Essay
With close reference to Act Four, discuss the view that The Taming Of The Shrew as written is impossible to stage for a modern audience.
The Taming Of The Shrew Essay
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The Taming Of The Shrew EssayIsabel Morgan
With close reference to Act Four, discuss the view that The Taming Of The Shrew as written is
impossible to stage for a modern audience.
Since the play was written in the 1590s, it has never been performed fully to script. The play being
unique amongst Shakespeare’s other plays is still a farce play. Throughout the plays history of being
performed there has been many different adaptations which have either exaggerated the brutality
making the play uncomfortably funny or shortened the play to avoid this uncomfortable section,
towards the more modern era the play was even given added lines to create more equality between
Petruchio and Katherina. This restoration of balance between Petruchio and Katherina makes the
play less uncomfortable to watch.
Act Four, Scene One, when coupled with the wedding scene just prior, gives modern audiences a
negative view of Petruchio. On the other hand, Elizabethan playgoers would have had almost zero
problems with the tactics that Petruchio takes in order to tame his wife. For Elizabethans of this era
there were few problems worse than an unruly wife, as a woman being dominant over a man in any
form was considered an affront to his masculinity. If a man could not tame his wife he would be
subjected to public humiliation for allowing his wife to be out of control.
Although Petruchio’s tactics seem strong for modern audiences, they are nowhere near as forceful
and unpleasant as some of the stories of Shakespeare’s era. The Taming Of The Shrew not long
written after ‘A Merry Jest’ is seen as mild taming of Katherina, as in ‘A Merry Jest’ the wife is
whipped and then wrapped in the salted skin of a dead horse. This shows that the play is not
impossible to stage for a modern audience as it was one of the mild tamings of the time.
Whilst Petruchio does indeed humiliate, strave, deny sleep and ruin clothes in front of Katherina,
Petruchio never lays a hand on her physically which Katherina views as respectful. In Act two, Scene
one Katherina slaps Petruchio for his crude comment in which she follows up with ‘if you strike me,
you are no gentleman’, Petruchio seems offended by this as he asks her to ‘put me in thy books’,
wanting her to accept him as a gentleman. These lines show that Petruchio never resorts to physical
punishment with Katherina for her shrewish behaviour, even when taming Katherina he does not do
it just to her but he also does the same for himself.
The play is not impossible to stage for a modern audience as Shakespeare is known for mocking the
expectations of society. Shakespeare presents this play as a play within a play, which distances the
true thoughts of Shakespeare. Shakespeare challenges the audiences expectations and champions
the woman’s rights as Petruchio arrives to his wedding in inappropriate attire in which he defends by
‘she is married to me not onto my clothes’. Petruchio’s outfit is a visual form of mocking society as
Petruchio like Katherina is also an outcast that society doesn’t agree with.
Shakespeare mocking societal expectations is also supported through the fact that he never
mentioned God, as women were known as spiritually inferior due to the story of Adam and Eve. The
fact that Shakespeare never mentioned God in any of the play, shows how the sexism and misogyny
towards women is not to be taken seriously.
Although in Act Four Petruchio appears domineering and belligerent, we quickly see he is merely
assuming a role. We know that from Act Two Petruchio is clever and generally good spirited as he
searches for his fortune. Petruchio’s final speech in Act Four confirms his assumed role of the tamer
until Katherina is tamed, he has ‘politically begun his reign’.
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