Review of a Performance - The Taming Of The Shrew.

DRAMA: REVIEW OF A PERFORMANCE THE TAMING OF THE SHREW The performance of 'The Taming of the Shrew' was held at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, on Thursday 22nd May 2003. This romantic comedy is about a rich family from Padua, in the traditional Jacobean period. Baptista (played by Ian Gelder), a rich gentleman, has two daughters, Katherine (played by Alexandra Gilbreath) and Bianca (played by Eve Myles). Katherine is a 'wild and fearsome lass' of whom any man would be petrified to court, whilst fair Bianca has two suitors at the beginning of the play; Hortensio and Gremio. Baptista is adamant that his eldest, Katherine, must marry before his youngest daughter Bianca. A gentleman of Verona, by the name of Petruchio enters the scene and announces that he is to woo Katharine. Meanwhile, Bianca steals yet another man's heart - Lucentio (played by Daniel Hawksford), who disguises himself as a school master 'Cambio' so that he can tutor Bianca for the rest of his stay in Padua. Hortensio (played by Paul Chahidi, deviously inspired by Lucentio, disguises himself as a music teacher for Bianca, while Gremio (played by Christopher Godwin) is happy to find 'Cambio', the schoolmaster, wooing Bianca with romantic poetry on his behalf. Petruchio gains Katherine's hand in marriage and, after Baptista's death, one half of his land 'and in possession

  • Word count: 1551
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The Taming ofthe Shrew

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW Can the shrew of Act 1, credibly be tamed into the loyal wife of Act 5? How does Shakespeare make the transformation of Katherina believable? How could language and staging be used to convey this? The Taming of the Shrew is a play that is written by William Shakespeare and that is set in the 16th century. At the beginning of the play is an Induction where we get told how wives should act with their husband. We get told that wives should carry out anything their husband commands and they should obey them. They should be dutiful, humble and faithful to their husbands. Katherina does not display any of these traits. She is rude, disobedient, temperamental and shrewish. Throughout the play, many of the characters know of her as this but they wonder whether it is because she wants to be like this or whether there is a reason behind it. It does not seem believable that a person could change from being so shrewish to such a tamed woman and so we wonder whether she had merely been looking for a way out. Many of the characters know of her as shrewish and classify her as being shrewish and she gets called many things. Some of the things she gets called are a "fiend of horror", a "curst" and a "wildcat." These things show her nature clearly. We are also told that she has an "impatient devilish spirit" and that she has a "scolding tongue." The

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The Taming of the Shrew - Does It Teach Us Anything About Handling Relationships Today?

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW DOES IT TEACH US ANYTHING ABOUT HANDLING RELATIONSHIPS TODAY? I would say that you probably can learn a little something about modern day relationships from 'The Taming of the Shrew'. We can learn from Katherina's mistakes. Katherina's personality and actions tell us how not to do things if we want a relationship to succeed. Men today are different from those in the time of 'Taming of the Shrew'; their opinions and taste in women have changed. In fact, I think that relationships today are the complete opposite from those in the sixteenth Century as society has changed. Katherina has a problem at the very start of the play, where she is being forced in to marriage. The reason for this is that her younger sister, Bianca, wants to get married but can't unless Katherina does first. This is summed up when Baptista, her father says 'That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter before I have a husband for the elder'. Not only that, not many men want to marry Katherina because she has such a strong personality. They are used to obedient, quiet wives who are seen but not heard. Katherina is the total opposite on this matter being rude, loud, aggressive and feisty. 'She'll sooner prove a soldier', 'She is intolerable, curst and shrewd', 'I'll see thee hanged on Sunday first'. Katherina said that last quote in response to being told she was to marry

  • Word count: 951
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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How do the Inductions and Act 1 Prepare Us for Comedy?

