Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

FINAL DRAFT
Despite the play’s title, How far does Shakespeare’s presentation of Katherina’s
character deserve to be regarded as merely a “shrew” within the comic world of the
play?
Ella Whittaker
A shrew is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as a “bad-tempered or aggressively
assertive woman” (1) In the 16th century women were taught to be seen and not heard
...
It is unfair
however, to reduce Katherina to being 'merely a shrew' as her character is presented with
much more complexity
...
She expresses 'the anger' of her 'heart' suggesting she is a
desperate woman, who creates a disguise to cover up her desire to be married and
conform
...
This is a patriarchal
society after all and the women are defined by men
...
One of the first
descriptions of Katherina is from Gremio, where he describes her as “too rough for
me” (2)
...
Hortensio also provides evidence of this when he reacts with "from such
devils, good Lord deliver us" (2) ensuring our negative opinion of Katherina before she
enters the stage
...

Katherina herself describes Bianca as a “treasure” (2) and tells her father that her
sister “must have a husband; I must dance bare-foot on her wedding day” (2)
...
This also shows her as a woman who is desperate to fit in
...
This is
important because one of the reasons that Katherina is unable to conform is because the
men find her physically unattractive
...
Her father tells Bianca’s suitors that
he will “not bestow my youngest daughter, Before I have a husband for the elder” (2)
...

Another way to look at Katherina is a desperate woman who just wants a voice
...
Within this scene her father and two of Bianca’s suitors
are humiliating Katherina publicly on the street
...

Clearly she is a thorn in her own family and it is because of her isolation that she turns to
violence and aggression
...
She is desperate for a voice and wants to show people that she can control her
own destiny, whilst still fitting into the expectations of society
...

Act 3 scene 2 of the play sees the start of Petruchio’s taming of Katerina
...
The structural placement of
Katherina and Petruchio's wedding tells us that issues between them haven't been
resolved
...
When Petruchio fails to show up for the wedding, Katerina
doesn't display the expected signs of anger and rage that would be expected of a shrew,
but instead informs the audience that it is “No shame but mine” (2)
...
This suggests that she wants to
conform to societal expectations, shown also in her desire for a traditional wedding
...
She therefore feels resentment
towards Petruchio as “Now the world must point at poor Katerina” (2)
...

However much Kate tries to remove his affections he just becomes more curious to this
woman who can hold her own
...
Shakespeare’s use of an
empowering character who can both hold her own and in the end get what she wants
proves to a Shakespearian audience that women can have rights and control their destiny
without being prohibited from love
...
” (4)
In Katherina’s final speech it is suggested that Katherina eventually understands
Petruchio and in doing so, speaks in the way that he wants her to whilst still retaining her
spirit
...
Germaine Greer describes the play as a “knockabout farce of wife-battering” (4)
but mainly about “forging of a partnership between equals”
...
Although the content of the
speech may not completely depict this, the final speech shows both female independence
and how much of a strong role Katherina has become within society
...
This suggests that
understanding Petruchio means that Katherina is not consigned to a miserable marriage
but can still conform to society
...
Edward Hall describes the play as "challenging an
audience's expectations of how a woman is supposed to behave” (3) and therefore
concludes that Shakespeare is “championing the woman's rights
...

She is the figure that society’s women needed both at the time and in a modern era to
remind women that they are their own person but they can still have the typical attributes
expected by society, a husband, and be happy
...
oxforddictionar
ies
...
theguardian

---