of whether Kate has really been “tamed” as the title of the play suggests. The play’s relentless thematic resonance on role-playing means that Shakespeare is suggesting that Kate herself may only be role-playing, to adapt to her external circumstances.

Shakespeare poses a more intriguing question. Has Kate’s personality really changed? In one sense, the answer seems to be no, since she is merely role-playing. Yet, in another sense, the answer may be yes. The reason is this: Is not our “personality”—at least to some extent—characterized by the roles we play? The “domineering husband,” the “submissive wife,” and so on, are roles we play; yet these roles also make up our so-called personality.

We are now confronted with an even deeper question: Is there really such a thing as our “real personality”? There is no clear demarcation between personality and the roles we play. And, given that under altered external circumstances, the roles we play also alter, what then is our “real personality”? There appears to be no such enduring entity because our personality—subject to external conditions—can and do change. Thus, we do not have a definitive unchanging “real personality” that defines who we are.

The significance of this is akin to that found in The Comedy of Errors, where we learn that labels do not define who we are. Here, in The Taming of the Shrew, we learn that, just as labels do not define our identity, neither do the roles we play. This realization will reduce the sense of separation caused by the different roles we play. It reduces the “us versus them” mentality, that under unfortunate circumstances may even be severe enough to lead to conflicts and wars. In this age of nuclear weaponry, this may mean the horror of an apocalyptic catastrophe.

Shakespeare thus points out, in The Taming of the Shrew, that it is a mistake to think that we each have a distinct enduring identity depending on the role we play. This delusion conjures up an atmosphere of separateness. It creates a shattered world that is at odds with the true spiritual state of universal oneness in the brotherhood of man.