I had always been a Shakespeare lover since I’m super into English Literature, but if you ask me if there are any of those tales I dislike, it would be the Taming of the Shrew. When my English teacher introduced me to this story, she told me it was amazing. Me being me, I grabbed the book immediately on some online shop. As I read on, the content started terrifying me more and more and in the end, I had to rant to my friends how absolutely horrifying the story was.
As some may know, the story starts with two sisters, Katharina who is older, and Bianca. Now Bianca has tons of suitors for her hand since she’s kind and gentle and tender and fragile, basically a doll. Katharina, on the other hand, is described as having an ungoverned temper and hot and angry tongue. She is the so-called “shrew” in the story, just because she speaks her mind. And actually knows how to debate. Men are afraid of her, so she wouldn’t get married anytime soon. However, according to tradition, the eldest child must marry first before the second does, and therefore Katharina’s father is miserable that Bianca couldn’t get married. (Yes, the backstory is long but important, sorry!) So this guy named Petruchio walks up to Katharina’s father Baptista and claims that he could “tame” Katharine. Daddy is happy and agrees. In order to fulfil his promise, Petruchio acts crazy in the wedding, shaming Katharina, refuses to provide her food nor clean clothes when she doesn’t obey but using the excuse of love, and because the girl doesn’t want to die of hunger and wants to go see her poor excuse of a father, she eventually obeys everything her hubby says. Here’s the exact dialogue of how extreme the abuse is:
Nay, then you lie: it is the blessed sun.
Then, God be bless'd, it is the blessed sun:
But sun it is not, when you say it is not;
And the moon changes even as your mind.
What you will have it named, even that it is;
And so it shall be so for Katharina.
The ending is that Katharina is forced to agree and obey everything Petruchio says, no matter how illogical the situation is or how much her opinion should matter. She was declared most obedient wife in all of Padua, and many congratulated Petruchio into succeeding to tame her.
Katharina faced all this mistreating just because Petruchio wanted to win a bet.
And this, my dear readers, have been considered comedy for ages.
According to this book, girls who have opinions or any rejections against how others, other women included, is considered loud, rude, and something to avoid. Girls would be forced to not get any sleep or food if they don’t obey what a man tells her to do. Girls are paraded around like trophies, only deemed highly if they don’t know how to defend themselves, only considered appropriate if you don’t have own knowledge and have to rely on men. If a girl is the eldest, they will most likely be married off as soon as possible to pave a road for their younger siblings. Let’s be logical here: how would you feel if you've been hated by men across the city because you speak your mind? (Believe me, if I had to argue, Katharine wasn’t even expressing her opinions, she was simply stating facts and protecting herself. That, in the Taming of the Shrew, is something wrong to do) Your father ashamed of you because of your personality and that men never took a liking to you? That you were only considered an object to be bet on even though you are a fully-functioning human, with thoughts, emotions and feelings? That you can be starved or losing sleep at night without a care from others, not even care from your family, and have to beg your servants to give you food so you can stay alive?
Katharina faced this every. single. day since she opened her mouth and actually drop knowledge. She was considered a hinder of family fortune by her father, so he wouldn’t treat her equal to Bianca, her oh-so-perfect sister. Bianca, watching her father’s attitude towards her older sister as she grew, would, of course, think it wouldn’t be a problem to diss Katharina. Same goes for the serfs in the house. Katharina was a victim of constant bullying throughout her whole life, who could blame her if she lashed back at those who tried to hurt her? Then she got married to Petruchio, a man she instantly despised as soon as she met him (for good reason!), and was treated even lowlier than a beggar. Sure she had clothes to wear, but that was all she got. Everything she faced in her marriage was abuse and humiliation. No one would be able to take it, however, who could she, Katharina the “Shrew”, possibly turn to? In the end, through all the layers of hurt, she was forced to succumb.
I can’t call this article an analyse since everything I just wrote was laid down clearly in the story. The Taming of the Shrew was a piece telling the world how absolutely helpless women were to men. Women don’t have freedom of speech, they will always remain damsels in distress, so don’t you even think that women can rise up from this shaming role. Yet, this piece was written during the Renaissance, gender roles weren't treated fairly back then. But damn! It’s the 21st century, 2017, right here, right now! And people, women included, still treat this as one of the best pieces written by Shakespeare?
The Taming of the Shrew is a tragedy, a tragedy claiming that it’s a-ok to destroy a woman completely.
