Almost everyone on Earth wants to marry someone else that shares similarities with him
or herself. However, one must ask themselves for what purpose. Is it for money, lust, or is it for money? Most of the time in our day and age, love is the main purpose of marriage. Usually, two people who love each other very much decide that they want to spend every single day of the rest of their lives together with one another. Nevertheless, love is not always the main purpose of marriage. In some cases, one person chooses to marry the other simply because of the economic advantages. This simply means that one of the persons is only marrying the other for money. In William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, the theme of marriage as an economic institution is prevalent. Tranio, Petruchio, and Hortensio express the theme of marriage as an economic institution.
Petruchio is one of the characters that expresses this theme. In the beginning of the play, when everyone is trying to find someone to marry Katherine in order to gain Bianca’s hand in marriage, he bluntly states, “Here comes your father. Never make denial / I must and will have Katherine to my wife,” (The Taming of the Shrew, Act II, Scene 1, Lines 294 – 295). Petrucio clearly believes that he will have her. Even though he is already wealthy, he still wants to receive what her father is offering as a dowry for her. Secondly, at the end when he has finally tamed Katherine, he makes a wager with the three other men that have gotten married. He says that she is the only one that will actually listen to him.
“Nay, I will win my wager better yet, And show more sign of her obedience,
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Her new-built virtue and obedience,” (The Taming of the Shrew, Act V, Scene 2,
Lines 117 ...
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...n for himself, since he says that whoever has the most stuff will have her hand in marriage. He tries to make what he is doing seem nice, but it is clear what his intentions are.
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In conclusion, the characters Tranio, Petruchio, and Hortensio, express the theme of marriage as an economic institution. No matter what, marriage will almost always have something to do with money. William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is just one example in literature that contains the theme of marriage as an economic institution. Many people believe that marriage is always based on love, but this wonderful piece of literature shows otherwise. But we must realize that this is false. Money is not always the reason for two people to get married. The points expressed in this essay show how The Taming of the Shrew expresses the theme of marriage as an economic institution.
The idea of marriage and romance was demonstrated in The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare where that it was the father's right to marry his daughters off to the male who bided the "sufficient dower" and asserted the greatest masculinity.
He is explaining how a wife’s life is that of her husband. No matter what condition or temperament her husband comes home in, she must tend to his every need no questions asked. This is a very unfair way for women to live their lives seeing as she has hardly anything in her life that is her own.
In this piece, it can be translated that women would be considered a rebel if she is rude and shrewish to her husband. In all, wives are objects to their husbands, and must do all that her husband says. This limited Katherine’s identity because it took away her personality of being a shrew, and turned her into something she wasn’t; kind and
.... She now obeys what is asked of her by Petruchio like such as when she is told to lecture the other wives about how to be a good wife, “Katherina, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women, what duty they do owe their lords and husbands.” Without arguing and saying a word against what is asked of her she gives her advice, “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee.”
Petruchio physically asks her to sit on his lap “come sit on me” in a
This play has many themes of patriarchy concerning the roles of males and females in a marriage, the authority of fathers over their families, husbands over wives, and men over women (Bloom 13). In the title alone, there's the indication of the husband over the wife, the "taming" of the shrew (16), and the word shrew that is chosen to describe Katherine is somewhat demeaning. In modern day society there is no such boundaries put on women. There should not be one party who overpowers the other one. It is a marriage, a bond that is shared, and each should be respected in the same way. Today, women and men are equals in a marriage, or at least in the United States. Women are no longer as oppressed as they once were. This play is rather primitive on the views of women in society.
find a wife. "I come to wives it wealthy in Padua; If wealthy, then happily in
The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare, deals with marriage. The ideas explored are primarily shown through the characters of Petruchio and Katharina. We are introduced to the trials and tribulation's which present themselves in their everyday lives. The characters bring up a traditional concept of male domination. Through the play we see the need for domination through Petruchio, and the methods he uses to dominate. While these ideas of male domination have remained a constant throughout the years, however recently there has been a change toward equality.
In the Taming of the Shrew, the battle of the sexes is more so in the mind of each and every woman, rather than an actual battle between men and women. It is a battle that the women have to overcome in order to be able to enjoy life and to love their husbands, and situations like the fights between Katherine and Petruchio are symbolic of this. When a woman, like Katherine is able to see that love is something that has no roles, or expectations, is when she and her husband can "live happily ever after".
Tragedy, irony and modernism are only a few interpretations of the valued play The Taming of the Shrew by the respected writer William Shakespeare. However, one of the most intriguing and popular of these analyses is comedy. Shakespeare is recognized for writing several plays with comedic genres, a few of which include Much Ado About Nothing and The Comedy of Errors. Comedy, being a complex genre, is composed of many different concepts. This particular play can be interpreted as a Shakespearian comedy, a screwball comedy, a farce, or slapstick.
Called "cursed Kate" throughout the play, Katherine is openly jealous of the attention he sister is receiving, whereas she, because she speaks her mind, is being bypassed and even avoided in the wooing process. Katherine reveals this attitude in act 2 scene1, lines 31-35, "nay, now i see she is your treasure, she must have a husband; i must dance barefoot on my wedding day, and for your love to her, lead the apes to hell. Talk not to me i will sit and weep!...." This anger is not concealed, it serves to provide motivation as to why a rational person would rebuke petrucchio so rudely upon first encountering him. Katherine surely realizes that petruchio is interested in her for ulterior motives other than love. Be it purse that the dowry will bring or the actions of an...
“The Taming Of The Shrew” by William Shakespeare is a work of satire created to criticize the misogynistic outlooks of the 16th century. With this play, Shakespeare is trying to say that the idea and role of women in his society is deeply flawed and should be fixed, as well as to make other social commentaries, such as on the treatment of servants. Through exaggeration and parody, Shakespeare makes society look silly.
Over the past 400 or so years since Shakespeare wrote _The Taming of the Shrew_, many writers, painters, musicians and directors have adapted and reformed this play of control and subjugation into timeless pieces of art. In _10 Things I Hate About You_ and Kiss Me Kate from two very different times in the twentieth century, and paintings of Katherina and Bianca from the late nineteenth century, the creators of these adaptations have chosen to focus on the role of the two main female characters in the play. The ideas surrounding these women have changed through the years, from Katherina and Bianca simply being young women who deviated from the norm of Shakespeare’s time to women who embody feminist ideals and stereotypes of the more modern world.
By charming her with kind words, Petruchio is able to manipulate Katherine into marriage and woo her, but in an unaccustomed way, as Kate is not used to men being so nice and direct with her. Petruchio is able to achieve this end by manipulating Katherine’s words. He twists what Kate says and makes it seem as if she is coming on to him sexually, while in reality he is the one implying the sexual innuendo. This manipulation can be seen when they have an argument about whether or not the wasp carries his sting on his tail or tongue, and Petruchio says “What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again, good Kate. I am a gentleman—” (II, 1; 230-231). By contorting the words he ...
It is well known that Shakespeare’s comedies contain many marriages, some arranged, some spontaneous. During Queen Elizabeth's time, it was considered foolish to marry for love. However, in Shakespeare’s plays, people often marry for love. With a closer look into two of his most famous plays As You Like It and Twelfth Night or What You Will, I found that while marriages are defined and approached differently in these two plays, Shakespeare’s attitudes toward love in both plays share similarities. The marriages in As You Like It’s conform to social expectation, while the marriages are more rebellious in Twelfth Night. Love, in both plays, was defined as