by Stephanie De Molfetto, Blogging Circle 2
Throughout Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew I found it somewhat difficult to remember the values of the time in which the play was performed. I was rooting for Katherina, I loved her strong demeanor and outward rebellion against marrying for profit if she was unhappy with the match. However I eventually took notice of the times. Still rooting for Kate, I placed my hopes in Petruccio. While he did show up to their wedding in ragged attire unfit for his own wedding, I hoped he had a genuine reason for his actions and apparel. Unfortunately Grumio informs readers once the newlyweds have arrived back home that Petruccio is becoming a shrew, leaving the audience—at least myself, to further side with poor Katherina. The following lines make Katherina seem more like a damsel in distress than the woman who was arguing with her now husband or not much earlier:
GRUMIO
Tell thou the tale: but hadst thou not crossed me, thou shouldst have heard how her horse fell, and she under her horse. Thou shouldst have heard in how miry a place, how she was bemoiled, how he left her with the horse upon her, how he beat me because her horse stumbled, how she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me, how he swore, how she prayed that never prayed before, how I cried, how the horses ran away, how her bridle was burst…
CURTIS
By this reck’ning he is more shrew than she.
(4.1.61-73).
Katherina has never known genuine unhappiness. While she was a “shrew” as named by many suitors, she was always been cared for and never left to want. Petruccio seems to be using this as a weapon against her. In his own twisted way to gain her affection, or rather any form of attention, he drives her crazy with his own madness. Kate regards the actions of Petruccio:
KATHERINE
The more my wrong, the more his spite appears.
What, did he marry me to famish me?
Beggars that come unto my father’s door
Upon entreaty have a present alms.
If not, elsewhere they meet with charity.
But I, who never knew how to entreat,
Nor never needed that I should entreat,
Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep,
With oaths kept waking and with brawling fed.
And that which spites me more than all these wants,
He does it under name of perfect love,
As who should say, if I should sleep or eat,
‘Twere deadly sickness or else present death.
I prithee, go and get me some repast,
I care not what, so it be wholesome food.
Katherina only shows her horrors to the others in Petruccio’s household—the workers and slaves. These people get treated far worse than Katherina, so they’re not at all obliged to be of assistance to her if it goes against the wishes and demands of their master, Petruccio. Kate is beginning to literally go mad with lack of food, sleep, and luxuries she was more than hopeful to have. Petruccio puts items directly in front of her that she wants and needs, but snatches them away before she can even entertain the ideas of using whatever it is she desires. This cruelty brings Kate to her breaking point.
Personally, I do not believe Katherina is really becoming submissive as many people think from her final speech. Katherina seems to be showing Petruccio that while she has tried to get her off her high horse (going back to her falling off of it earlier and him not helping her back up) she has instead decided to show him just how crazy she can be. However to all the people present at the gathering she is what all wives should strive to be. Her final monologue is extremely dramatic and seems to lack a genuine feel to them. She says:
“And for thy maintenance commits his body To painful labor both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe” (5.2.157-160)
Kate seems to be focusing on the fact that her husband will be away for long periods of time, thankfully. She is simply saying anything that will appease Petruccio and make it so she is treated how she wants to be. Furthermore, this exuberant display will give the Katherina and Petruccio a strong reputation. Other people will not want to make negative assumptions about the two, but they will also be unsure if they really want to have a lunch with the couple either for fear that Katherina will put on another performance. While Petruccio meant to tear Katherina down and make her into the average housewife, or a submissive falcon in training, he definitely made her rise up to show her strength and cunning.
I think it’s great that you point out the possibility that Katherine is actually retaliating by showcasing her true cunning and strength amidst all of Petruccio’s plans. She definitely rises above as the queen bee at the end by saying everything Petruccio wants to hear, but making it all irony by playing her part of the housewife. I agree that she does face a lapse of strength and will, but it isn’t completely believable that she has given in completely.
To be honest, as a reader, I felt like Katherine was going to revert back to her normal shrewish self when the final scene came around. But, maybe her “submissiveness” was a ploy to us readers. Maybe, she is just fine with her savage-like husband known as Petruchio. But, we will never know the truth. I honestly love the twist of Katherine’s character. Awesome job pointing that out!
I definitely agree with you that Katherine’s final speech shows that she is not truly submitting, but showing a more subtle form of strength and wit than she had in the past. I also love your interpretation of the lines:
“And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labor both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe” (5.2.157-160)
I hadn’t paid much mind to them in my own reading of the text, but I think there’s definitely an element of thankfulness there–she won’t have to deal with Petruccio while he’s away–and perhaps also an element of gloating–she will be at home safe and sound while he will have to deal with various problems of the outside world. She’s also appealing to his masculinity, in a way, because she makes the “man’s role” seem admirable, even though the reality is that she will be in a more pleasant position as the woman.
