Evaluate the different Interpretations of the Taming of Katherina.

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Jon Walker

Evaluate the different Interpretations of the Taming of Katherina.

One of the main points of interest surrounding the play is its ambiguity. The play can be interpreted in many different ways. Many historians disagree as to the way the play ends, for example. Some feminists believe Katherina ends strongly having the last word. Others believe that Petruchio is made out to be stronger as he manages to tame Katherina. In Act 4 Scene 5, however, we see Katherina and Petruchio’s relationship in a new light, but has Katherina been tamed? Is she conscious of the taming and playing up to it? Is the taming beneficial to Katherina? Also if the taming were successful or unsuccessful then surely it would provide a viewpoint, which is more favourable to one of the sexes. If she is tamed then Petruchio is stronger. If she is using the taming for her own advantages then she is stronger.

        The first interpretation would be that Petruchio is seen as the ‘comic hero’ – one to be admired by the audience -  and that Shakespeare has ‘sold out’ – writing a play about perhaps the most talked about topic of the time (marriage) in order to appeal to the majority. Many plays were written about the taming of wives at the time Shakespeare wrote this one, including ‘The Taming of A Shrew’ – the similarity in the names of the plays here demonstrates how similar writers ideas were at the time. It could also mean, however, that if ‘The Taming of A Shrew’ was brought out before Shakespeare’s play, then Shakespeare could have used the idea and simply made a parody out of it.

In Act 4 Scene 5 Petruchio and Katherina are travelling to Baptista’s  house. The meet Vincentio on the way, who is travelling to Lucentio’s house. On the journey Katherina demonstrates how she has let Petruchio even determine the sun and the moon for her. She says to Petruchio, ‘..sun it is not, when you say it is not, and the moon changes even as your mind.’ This suggests to us that Katherina is merely under complete control of Petruchio, and that Petruchio can be admired by the audience at this point in the play. This certainly is a marked contrast in Katherina’s behaviour,  earlier in the play she was striking Hortensio with a lute, now she seems very passive, also suggesting that the taming was successful.

        Shakespeare could also be using a clever play on words here to show that in fact Katherina is the most intelligent in this situation. Katherina says that ‘the moon changes even as your mind’. This suggests that there is a certain amount of insanity in Petruchio’s actions. The word for lunacy comes from the roman word for the moon – Luna. So suggesting that Petruchio’s mind changes like the moon is perhaps subtly suggesting that he is crazy. For the audience the Sun and Moon was a well known symbol, so would have perhaps a large affect on the way they see this relationship. The idea was that the man was symbolised as the sun, the most powerful, and that the woman was represented by the moon, the weaker. The moon does not shine on its own, it merely reflects the moon.

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The social context at the time this was written would also suggest that Petruchio was to be admired; Trevelyan, an historian, wrote that ‘wife beating was a recognised right of man and was practiced, without shame, by high and low’ – this makes it clear that men were the dominant forces in society. Critics at the time wrote that Petruchio was ‘a very honest fellow’. The critic Hazlitt wrote that ‘The Shrew demonstrates how self will is only to be got the better of by stronger will [Petruchio’s will]’. Another critic, Shaw, wrote that Shakespeare’s comedy was ‘realistic’ and that ...

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