How do the Inductions and Act 1 Prepare Us for Comedy? In the last 400 years peoples sense of humour and what makes us laugh has changed dramatically, so too have our attitudes to humour and what we find acceptable to laugh at. Comedy, however, is always easily recognisable as good humour and most of what has been written to make people amused in the past is relevant and distinguishable as comedy today. It is the medium through which society's sense of humour has been established down the centuries, the ways in which it is projected to the masses and the different guises it takes are ever changing. Since the early days of Chaucer and Shakespeare, comedy as a whole has been broken down and has now evolved, once simple 'elements' of comedy have now branched out into different facets of the genre: dark comedy, farce, parody etc. this is a result of writers constantly trying to find new ways of making us laugh. The Shakespearean comedies are thought by some to be the birth of modern comedy as they utilised the fundamentals of many comic aspects we associate with the genre today and elements such as word play, slap stick, satire and the like are all present in his comic plays. In order to define the genre of a Shakespeare play such as 'Taming of the Shrew' from the outset (my objective in this essay), we must understand the difference between a Shakespearean or indeed

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The Taming of the Shrew - Was Katherina really tamed?

The Taming of the Shrew - Was Katherina really tamed? Upon completing reading The Taming of the Shrew mine, and probably many other people's, answer to this question was an immediate yes, Pertruchio had 'tamed' Katherina (Kate), reducing her to a subservient slave with little will of her own. This was largely due to the vastly different attitudes Kate expresses throughout the play. Before going to live with Pertruchio, Kate is very strong-minded and will not allow anyone, especially Pertruchio, to be the boss of her. "I see a woman may be made a fool, If she had not a spirit to resist." The speech made by Kate at the end of the play portrays her as being a completely different person; her attitudes are seemingly reversed. "Such duty as the subject owes the prince Even such a woman oweth to her husband...." However, upon further analysis of the character of Kate this view becomes more and more absurd. The main reason I question whether or not Kate is truly tamed is that the change itself is so rapid and so utterly complete. One minute Kate is still resisting and almost insulting Pertruchio by scorning a gift to her; "I never saw a better-fashion'd gown, More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable: Belike you mean to make a puppet of me." The next minute, Kate simply believes anything Pertruchio says and obeys any orders given to her; "PETRUCHIO: I

  • Word count: 1725
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Taming of the Shrew - Katherine

In Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, one topic that has been debated, interpreted, discussed, reinterpreted and adapted has been the character of Katharine, the shrew, and whether she was tamed, liberated, or just a good enough actress to make everyone think she was in fact, tamed. There are many arguments for and against each of these points, as well as an argument that discusses one television adaptation of Taming of the Shrew that presents Katherine not as the expected shrew, but as Petruccio's tamer. In addition to the television show, two different movies also discuss the present different adaptations of Katherine. The first movie is the Franco Zaffirelli adaptation staring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. This movie presents an adaptation in which Petruccio tames Katherine, but leaves it open for the viewers to interpret whether or not Katherine is just acting. The other example I am using is a movie called 10 Things I Hate About You. This movie is a 1999 adaptation of the Taming of the Shrew. Although the directors have changed almost every part of the Shakespearean play, the underlying story is mostly the same. Kat and Patrick are thrown together, and it becomes Patrick's job to tame Kat. In this adaptation, both Kat and Patrick learn and change from each other. Though there are many adaptations and interpretations of Katherine and the way she turns out, she is

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The Taming of the Shrew - What is the view of love and marriage presented in The Taming of The Shrew? Which of the married couples do you think will have the most successful marriage and why?

