As it states within the essay’s introduction Butler “begins to develop her ideas regarding the relationship between performance and gender identity”. This is a concept that can be found in Romantic Comedy tropes. The women in these stories behave a certain way, the men as well. Using Butler’s essay as one of the lenses for analyzing these tropes. As an example, the Shrew character is one found in almost every romantic comedy that has come out. The female who is fiercely independent and sharp tongued, yet is obviously lonely and unloved. These characters in Shakespeare’s works such as Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing” and Katherine in “Taming of the Shrew” had little social power and their independence was depicted as a problem within society.
