Taming Of The Shrew Research Paper

Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare wrote many plays that have relevant topics today. Whether it is intentional or unintentional, feminism is a prominent topic that appears in many of Shakespeare’s plays, such as Lady Macbeth constantly manipulating her husband into being more of a man in The Tragedy of Macbeth and Katherina constantly defying, insulting, and harassing all the men around her in The Taming of the Shrew. Because of the way these characters are written, Shakespeare is often seen as a feminist by many scholars and critics as Shakespeare and his plays are often viewed as progressive in the way that they break through these traditional barriers that surround women. Although, it is quite the opposite of that: A traditional …show more content…
Not because it is a day of love, joy, and unity (much like today), but because it was the day that the bride’s family were to rid of their daughter, and the groom’s family were to receive a ‘present’ for taking their burden of their new daughter-in-law in their family, which was better known as dowry. To consider it an equal trade, dowry was involved, which was the money, goods, and land that the bride’s family would have to give to the groom’s family for exchange of taking their daughter. Thus, the bride’s family giving dowry in exchange for the groom taking care of his new wife was very logical and normal at the time and was not seen one bit as misogynistic (King 26-28). Scholars often ponder, did Elizabethan women’s education empower them? Or did they simply weaken them. One could argue the former and state that women like famous educator, Beatriz Galindo, are proof that females were indeed empowered by the education curriculum of their time. Although somebody else could completely contradict that by studying the education system itself and understand how oppressing it is towards women. It is important to know the intent of the education systems at the time: males and females had different education curriculums, with men’s schools being a place that students were being readied for post-secondary education (somewhat similar to today’s modern schools) and women’s schools being a place that helped them …show more content…
Shakespeare wrote her as strong and powerful for a reason, she had attributes that so many Elizabethan women did not have: Intelligence, power, and dominance, especially over a man. Why did Shakespeare write her to be like this? Although with her traits, it may seem like that Shakespeare wrote her to be a tragic hero, but that is exactly the opposite. Shakespeare wrote Lady Macbeth to be an antagonist of the play and a scapegoat for all of her husband’s problems. In Shakespeare’s times, a strong woman and somebody who takes lead in a relationship (all of Lady Macbeth’s traits) is looked down upon, and is exactly what a shrew is, which connects to Katherina of The Taming of the Shrew. Lady Macbeth suddenly collapsing at the end of The Tragedy of Macbeth is, of course, especially odd as she comes off as so strong and unstoppable after she constantly insults her husband’s manhood. Why did she fail and become so mentally unstable? The answer is simple: Lady Macbeth strived off her husband’s power; she did not want authority and aristocracy for herself, but rather for her husband. Just after Macbeth becomes the King of Scotland, the reader begins to see less and less of Lady Macbeth than before, until after the third act and fourth scene, where she is not seen until Act 5, Scene 1. In this part of the play, Lady Macbeth is a totally different lady with