The Taming of the Shrew What is the view of love and marriage presented in The Taming of The Shrew? Which of the married couples do you think will have the most successful marriage and why? In this play the issues of love and marriage have a great significance. All the relationships in the play are all linked to possible marriages whether directly, e.g. Petrutchio and Katherina, or indirectly, e.g. Baptista and Hortensio (Bianca's suitor). Every character who marries or has anything to do with arranging a marriage in the Taming of the Shrew has a different attitude to marriage itself. Because the taming of the shrew is a play and not a novel it is not told from a specific point of view and the presentation of all the characters has a lot of importance in the way the play is interpreted. The views of love and marriage are expressed differently through the characters in the play. In general the male characters have all the power because the play is set in Elizabethan times where like most other things marriage was very male dominated. Women were not seen as equal to men and had little or usually no choice in who they married. As a father Baptista is keen to get his daughters married as soon as possible. He has the choice of whom his daughters marry and does not care if they love his daughters only if they are wealthy, "... can assure my daughter the greatest dower shall have

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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'The Taming of the Shrew' is a play written by Shakespeare in Elizabethan times to examine many complex ideas, including those of social roles and marital harmony.

'The Taming of the Shrew' is a play written by Shakespeare in Elizabethan times to examine many complex ideas, including those of social roles and marital harmony. These two in particular relate to the character of Kate, and the way her circumstances change and the way she reacts creates the main interest of the play. At the beginning of the play, we meet Katherina, also known as Kate, as a fiery, wilful, aggressive and apathetic young woman of the Italian town of Padua. We learn she is known for these undesirable traits, and laughed at by the men and women of Padua alike, and a common target of hurtful ridicule. All the strain of this is merely worsened by the apparent perfection of her sister, Bianca. As much as Katherina is rebellious, shrewish and undesired, Bianca is her opposite and has many suitors. Bianca fits the Renaissance female ideal in her unassuming, graceful, intelligent and mild nature. The light in her father, Baptista's eye, and the heart's desire of so many, Bianca is a source of much jealousy and insecurity for Kate. Katherina is clearly intelligent and independent, and so refuses to play her social role as the 'maiden daughter'. Instead, she would always insult and degrade all men she came across, and fiercely deter all suitors, much to the anguish of her father, determined to have her wed. Kate detests society's expectations of her, like how

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Directing Act 5 Scene 2 Lines 63-179 of “The Taming of the Shrew”

Directing Act 5 Scene 2 Lines 63-179 of "The Taming of the Shrew" I will be directing part of Act five scene two. This is the part where most of the main characters are all together and Petruchio shows all the other men that he has tamed Kate. All the men have a bet on whose wife is the most obedient. I have chosen to set my piece in the present time because I want the modern day audience to sympathise with both Katherina and Petruchio. I am going to set this in a stately home because the men will be playing cards and the women will be talking in a nearby room. The servants will be also playing cards because Biondello and Gremio are also good friends of their masters. The house will belong to Lucentio. I have chose to use a stately home because it is the closest thing to the type of housing and the class the people in the original play were set in. I thought that although the stately home is the closest thing to the original, the modern day audience would still be able to relate to the characters and settings a lot easier. The men will be dressed in casual suits with a loosened tie, to create the effect of the upper class relaxing with a few friends. Kate will be wearing a long flowing dress to show that she is like an ordinary upper class lady instead of the more radical clothing she would have worn before the taming process. Biannca and the widow will also be wearing the

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The Taming on the Shrew

William Shakespere's "The Taming on the Shrew" was written in 1954. During this time Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne. The country was heavily Christian, and were well taught and mannered. Due to the way that society was in those times women had little or no authority. Girls who were married belonged to their fathers and they would have "suitors" who were rich men and often a lot older than the girls, come and boast about how much they owned. The girl's father would then come and choose the suitor who offered her the most land and money. He would then give a dowry to him to cover the cost of her well being. Once Girls were married the belonged to their husbands. They then had a little more authority as being the lady of the house, but still they were inferior to men. Women gained no supremacy until around 1920 when they got the vote. Before then society was largely unfair from a woman's point of view, although at the time they may not have though so. Some people in our modern day society would find this play offensive. Mr. G B Shaw wrote to the 'Pal Mal Gazette' that he thought it was "...a piece which is one vile offence to womanhood and manhood from the first word to the last. I think that no woman should enter the theatre where that play is performed." He was very strongly against this play. I personally don't think that this play is offensive. It is only comically

  • Word count: 1255
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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