Stephanie,
I agree that it is difficult to keep in mind the time during which the play was written, yet it does give us a better understanding of the story as a whole. That being said, I really liked your reading of the last scene of the play. I have been consistently trying to find new readings of the scene because I also believe it would be far too uncharacteristic for Katherine to become completely submissive to Petruccio. The possibility that she is once again putting on a show is very likely, and makes her character that much stronger.
Stephanie,
While I think that you are right in that we are meant to somewhat identify with Katherine, I think it’s also to remember her actions and life before the events of the play. On the note of your comment:
“Katherina has never known genuine unhappiness. While she was a “shrew” as named by many suitors, she was always been cared for and never left to want.”
I think that is only partially true. Katherine seems to have genuine disdain for her position in life, and especially at Bianca her sister, as well as the institution for marriage. Katherine is so upset with this that she ties up Bianca, and mistreats her, blaming her for being the “chosen girl” of the family.
I really don’t know what to make of Katherine’s final monologue. I think there is argument for both being a sign of her domestication, or as a some kind of rebellion against her oppression. I don’t really understand what she gains from talking down to the other wives, and if she means to follow through on her proposals to be committed to Petruccio. Does she mean to really submit as a “good housewife” or is she being purposefully sarcastic and subversive. Either way, she is still seemingly rising up to Petruccio’s wants. Whether she is being subversive or not, she is still stuck in this situation and telling everyone how she is going to follow through on her position, whether she resents it or not. Is that an act of submission in itself? She still has to live with Petruccio, and even if she has become fanatical about it. Isn’t this an act of domestication as well?
I love your post. It’s thoughtful and you have great evidence for your points. I don’t believe that Katherine was truly sincere about her final speech and you bring to light that she might be using the speech just for her own advantage. I think Petruccio won’t give up on treating Katherine harshly despite the speech. Even while he’s away, he can tell his servants to stop feeding her or some other kind of punishment. Petruccio has a problem with control and Katherine’s speech feeds into that by saying that he can be as controlling as he wants and she’ll always obey. Regardless of how firmly Katherine believes in her speech, I agree that the speech was a huge act of strength and courage. She gives up her power and, in front of everyone, goes against what everyone thinks of her.
While I personally argue more against Petruccio’s cruel and misogynistic ways, I did really enjoy your argument. Before class I had never thought about it like that so your in depth and supportive argument gave me another really cool way to look at the play. At first read, I definitely read Kate’s final speech as over the top and by no means genuine, but I saw it more in a state of fear in order to just avoid being punished by Petruccio. But with your evidence of Kate’s snobby attitude in the interactions with her and Petruccio’s servants, I definitely see that final speech in a much different way.
At the time that Katherine makes her speech, a woman’s path to strength first required her to take on the typical role of a woman. I do agree that Katherine displays strength in her final speech and that strength comes through what we might view as submission but to her was simply necessary. By becoming an obedient wife and choosing to do so of her own accord and not through simply giving up, she maintains her voice and identity. She immediately gains the respect of and is followed by the women in the room. In fact every peson agrees with her sentiment and appreciates her where they once disliked her. Petruccio is pleased which means he will be less likely to mistreat her. She has also married into a rich and powerful family granting greater strength to hers and Petrucco’s houses and furthering the potential of her future offspring. Not to mention that she has now become the most desirable woman around, even more so than Bianca, just at the moment that she has become unattainable through her marriage to petruccio. She has gained a huge amount of power through what we view as submission, but to her was a step forward.
I enjoyed reading your interpretation of Katherine’s final scene because it’s a different interpretation from what most readers gather from the end of this play, which is that Petruchio finally tamed the shrew. We saw throughout the entire play how strong-willed Katherine is based on her outspoken and violent personality. We associated her with those qualities based on our introduction to her character in the beginning scenes. However, when she started to change (as a result of Petruchio’s tyranny) we no longer saw an outspoken Kate, but rather a soft and submissive one. It was almost scary to witness the complete 180 switch in her character. But did Kate trick us all? Was she really being submissive out of fear or out of manipulation? By her succumbing to Petruchio’s will in the end of the play, Katherine now has everyone in the palm of her hands, including Petruchio who believes that he is now in control. To refer back to the title of the play – is the title itself “Taming of the Shrew” a dramatic irony?
You definitely have an interesting interpretation of Kate’s final monologue. Using her words during her entrapment at Petruccio’s estate also supplies good ammunition for this argument. Her dramatic speech at the end of the play displays how strong she is but just in a different way. We see how much she suffers whens she’s at her lowest point, but to see her drive the point in to the other women in the room in her monologue may not necessarily reveal so much to the people attending the wedding, but the reader surely get’s a powerful message from Kate as she has truly overcome a lot to get to where she ended up.