What would an Elizabethan audience find comic and what would a modern audience?

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What would an Elizabethan audience find comic and what would a modern audience?

Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses many comical devices to explore the ideas of love and marriage, and an Elizabethan and a modern audience would respond differently to certain elements of the play. The main difference between the two audiences, is the view of women and this will be explored and addressed.

The induction scene provides the first dose of humour and acts as the framing device for the rest of the play. This introduces us to Christopher Sly a tinker being thrown out of the ale house by the Hostess. This would be comic for the modern day audience seeing this drunken man acting ridiculously. This would also be amusing to the Elizabethan audience, as it would be strange for them seeing a woman exert power over a man as this was not the usual practice in those times.

In Act one Scene two Petruchio talks to Gremio and explains he has no fears about Katherina.

Kate has previously been described as ‘shrewd’ and ‘curst’ and so is a complete contradiction of any previous description and images of her that have been introduced to the audience.

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“And heaven’s artillery thunder in the skies?

  Have I not in a pitched battle heard”

This provides comedy as Petruchio reduces women to a domestic image and deflates the previous image. A modern audience may not agree with this view as they do not believe woman to be the lesser sex. An Elizabethan woman may also have this view. However an Elizabethan may be able to relate to Petruchio’s comments and may find the sexist mockery amusing.

There are many devices that Shakespeare uses throughout the play to create humour. An example of this is ...

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