Griselda, Beatrice, and Kate

In comparison with Griselda, the model of femininity and eponymous for patience and obedience, neither Beatrice, from Much Ado About Nothing, nor Kate, from The Taming of the Shrew, display idealized classical femininity. Instead, Beatrice and Kate perform Shakespeare’s representation of the unruly woman in such a way that directly goes against everything that a woman should be. This causes Beatrice and Kate’s respective suitors Benedick and Petruchio to display their masculinity in a manner that counteracts their respective unruly woman’s behavior. The ending of both plays contains some ambiguity in the futures of these unruly women; both have had some merger between their initial unruly behavior and their newfound stereotypical gender roles. While this merger brings the women closer to normal society, they retain a core trait of rebellion which keeps them from completely merging into their societies.

In order to understand exactly how Beatrice and Kate fail to display model behavior throughout their plays, it is imperative to discuss the model behavior for women during the late medieval and renaissance periods. An excellent source of 16th century ideals comes from Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th century collection of short tales, The Decameron. Specifically Boccaccio’s “The Story of Griselda,” tells the tale of a young, wealthy lord who selects Griselda, a low class woman, to be his wife. After four or five years of being married, the young lord, Gualtieri, decides that “he would needs make proof of his fair wife’s patience. (Griselda 3)” Gualtieri tests Griselda’s patience and obedience by sentencing their two children to death, “provoke[ing] her by injurious speeches, showing fierce and frowning looks to her, (Griselda 3)” and many...

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...o their unconventional wooing.

Emphasizing their rebellious natures through wit and humor, both Beatrice and Kate behaved in ways that rejected any potential suitors. Beatrice and Kate used their words to attack and belittle men, something that absolutely not allowed in a traditional Shakespearean woman. Beatrice’s wit was only allowed in the context that it was almost always humorous, allowing others to justify her language. Kate’s role as a shrew is rejected outright, as she neither uses humor nor can escape the fact that her fate is ultimately decided by her father. It is not until they meet mates that with as much fire and wit as they that either woman allows themselves to be married—conforming to society’s expectations. Both end up in relationships where they have more power than an average married woman would have, and neither ends up completely dominated.