Taming of the Shrew MOR part 3
Let’s be honest, Bianca has absolutely no character. She’s pretty, and that’s pretty much all she’s got going for her. She’s eye candy. She has some kind of a brain, as we see her take lessons, but still, she seems way more preoccupied with the people teaching her than her studies. We see her very focused on Lucentio, as opposed to her reading homework.
LUCENTIO
(as CAMBIO) Now, mistress, profit you in what you read?
BIANCA
What, master, read you? First resolve me that.
LUCENTIO
(as CAMBIO) I read that I profess, The Art to Love.
BIANCA
And may you prove, sir, master of your art.
LUCENTIO
(as CAMBIO) While you, sweet dear, prove mistress of my heart!
HORTENSIO
(as LITIO) Quick proceeders, marry! Now, tell me, I pray,
You that durst swear that your mistress Bianca
Loved none in the world so well as Lucentio.
Bianca could also just be totally stoned without a care in the world, but that’s a very different interpretation. If it weren’t for her being shown to study, I would definitely make the argument that she has no brain at all.
When it comes to Katherine, I think Baptista is just happy to get rid of her. This Petruchio guy seems a bit sketchy, but at the end of the day, he’s rich, he still wants to marry Katherine after meeting her, and he is attempting to give rational as to why she is still vocally against it. Even shrews have to keep up their image.
Also, I think this section is very interesting. Petruchio seems to have thought himself won, but it seems like Katherine is just humoring him. I bet it’s an exhausting way to go through life, but it seems like she is just tired enough of his crap to go along with whatever he says. Then again, this play really isn’t long enough for there to be any sort of effective torture tactics, at least not the ones he was using, but I digress. What do you make of this part?
PETRUCHIO
Come on, i' God’s name, once more toward our father’s.
Good Lord, how bright and goodly shines the moon!
KATHERINE
The moon? The sun! It is not moonlight now.
PETRUCHIO
I say it is the moon that shines so bright.
KATHERINE
know it is the sun that shines so bright.
PETRUCHIO
Now, by my mother’s son, and that’s myself,
It shall be moon, or star, or what I list,
Or e'er I journey to your father’s house.
(to servants) Go on, and fetch our horses back again.—
Evermore crossed and crossed, nothing but crossed!
HORTENSIO
(to KATHERINE) Say as he says, or we shall never go.
KATHERINE
Forward, I pray, since we have come so far,
And be it moon, or sun, or what you please.
An if you please to call it a rush candle,
Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.
PETRUCHIO
I say it is the moon.
KATHERINE
I know it is the moon.
PETRUCHIO
Nay, then you lie. It is the blessèd sun.
KATHERINE
Then God be blessed, it is the blessèd sun.
But sun it is not, when you say it is not,
And the moon changes even as your mind.
What you will have it named, even that it is,
And so it shall be so for Katherine.
HORTENSIO
Petruchio, go thy ways; the field is won.
>this play really isn’t long enough for there to be any sort of effective torture tactics
ReplyDeleteeh he he
ha
ha
right
I'm not going to respond to that
I'd say that Bianca definitely has a brain, but she's definitely a-ok with using that brainpower on nothing more than with her "tutors".
Tbh i feel like Petruchio is faking it til he makes it. He's getting though on sheer power of charisma and bluster and it's working, and I think your evaluation of Baptista is pretty much correct; he's just trying to get Katherine married off and he doesn't think that Petruchio is the worst possible person and thats's good enough for him.
As far as the passage you referenced, it's Katherine capitulating after over a day of starvation, sleep deprivation, and public embarrassment. She's giving up on independence and rational thought. She's saying that no matter what, even if it contradicts the basic facts of the world around her, her will and her interpretation of reality is entirely subject to whatever Petruchio says, if it will get him to let her sleep, eat, dress, and visit with her family without mortal insult. Its one of the most consequential parts of the story; she capitulates entirely to his coercion. It's frankly horrifying when you look at it in the context of her starvation and sleep deprivation.
Her capitulation and new absolute obedience is emphasized and made into a punchline at the end of the play when she obeys her husband better than her Bianca or the random widow that Hortensio married and, when prompted by Petruchio, berates them with this speech:
KATHERINE:
Fie, fie! Unknit that threat’ning unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor.
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty,
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
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 labor 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.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband’s foot;
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready, may it do him ease.
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DeleteDo you think that Shakespeare is legitimately arguing for total female submission or is he mocking those people who argued for that by envisioning the kind of ridiculous things that would have to happen to make that world a reality? It's hard to tell for me.
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