The Taming of the Shrew - Does It Teach Us Anything About Handling Relationships Today?

Katherina’s behaviour would be completely acceptable in today’s society. We know this because if you take a modern day shrew like Madonna, she can act just the way Katherina does, being loud, aggressive, feisty, opinionated and independent. Yet she can still be famous and sell millions of records where as nobody wanted to know Katherina, she was even likened to the devil by her own father in Act 2 Scene 1 ‘Thou hilding of a devilish spirit’.

Katherina flirts a lot with Petruchio when they first meet. ‘Petruchio: Myself am moved to woo thee for my wife.’ ‘Katherina: ‘Moved’ – in good time!’ I think she does quite like him but because of her reputation she can’t show it properly. Katherina’s relationship with Petruchio is a difficult one as it is quite violent which is down to Katherina’s personality and Petruchio trying to tame her. Petruchio uses different methods to try and tame Katherina like in Act 4 Scene 1 where he starves her ‘And better ‘twere that both of us did fast’ he told her the food wasn’t cooked properly but it was and she knew it.  In the same scene he also would not let her sleep ‘Last night she slept not, nor tonight she shall not’ he wants her to see the error of her ways by ‘Killing her with her own humour’.  I would say that Katherina’s anger is justified because personally I wouldn’t like to be starved of food and sleep, as I’d be a bit moody after that as well. This kind of relationship would not be acceptable today as what Petruchio did was like torture and that is illegal.

At the end of the play, Katherina says a speech in which she criticises the way she used to be. Now, if she wasn’t tamed then she would have trouble saying that speech without choking on her words, as she would be really contradicting herself.  She calls all shrews miserable and ugly ‘like a fountain troubled…bereft of beauty’. In Shakespeare’s time divorce was a disgrace to the whole family and because of this Katherina might want to keep the peace to save her marriage, however I do think that she was truly tamed.

After exploring the play I have not changed my original response to the question. I also believe that men have changed their opinions about women and most men don’t actually go for the shy, quiet, ‘seen and not heard type’ anymore. They want somebody with a more out going personality, someone they can have fun with instead of sitting at home watching paint dry, so to speak.

Personally, I think women should have their own views, opinions and life without men bossing them about. We don’t need men to boss us about now because times have changed and women can fend for themselves. There are more and more women getting better paid jobs than before but I still don’t think that we should act like we don’t need men at all because we do need them sometimes, for example, if we want to marry or have children. I would agree that women should be independent, but not entirely, as men need us as much as we need them.