This work is intented to
analyse Baptista, one of the most important primary
characters in “The Taming of the
Shrew”, by William Shakespeare.
Baptista is a wealthy citizen of
Furthermore, Baptista is
the unique paternal figure of the family, and so being the head of a family and
father of two daughters, he adopts a conservative personality and he is a bit
male chauvinist in the education of Kate and Bianca. This fact revels that he
will not allow the younger daughter to be married before the older daughter.
As a consequence, Lucentio
who arrives in Padua to study, as soon as he sees Bianca, he falls in love with
her and he changes identities with his servant Tranio, and gets a job as
Bianca’s tutor in order to be close to her. On the other hand, Bianca is also
wooed by Gremio and Hortensio and both decided to join forces to find a husband
for Katherine. Nevertheless, Petruchio of Verona is visiting Hortensio and he
agrees to help his friend by marrying Katherine, above all, when he knows the
prize of her dowry that Baptista has to offer to whom marries with Kate because
she is reputed through Padua to be a Shrew. She is always bad-tempered and
sharp-tongued and she is constantly insulting and degrading the men around her
in contrast to the sweetie Bianca. On the other hand , she acts as a Shrew
because she feels desperate and jealous about her father’s treatment of her
sister.
At the end, Baptista accepts Petruchio
as a son-in-law and he arrives late for his wedding and badly dressed, he
behaves strange during the celebration and he takes her back to his country
house soon afterwards such as Kate submitted to every Petruchio’s order. So
then, he demonstrated to Baptista that Kate was tamed by her own husband. After
the Bianca’s wedding with Lucentio, Hortensio decided to marry with a rich
widow. Finally, Lucentio, Hortensio and Petruchio demonstrate to Baptista to
whom belongs to the most obedient woman. To that situation, the three men
reclaim their wives and the only woman who obeys to her husband is Katherina,
now a tamed person.
In
the Elizabethan period, a gentleman was anyone who was able to practise law,
teach in the university, practise medicine and the liberal sciences, afford the
deportment, costs and appearances of a gentleman willing to bear these and or so
on. Likewise, Baptista, in the society within the play, is considered as a wealthy
citizen who educates his daughters showing great courage in the field of
nobility as a token of his exalted position. He lives in
Another
important aspect that he agrees and promotes in the society, and above all,
over his daughter Kate with Petruchio, is the marriage without love and learn
each other over time .
Well, go with me, and
be not so discomfited;
Proceed in practice with my younger daughter;...(II,1,
1007)
Moreover, like in his time, people
attach great importance to money to the upper class. This is the reason why
Baptista offers a generous dowry to the man who marries his daughter Kate as a
custom of the European society, and nevertheless, in order to get a husband for
his undesirable daughter. Generally, a dowry was a grant usually consisting of
real state, valuables, or money, and it was customary for a bride or her family
to provide the groom a dowry. Also, the husband maintained complete control of
the dowry. Although he could not transfer it to another person, he could accrue
investment income from it for the family. (1)
After my death, the one half of my
lands
And, in possession, twenty thousand crowns. (II,1,964)
Then,
in his male chauvinist society, universities would not admit women, the future
for most girls involved marriage, children, and household duties. (1) And with regard to his
personality, he acts as a male chauvinist man over all the play among his both
daughters, a younger daughter will not
be married before the older daughter in a wealthy family.
What, will my daughter prove a good musician? (II,1,988)
As a head of a family, he becomes a sovereign
subject to whom his daughters have to obey. However, just as the sovereign had
to govern with justice and concern for the welfare of the citizens, parents had
to be responsible in the choice of spouse for their children. Thus both
practical common sense and religious teaching required that children not be
forced into marriages they resisted. Even Kate's father, Baptista, in The
Taming of the Shrew, will approve Petruchio's offer of marriage only (2)
. . . when the special thing is well obtained,
That is, her love, for that is all in all.(II.1.128-29)
In my opinion, Baptista Minola treats his
daughters, Bianca and Katharina, like marionettes, expecting them always to do
his bidding because he is who decides
whom Bianca will marry (the richest bachelor), and he is who orders Katharina's betrothal to
Petruchio, a man she says she despises.
Nevertheless, The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy that satirizes silly or
unfair social customs, often through farce. Farce is a type of comedy that
relies on exaggeration, horseplay, and unrealistic or improbable situations to
provoke laughter. In a farce, plotting takes precedence over characterization. (3)
And finally, there are surveys that show
Baptista Minola is like Christopher Sly who relieves anything that the Lords
tell him. He readily takes in the tutors and accepts their identities. He also
accepts Tranio as Lucentio without any sort of questioning. (4)
-http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/shrew/themes.html
-http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/lambtales/LTSHREW.HTM
-http://www.william-shakespeare.info/play-characters-taming-of-the-shrew.htm
http://www.absoluteshakespeare.com/plays/taming_of_the_shrew/taming_of_the_shrew.htm
-http://www.novelguide.com/tamingoftheshrew/index.html
-http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/taming_shrew/index.html
-Shakespeare, William. The
Taming of the Shrew. Ed. Brian Morris.
-The Taming of the Shrew, Texts
and Contexts. Ed. Frances Dolan.
-The Taming of the Shrew.
Ed. H. J. Oliver.
-The Taming of the Shrew.
Ed. G. R. Hibbard. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1968
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(2)http://ise.uvi.ca/Library/SLT/society/children.html
(3)http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xTaming.html
(4) http://www.novelguide.com/tamingoftheshrew/metaphoranalysis.html