A little over 400 years ago on April 23rd William Shakespeare passed away, however, he became somewhat immortal through his fantastic dramas and literature. We learn about his tragedies, comedies, and poetry even today all around the world in high schools and at the university level. Famous English romantic poet John Keats even kept a copy of Shakespearian literature near his desk in the hope that Shakespeare himself would spark his creativity. Shakespeare is such an important figure in British...
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The works of William Shakespeare, most specifically his plays, are cornerstones of western literature. Pieces that were merely intended for public entertainment are now considered timeless, and are still being researched, adapted, and enjoyed hundreds of years later. One of the reasons for this is the strong thematic nature of his stories. The Taming of the Shrew is a play that on the surface seems like an example of “wife-taming” literature typical of the time, but if we look closer,...
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Narratives which lampoon chauvinistic and misogynistic behaviour whilst simultaneously reaffirming their social validity, ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘Vinegar Girl’ blur the distinction between parody and ideals. Constructed upon the backdrop of a strict renaissance gender hegemony and its leftovers of a similarly gender-driven hierarchy, William Shakespeare and Anne Tyler critique the perception of “Shrewishness” as a product of milieu and the personal transformation undergone by such a terminology’s oppression. The ways in which love and marriage are viewed...
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Shakespeare’s immense impact on the world of literature and language is still present today, over 400 years later. The themes, ideas, and messages across his works, still being relevant today, suggest he was not of an age, but in fact, for all time. Shakespeare transformed nouns into verbs, verbs to adjectives, and suffixes and prefixes were added to adjust the meaning of particular words. His invention of more than 1,700 words and phrases including bump, lonely, amazement and upstairs, makes...
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Two of Shakespeare’s plays which focus heavily on the theme of gender are The Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night. In both plays, Shakespeare simultaneously supports and poses challenges to early-modern understandings of gender. In The Taming of the Shrew, the misogynistic treatment of Kate reflects the patriarchal values which were standard of the period, whilst subtle mocking and satire directed at her abuser, Petruchio, challenge the notion of male superiority. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s indication of homoerotic feelings...
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In Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of the Shrew, a number of individuals assume different identities through an array of varying illusions. Deception is a prominent thematic concern within the play, as a multitude of characters adopt disguises, only to reveal their true personalities. Bianca conceals her genuine temperament through her misleading behaviour, while both Hortensio and Lucentio don physical guises of schoolmasters’ clothing; for his part, the merchant who pretends to be Vincentio is disguised under duress. Although these characters...
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In The Taming of the Shrew Shakespeare highlights and examines issues regarding gender relationships and inequality in the Elizabethan era. The subject of gender serves as a central idea of the work and interpretation can vary from reader to reader. Shakespeare uses Baptista’s two daughters Katherina and Bianca and their suitors within the play to examine the concept of Gender relationships and the issues within said relationships. In The Taming of the Shrew, The Minola sisters are written with a...
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Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is often criticized for its seemingly misogynistic themes: namely, the idea of breaking a woman’s spirit and making her subservient to her husband. This is apparent through the “taming” of the play’s lead female character, Katherine Minola. Katherine, better known as Kate, is hard-headed, stubborn, and prone to speaking her mind. In the patriarchal society of Shakespeare’s day, which valued weak and submissive woman, her behavior does not go over well with her male...
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Is it true that having an obsession with money could lead to making radical decisions? In the play The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, there is constant decision making on who or whom not to marry. In particular, Petruchio, one of the main characters in the play, is specific about who he marries due to his obsession with money. He says that he will only marry someone if they have lots of money, no matter how they look...
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In 1999, the cult classic “10 Thing I Hate About You” came out. This movie rode on the ideas of Third wave feminism, which was highly prevalent in the 1990s and early 2000’s, unlike its original source material: Taming of the Shrew. Written in the late 16th century, Taming of the shrew is reflective of the renascences misogynistic, patriarchal and mistreatment of the women in that time. The original play tells the story of Petruchio (Patrick in the film) ,...
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Since gender and sexuality are interpreted as a construct of society and since literature is a method of cultural representation, works of literature can both emphasize gender norms and construct newer, less restricting portrayals of gender and sexuality. This fluctuating state of gender identity based on current societal values is conveyed in works ranging from Renaissance Shakespeare to Romantic Mary Shelley and Victorian Robert Louis Stevenson. While Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew demonstrates a female response against societal norms...
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The topic in this year’s festival is intertextuality between different texts. Intertextuality allows us to draw on existing ideas to create interesting new works and these texts are strongly influenced by society and culture. Shakespeare’s plays are some of the most well-known and adapted texts. His play Taming of the Shrew written in 1590 was adapted in 1999 into the film directed by Gil Junger, 10 Things I Hate About You. In adapting Taming of the Shrew into a modern...
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Today we are discussing how modern texts like 10 Things I Hate about You has borrowed an older text like The Taming Of the Shrew by comparing and contrasting different elements of both stories. Characters are a significant part of both the Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate about You as they drive the story as a whole and the types of characters that are involved are important in a story as it creates different types of...
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Comedy in the world of Greek playwriting was considered a popular and influential form of theatre. In addition, Greek tragedy was also a popular form of genre for theatre, which mainly expressed scenarios or stories that end tragically mainly for the protagonist. In addition, Greek comedy is considered to be a public popular culture which in modern times, almost parallels the environment and atmosphere of a major football match. According to Aristotle, Catharsis was the purpose of a tragedy, which...
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Shakespeare wrote two of his greatest plays during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. She was an example of a strong and competent woman. When she addresses the troops at Tilbury, she was dressed from the waist up in armor and, from the waist down in a dress. She was showing that she was a queen and a lady but also showing that she was a strong woman and was worthy of wearing amour just like a man. When speaking to...
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The Taming of The Shrew was one of Shakespeare’s earlier Elizabethan comedies, written in the early 1590s. Set in Renaissance Italy, it is likely that inspiration grew from popular English ballads and folktales, telling of shrewish wives tamed by their belligerent husbands. This relationship dynamic was common in this era, particularly in the male-dominated literary world. The play has recently become less popular, particularly due to its controversial assertion of the subordination of women that is distasteful to modern viewers....
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A common theme of William Shakespeare’s plays is romantic love and the quest for it; a vast amount of Shakespeare’s most celebrated works include plots which concern heterosexual romance. It can be argued that, for a lot of Shakespearian plays, this theme has a role in the plot of being a catalyst for the events that unfold. It’s typical; for Shakespeare’s works to include men or women on a quest for an idyllic form of ‘true love’, an idea that...
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“We know what we are but know not what we may be.” -Ophelia, Hamlet (1603) The rising power of Queen Elizabeth as the monarch which had traditionally been a male preserve, resulted in “destabilizing the structure of a society” (Carole Levin 93) which always expected a man to be the ruler. The renaissance society did not traditionally value the freedom of women. With Queen Elizabeth I’s reign and Puritanism which believed in spiritual equality among the sexes questioning the old...
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