Taming Of The Shrew Gender Analysis

Throughout time, the moral standards and values of society and its members greatly changes, this in turn tremendously affects the perception of the actions performed by those in the past. Specifically in the perception of literature, the perspective in which it is viewed significantly influences how people understand them. If we look at literature written in the past through a modern lens while applying modern standards and values to it, much of the subject’s essence is lost in that translation because their is no attempt to understand what the writing meant when it was written, nor an effort to try and dig deeper for analysis of the writing. This is the cause of debate of the role that sexism plays in William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. …show more content…
At the start of the play, Kate is seen arguing with her sister, Bianca, and her father, Baptista, due to her father’s apparent favoritism of her younger sister, and also because of this she is viewed as a “shrew”. This perception of Kate by other characters, some saying marrying her would resemble being, “... married to hell” (Act 1, Scene 1, line 124), only illuminates what “the shrew”, as a symbol, represents. The shrew, in this play and in society at this time, did not represent a characteristic of a person, but rather a symbol of female independence that one, in this case Kate, represents herself. These women that were defined as shrews were leading a charge against the status quo and, as Camille Wells Slights defines it, represented a, “...threat to patriarchal order” (Slights 173). Kate being defined as this symbol illustrates her refusal to let the world around her define how she acts. She won’t stand for her father’s favoritism of her sister, she won’t marry a man just for her sister’s benefit, and she refuses to, “... lead apes into Hell” (1.2 ln 34). Not only is she vehemently determined to not let herself be taken advantage of by her situation, but Kate also has wits that are capable of matching those of the usually dominating males. When she first meets Petruchio, her eventual husband, their back and forth is quick, witty, and a warning to Petruchio to, “...beware of [Kate’s] sting” (2.1 ln 210). This exhibited women as being just as educated and smart as men, which was not the societal connotation associated with women during Shakespeare’s time. Even though many of Kate’s action and her personality is criticized by other characters, specifically the men trying to woo her younger sister, Shakespeare develops Katherina in this way in order to visualize a woman who is not content to conform to the societal roles