colective paper

COLECTIVE PAPER: KATHARINA'S MANIPULATION

The role of women in Elizabethan society is crucial when explaining Katharina’s personality in The Taming of the Shrew. First of all, women were in a situation of inferiority if we compare them with men. The patriarchal society of the time treated women as objects and they were subject to male authority (fathers and husbands mainly). “Male supremacy was a matter of fathers as well as of husbands” (Saccio). Since they did not have independence, they needed to find a husband in order to be socially accepted, but that choice was always left to the father. Moreover, “disobedience was very badly seen, as it meant a crime against their religion” (Alchin). That is why Katharina’s personality was seen as totally inappropriate for a woman of her class. But the important thing here is that she was physically and psychologically crushed by this patriarchal society.

We have seen that Kate is manipulated throughout the play by her family and by Petruchio, but she is also capable of influencing those around her. Her sister is regarded as the perfect girl, and is also the favourite of her father and suitors. But actually, she is the opposite, because at the end of the play the roles are reversed. For that reason Katharina wants to take revenge on her, and her aim is to show Bianca up. It is not a matter of jealousy, but of justice, because Kate has had to bear the humiliation of being always ‘the lost sheep’. Even though she has been manipulated by others her whole life, she has learned from Petruchio to play the game. And that is what she does, especially in the final speech at the end of the play. Another important aspect is that she also takes revenge on Bianca’s suitors, because they were always despising her, but, nevertheless, she ends up being the perfect wife they had always dreamed of.

At the beginning of the play there was chaos, and this being a comedy, we would expect a restoration of the order. But in this play there are some aspects which remain unsolved. For example: the fact that both sisters do not reconcile, because Kate is only interested in taking revenge on Bianca. With the help of Petruchio, she shows that she is a much better wife and woman, whereas Bianca had always been deceitful. Taking into account the final scene, in which Bianca does not behave as we would expect, we can presume that her relationship with Lucentio will deteriorate soon, because he fell in love with “a seemingly flawless Bianca” (123helpme). In the case of Katharina and Petruchio, we can deduce that they will be happier because they get to know each other quite well and their love is not idealized. But generally, we can say that the initial chaos is restored with the marriages and with Kate’s ‘apparent’ change of personality. That is the key point in this play: “nothing is what it seems to be at first sight”.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

· Saccio, Peter. Kate Plays the Game. <http://www.amrep.org/past/shrew1/html>

· Alchin, Linda K. Elizabethan Era.

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-women.htm

· http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=16685

Academic year 2006/2007

paseher@alumni.uv.es