Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew Paper I believe that Shakespeare had a verylittle understanding of women. In this play The Taming of the Shrew the womenseem very flat. There is Kate; she is the proverbial “witchy” woman.
The butt of jokes men think of while sitting around a campfire discussing theirtroubles with women, or the woman everyman wants to go out with and”conquer” to prove how really “macho” he is. Then there isBianca; she portrays everymans fantasy of the prefect woman. Her youth, beauty,and charm desired in his world. And finally, the woman Hortensio marries theWidow. The widow is the “sugar mama” of the group.
The lazy malefantasy of having a woman to love and take care of you at the same time. Myfirst example of the static characters of women as portrayed by Shakespeare isKate. I believe it is a male fantasy of sorts to be the one who could tame theuntamable. I also believe Shakespeare probably shared this fantasy (unless myother theories of his sexuality turn out to be true).
This is accomplishedthrough Uber-male Petruchio. A quote that shows this is on page 83, line136″So I to her, and so she yields to me, for I am rough and woo not like ababe”. This shows how Petruchio is convinced he’s god’s gift to women. Andalso portrays the male fantasy of domination.
My next example would be Bianca. She is quiet, beautiful, and weak. Everything diserable to the men around. Laterwe find out its somewhat an act but we won’t mention this for my papers sake.
She appears weak in beginning when she has had her hands tide by Kate and isbeing beaten by her, ActII page 78, line1 “good sister wrong me not noryourself to make a bondmaid and a slave of me”. This is Bianca showing offhow weak she is, being able to be dominated by her husband. Lastly, there is thewidow whom Hortensio marries. She seems to be his caretaker, and not other wayaround.
This is somewhat of another male fantasy, to be taken care of. And yetthis also embarrasses Hortensio. He appears weak for following a woman, and notleading as Petruchio, uber-male has. This shows how Shakespeare views women asfollowers, and if you are lead by one, then you are not a man.
Page 148, line92,this is right after Hortensio sends for his wife and she tells him to goto herand Petruchio is making fun of Hortensio “Worse and worse, she will notcome, O vile, intolerable, not to be endured!”. These are the reasons why Ifelt that during the reading of The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare had verylittle understanding of the female sex. I believe the woman in this book were acompilation of classic male fantasies shared by all. He should have granted morefreedom to act differently to the female characters.
I thought it might havebeen interesting if he would have gone somewhat into widows past. Or if he hadshown private flashes of rage by Bianca, that went against her preset character. I would have also enjoyed somewhat of a prologue of sorts. An explanation of theroots of Kates bitterness towards her sister, the suitors, and life itself.
