Hamlet And The Taming Of The Shrew Analysis

Revenge, death, and marriage are ideas that are completely different from each other, but are all some major themes that can appear in many stories or plays. They can be used as one theme, or be tied together with another to create an intriguing story. Hamlet is the story of a young prince who is seeking revenge on his uncle after he murders Hamlet’s father and marries his mother. The Taming of the Shrew tells the story of how Katherine, a wealthy shrew, is “tamed” by Petruchio, a man who marries her for money. William Shakespeare’s plays Hamlet and The Taming of the Shrew have some elements such as family relationships, roles of women in society, and marriage woven into their stories that make them different and similar in many ways. Marriage is one of the elements that both Hamlet and The Taming of the Shrew have. Although The Taming of the Shrew has marriage as one of it’s major themes, Hamlet also mentions it in its plot. In Hamlet, marriage can be seen in the beginning when it is learned that Hamlet’s mother Gertrude remarries to the new King Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, shortly after Hamlet’s father’s death. Marriage is also mentioned when Laertes talks to Ophelia about Hamlet. “His greatness weighed, his will is not his own, For he himself is subject to his birth. He may not, as unvalued persons do,...” (Act 1, Scene 3). Laertes tells Ophelia that she must be careful with Hamlet and that she cannot marry him because they come from different social classes. Hamlet can’t marry just anyone because he is the prince, …show more content…
They have two tremendously different plots, but they do have some elements in them that are similar. Both plays deal with family relationships, roles of women, and marriage. Although the two plays happened during different time periods, but the interactions between family members, the roles of women, and the idea of marriage were