Women In The Taming Of The Shrew

Improved Essays
Shakespeare’s representations of women in Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew are still highly relevant in our present context despite society and technological development. The societal expectation for women to marry before a certain age is reflected in Beatrice, Hero as well as Katherine from The Taming of the Shrew this coincides with the repeating motif of a women’s value being based on her marital status and virginity. This is still evident in our present society where shaming females for their sexual activity is common and virginity is still highly valued in countries such as South Korea. The expectation for women to marry before a certain age is also prevalent in our society where women are expected to marry before the …show more content…
When a woman voices her opinion she is displayed by the media as unlikable, bossy and prude whereas when a man voices his opinion he is regarded as having good leadership qualities and charismatic.
Women represented by Shakespeare always have marriage or a romance at the core of their actions. This is shown through the impact that Katherine has on her sister and the extent in which the ‘taming’ of her qualities occured. Katherine was stuck in a dysfunctional marriage where her counterpart was psychologically manipulative and could be considered abusive in today’s society. This is also shown in the negotiation of Bianca’s marriage where Baptista negotiates the marriage as if he was a businessman ‘Faith, gentlemen, now I play a merchant's part And venture madly on a desperate mart’ (2.1.345-348) almost showing that he stands to lose more in this marriage by ‘giving away’ his daughter than his daughter does. The men in The Taming of the Shrew marry not for love but for wealth ‘I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; If wealthily, then happily in Padua.’ (1.2.76-77) they are free to choose their wives and they’re beauty or age is not as important as it is for females whereas for females they have little control over their suitor especially if their suitor is of

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    William Shakespeare captivates the audience in the comedic play The Taming Of the Shrew by raising awareness of gender inequality and the significance of money during the Elizabethan context. Themes of sexism and money are still relevant in today's society. The Taming of the shrew deeply explores the relationships of men and women creating opportunities for Shakespeare to confront the responder with questioning thoughts of the power of money and the view of sexism in the Elizabethan era. The beliefs of women and men in the Elizabethan times where very patriarchy, regarding the women as the weaker sex.…

    • 111 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    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.…

    • 1508 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The treatment of gender issues between both men and women portrayed in Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare has impacted both the audience of the Elizabethan era and modern day society. Independent, boisterous, and impulsive women were often looked down on, for they did not obey the male figures in their lives. The patriarchal society and the imbalance of power between both genders in Much Ado About Nothing is shown through the characterization in Beatrice’s courage, Hero’s dependency, and the men in the play who believed that they were superior. This was because women were supposed to be silent and gentle and submissive to their husband and listen to everyone. Hero perfectly described the “ideal woman”- a woman who rarely stood up for herself…

    • 1768 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Key of Perception The evolution of societal labels on each person and their roles in a family over centuries must be deciphered and understood. The Taming of the Shrew written by William Shakespeare in the 1600s orchestrates marriages of Katherine and Bianca, the daughters of Baptista. Many believe that Katherine behaves similar to a shrew out of hate she has for the world while Bianca follows the modest customs of the time. Upon further examination, the reason for these differences reflect on how past events change their perspectives in life.…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gender roles are the way that society assumes that the genders should act based upon the perceived differences between them. Unfortunately these beliefs are often stereotypes and unrealistic assumptions about the nature of human beings. (Blackstone 335). According to societies generalizations men should be leaders, causing them to take the role as the head of the household. They are expected to provide financially and make critical decisions.…

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Roles of Men and Women in Marriage In both, Macbeth and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” clothes symbolizes the chivalry characteristics of the men’s warrior roles making their approach to marriage similar because their role as warriors affected the conduct of their women in controlling and emasculating ways. The men in both Macbeth and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” were warriors. The main character Macbeth in Macbeth was a warrior and general for his country Scotland, and he killed lots of men to get the position as king.…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sexism is something most women have dealt with in their lifetime, but in the 16th Century, they were treated as slaves. In Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing multiple social commentaries are brought to light. In order to help show injustice on woman, a musical will show how women were not allowed to make choices, they were abused, and they were treated as objects. Women’s lives were in the hands of men. As people grow older, they are allowed freedom of choice, and a larger range of responsibilities, but women did not get that.…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Feminism in Fifth Business and Hamlet The current society has various perspectives of women both negative and positive. Moreover, literature exemplifies the different role of women comparing the roles of ancient and modern women. These comparisons have one thing in common, and that is the multifaceted roles of women in the ancient and modern society. This comparison is evident in two works of literature centuries apart; Fifth Business by Robert Davies and Hamlet by William Shakespeare.…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine a society where the only purpose of women is to be wives and bear progenies. That’s primeval Athens, where females are seen as the property of men. However, the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, projects the opposite notion, which is uncommon because the play was written in the 16th century. In the play, a young Athenian woman, Hermia, disagrees to marry Demetrius, the man of her father’s choice. Hermia is depicted as having dominance through her bold actions that go against her father’s authority.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Shakespeare artfully either reinforces stereotypes, or breaks them down with the ways in which his women characters act. Desdemona is portrayed as being a young person in a modern society that requires her to fulfill certain characteristics; in other words she is a “stereotypical women” in Shakespeare’s society. On the other hand, Bianca is portrayed as the opposite to Desdemona, she is shown to be very outspoken and - to a certain extent - vulgar. Bianca is portrayed as jealous, as well as possessive. Emilia is also shown to be very outspoken, clever, and flirtatious at certain times, and - as such - is not what a “proper” women should be.…

    • 1423 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Twelfth Night was written near the end of Queen Elizabeth 's reign in England. The notion of a strong female, such as Elizabeth, choosing to lead a country without the help of a man began to provoke people to consider what truly a woman’s role was (Callaghan, 86). For the most part, up until this time literature strongly focused on powerful male leads that expressed dominance and intelligence greatly surpassing the minor female characters in literature (Callaghan, 32). Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night strongly questions whether men are superior to women or society has simply forced women into the background, ignoring women 's ability to rival men 's talents and rationale. Feminism in Twelfth Night detects negative attitudes towards women of the…

    • 1835 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The main love interests in the productions for Kat and Katerina are Patrick and Petruchio. Patrick and Petruchio share many similarities, including being an outsider that no one really knows as well as having to chase after the main character (Kat and Katerina). Patrick and Petruchio have the hardest job in the productions as they must become romantically entangled to Kat and Katerina so that Bianca can date her various suitors. In both, the play and the film Patrick and Petruchio end up taming Kat and Katerina, but the process that they undertake to reach that conclusion is by no means tidy. In the film to “tame” Kat, Patrick must ask Kat to date him and keep her interested in him.…

    • 1697 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Shakespeare expresses his view of women and power while explaining how…

    • 1584 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Consequently, women in Shakespeare’s plays were often depicted as helpless and confined characters left wishing they could do something, but not able to follow through with their desires. This ultimately reinforced the unequal distribution of power to men because women had to rely on men to accomplish anything of…

    • 1562 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM’S FEMALE CHARACTERS In William Shakespeare 's play ‘A Midsummer Night 's Dream, ' women in the society are depicted to possess some limitations that limit their being while others are depicted to possess strengths that make them achieve in life. The world around which women live is full of limiting factors, factors that hinder the full expression of women’s interests. Examples of these situations are when Hermia’s father wanted to marry her to a person she did not love and when Titania gets to disagree with Oberon concerning the young Indian prince. However, women are strong enough to fight through the challenges and succeed.…

    • 1532 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays