To Tame A Shrew
Uploaded by Admin on Jan 22, 1999
In Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, one topic that has been debated, interpreted, discussed, reinterpreted and adapted into different forms has been the character of Katharina, the shrew, and whether she was tamed, liberated, or just a good enough actress to make Everyone think she was in fact, tamed. In this essay, I will present arguments for and against each of these points, as well as discuss one television adaptation of Taming of the Shrew that presents Katharina not as the expected shrew, but as Petruchio's tamer.
Katharina: The Whipped Shrew
There is evidence that supports Katharina was tamed by Petruchio. For instance, in the opening of the play, Katharina is very vocal and aggressive. Men, women and children trembled whenever she came around, including her father and sister. By the end of the play, however, she is presented as being mild and submissive to Petruchio, leading up to her greatest speech in the dialogue of the play:
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt. (5.2.146-154)
In looking at this outtake of Katharina's speech, it can be seen that she has been tamed by Petruchio's actions throughout the first four acts. It is difficult to take Katharina's message here and say, "She is still the same person." Her monologue reveals that she now sees it is her duty to respect her husband and to be submissive to him. Her speech leads the audience to see that this duty of the wife is one that is a repayment to the husband for all the hard work he does to support her, a debt that the wife could never possibly repay.
Reasons why Katharina might not have been tamed can be found in the fact that the play takes place in what seems to be just a few days. One must ask the question: Is it possible to cause such a great change in a person's behavior in such a short amount of time as this? It is very unlikely that it is possible, since Katharina, by the opening of the play, is at least 20 years...