Alex on Shrew

Shrew Intro (Alex Settle)

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy written by Shakespeare on or before 1592 which has a few prominent characteristics in it.  In The Taming of the Shrew trickery, entitlement and deceit are the noticeable aspects of almost every male suitor the play has to offer.  Examples of this would be Lucentio acting as though he is a teacher, Sly pretends he is a lord, Tranio, in short, is pretending to be Lucentio, and Hortensio has become a music instructor.  Most of these male suitor’s, which are regular people, have found a way that they can attempt to court a beautiful bride under the false pretense of an alternate identity (which more times than not are completely the opposite of who they actually are).  Petruccio also has a hand in the aforementioned aspects that were previously listed.  More than anything though he is guilty of trickery when he went as far as to put Katherina in his farmhouse and deprive her of normal everyday needs.  Today, what Petruccio did to Katherina was said to be, “…techniques akin to modern methods of torture and brainwashing” (Howard 144).  Finally comes the gender based ideology that just because the suitors are male they can do anything to their spouse.  Sly for instance was noted as having this thought process and it was believed this was because he had no power in his life, leading his to seek it out elsewhere.