The taming of the shrew

Layla, Maria, Miranda, Yves

http://prezi.com/zvoev2ywdfir/the-taming-of-the-shrew/

Theme:

MisogynyDoes The Taming of the Shrew have a misogynous message?

What did Shakespeare mean to say?

Twoopposing views

& some scenes from the play

What do you think?Listen to the debate

Watch the playWe’ll come back to you

Maria: Shakespeare meant to say

this is the way a man should treat a woman

Shakespeare felt that

women should know their place and otherwise be

reminded of it

Shakespeare shows us

how to deal with

rebellious women

Katherina’s final speech emphasizes the social need for

wives to be obedient

Miranda: No,

Shakespeare meant the play to be ironical

This play is a comedy –

and Shakespeare is making fun of men

A tamed woman is a woman

that has been robbed of

her personality

Shakespeare’s sonnets are proof of his

love and admiration for

women

Act 2, Scene 1

P: Come, come, you wasp! I’faith you are too angry.K: If I be waspish, best aware my sting.P: My remedy is then to pluck it out.K: Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies.P: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting?In his tail. K: In his tongue.P: Whose tongue?K: Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.P: What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again.Good Kate I am a gentleman.K: That I’ll try. (She strikes him)P: I swear I’ll cuff you if you strike again. (He holds her)K: So may you lose your arms.If you strike me, you are no gentleman,And if no gentleman, why then no arms.

Act 3, Scene 2

Kate: Do what thou canst, I will not go today!No, nor tomorrow – not till I please myself.The door is open, sir, there lies your way;You may be jugging while your boots are green.For me, I’ll not be gone till I please myself.

Petruchio: O Kate, content thee; prithee be not angry.

K: I will be angry. What hast thou to do?Father, be quiet. He shall wait until I’m ready.Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner.I see a woman may be made a foolIf she had not a spirit to resist.

P: They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command. Obey the bride, you that attend on her. Go the feast, revel and feast,Be mad and merry – or go hang yourselves.But for my bonny Kate, she must with me.I will be master of what is mine own.

Act 4, Scene 5

Good Lord, how bright and goodly shines the moon!

The moon? The sun! It is not moonlight now.

I say it is the moon that shines so bright.

I know it is the sun that shines so bright.

Now, by my mother's son - and that's myself - It shall be the moon or star or what I listOr o'ver I journey to your father's house.

Forward, I pray, since we have come so far.And be it moon or sun or what you please;And if you please to call it a rush-candle,Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.

Petruchio:

Kate:

Petruchio:

Kate:

Petruchio:

Kate:

Act 4, Scene 3

Kate:Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak;And speak I will: I am no child, no babe:Your betters have endured me say my mind,And if you cannot, best you stop your ears.My tongue will tell the anger of my heart.Or else my heart concealing it will break,And rather than it shall, I will be freeEven to the uttermost, as I please, in words.

Petruchio: Why, thou say’st true – it is a paltry cap.A custard coffin, a bauble, a silken pie!I love thee well in that thou lik’st it not.

Petruchio wants to

marry Kate because he sees it as a

challenge to tame her

This is how to deal with women:

Ignore their feelings, show

no respect

In her final speech, Katherina shows

she has finally understood

what is expected of her

The moment Kate is tamed is the momentshe speaks utter nonsense,

mistaking the sun for the moon,parroting her husband

Petruchio and Kate start of as equals- their first encounter is exciting and interesting

“My tongue will tell the anger of my heartOr else my heart concealing it will break”

“It’s the mind that makes the

body rich”

i.e. a woman with the right

to her own mindmakes her ‘rich’,

happy, interesting

So,what do you think?

Now, bearing in mind that

“Whatever context you try to bring to

Shakespeare’s work,he will outcontext

your context”

(David Whyte)

one of us - for the fun of it -

will have

the final say

The End