Taming of the Shrew MOR part 4
I mean Shakespeare could have made it much longer to include torture scenes, but I don’t think that the general audience would appreciate that kind of…entertainment. Slight hints of female subjugation would have been fine, but water boarding might have been a step to far.
I also think that Bianca might have gotten a bit more entitled after some suitors openly rejected her, that might have skewed her perspective a little bit. I still think that Katherine is totally just playing along so that Petruchio doesn’t get pissed at her more. She’s seen what he can be like with the whole no food or sleep and all and doesn’t want to risk that happening again. She knows that there is no possible way for her to get out of the situation she’s in, so she just goes along with it and bears it. She might be drunk tired, but she is a cunning person.
Why do you think part of her speech rhymed? Like the lines “Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway / When they are bound to serve, love, and obey”, “But that our soft conditions and our hearts / Should well agree with our external parts?”, and “In token of which duty, if he please, / My hand is ready, may it do him ease.” It almost seems like she’s practiced this before, in case something like this might occur.
I think Shakespeare kind of saw this whole issue and let people think what they wanted to of it. I think it could definitely go either way.
What do you think Baptista’s internal response was when Katherine obeyed better than Bianca?
Also, what will it be like when Petruchio and Katherine have kids? Cause you know she’s not going to be allowed a say in that. And what about Lucentio and Bianca? Will it make any of them better people?
I don't think that the torture was there just for torture. He's trying to say something about the subjugation of women in his society, but its hard to puzzle out whether he's in favor of it or opposed to it. No matter what, I doubt I'm gonna get to know what his intent was. But her speech at the end kind of implies that she took his "corrections" to heart: she could have taken the opportunity to berate him and deny his power, but she didn't. She essentially accepted his total domination over her, whether or not she believes it right. Whether or not she believes in it, it has the same external effects, perpetuating subjugation and oppression elsewhere through tacitly approving silence or even active advocacy.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the rhyming goes, I'm not sure what meaning it has within the story, but the following portions until the end of the play also rhyme, probably to create a sense of linguistic closure:
PETRUCHIO
Why, there’s a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.
(They kiss.)
LUCENTIO
Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou shalt ha ’t.
VINCENTIO
’Tis a good hearing when children are toward.
LUCENTIO
But a harsh hearing when women are froward.
PETRUCHIO Come, Kate, we’ll to bed.
We three are married, but you two are sped.
(To Lucentio.) ’Twas I won the wager, though you
hit the white,
And being a winner, God give you good night.
Petruchio (and Katherine) exit.
HORTENSIO
Now, go thy ways, thou hast tamed a curst shrow.
LUCENTIO
’Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so.
I don't think any thought was put into whatever goes on following the story. The characters have served their purpose and cease to exist. I foresee no happy endings in these relationships and fully sympathize with the contemporary playwrights who wrote alternate/extended versions that change the dynamic to be less horrifying.