Curs monografic de literatura anglesa
Caterina Del Canto
Grupo A
The taming of the shrew in relation with Twelfth Night
Katherina and Viola : Opposite lifestyles which share true love
Viola and Katherina are two main characters of Shakespeare’s comedies. They represent opposite female lifestyles: Katherina has a strong personality, she fights to maintain her integrity because she doesn’t want to be submitted to the rules of the society she lives in and first of all she doesn’t submit to a man’s will. In fact it seems to be her intention holding out, more than she can, against seduction’s attempts, also using violence if it is necessary; but it is important to know that she can behave in this way because of her high social condition. Her rich father can support her and she doesn’t need to work to live, then she is free to be whatever she wants.
On the other hand Viola has a more complicated situation: she is parentless so she hasn’t the economic support of her father as Katherina. The only person who lives with her is her brother but, after a terrible shipwreck, she finds herself alone in a land called Illyria and she believes her twin brother is drowned in the wreck. In this strange land she wants to figure out what sort of work she can do to survive. A friendly sea captain tells her about Orsino’s courtship of Olivia (here we can find a difference between Katherine and Viola: Viola accepts the captain’s help with humility, which lacks in Katherina’s personality) and Viola says that she wishes she could go to work in Olivia’s home; but there’s one first problem because Lady Olivia refuses to talk with any strangers, so Viola decides that she cannot look for work with her. She decides to put on male attire and makes everyone else believe that she is a man, taking on the name of Cesario, and going to work to the household of Orsino, Duke of Illyria.
From this moment on it is easy to note how these two characters behave in two opposite manners.
Katherina always tells and says whatever she wants or feels, in fact she finds herself insulting every man she meets, she doesn’t have a good relationship neither with her sister nor with her father because of her uneasiness. Viola is a kind girl who loves her brother very much and they have a strong relationship to each other; in the moment she finds herself alone, believing in her brother’s death and disguising as a man, she is unable to act like her true self. For example, she finds herself falling in love with Orsino a difficult love to pursue, as Orsino believes she is a man. She cannot show her true feelings and, therefore, she has to convince Olivia to marry him.
Both girls are quite similar under a certain point of view because they seem to be free and independent until the meeting with their lovers ( Petruchio for Katherina and Orsino for Viola), although they seem to lose their freedom (Katherina loses the freedom of saying whatever she wants in the way which she was used to, that is always high and mighty and Viola loses physical freedom because she becomes a page) for different reasons: Katherina, who is a shrew at the beginning of the comedy, shifts her bad temper into a lovely and obedient behaviour. Viola is apparently free before the shipwreck but she has to submit herself to Orsino’s orders because it is her work. She can’t say what she wants, she can’t do what she wants, she only has to satisfy his desires, totally losing her attitude.
Although both of them live such different lives and experiences and have such opposite personalities, in the end they find themselves at a common ground: they suffer painfully from being in love and in spite of everything they don’t look for another man to get their situation better (this is a sigh of true love in contrast with other characters like Bianca, Katherina’s sister, who never expresses a preference or characters like Orsino and Olivia, who seem to be self –indulgently love sick, Orsino jumps from Olivia to Viola and Olivia jumps from Viola to Sebastian); in fact, Katherina after marrying Petrucchio has to learn to control her bad temper. During all the taming process she makes a special effort to do this transformation, which terminates after many situations where she feels frustrated; but at the end every effort will be worth Katherina’s while because, with Petrucchio, she has found love and the peace which she was searching for.
Viola has to hide what she feels for Orsino (we can see Viola in the second act, scene ii.35 who sighs unhappily that” My state is desperate for my master’s love”) and in the same she time has to convince Olivia to marry him and she has to refuse every sort of Olivia’s carefulness; in fact Olivia falls in love with Cesario and Orsino repeatedly sends Cesario, for instance, to deliver messages to Olivia, so that the situation of Viola is very difficult and painful. Viola demonstrates sacrificial qualities early in the play, but they only come to fruition through her service and ultimate sacrifice to Orsino; she can’t do anything to save herself from this situation: Viola loves Orsino, Orsino loves Olivia, Olivia loves Cesario and everyone is miserable: love can cause pain, but also in this comedy every problems will be resolved. In fact Sebastian, who is still alive after all but believes his sister Viola to be dead, arrives in Illyria along with his friend and protector, Antonio; when Sebastian, who looks just like the disguised Viola, appears on the scene after marrying Olivia, who thought he was Cesario, all is revealed: Cesario is Viola and Orsino realizes that he loves Viola, now that he knows she is a woman and asks her to marry him.
True love has been recompensed.
BIOGRAPHY
· http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/twelfthnight/summary.html