Is it possible to stage Katherinas final speech as bringing the play to a suitable closure
As a modern audience, we must be conscious of the society in which Shakespeare wrote The Taming of the Shrew. The main part is set in Padua, a city in northern Italy. In the eyes of Elizabethan England, Italy was a desirable country of beautiful, materialistic nature and living. Thus it became a popular setting for Shakespeare and his contemporaries for plays involving deceit, money, beautiful women, or anything involving such shallow pleasures - but noticeably always at a distance from England itself. The play employs a similar literary technique that Shakespeare applied to many of his plays - that is to either separate the audience from the setting to such an extent that the occurrences within the play can be utterly exentuated whilst at the same time genuinely believed. Take Twelfth Night, for instance; the action takes place in Illyria, an invented country supposedly on the Adriatic coast. Though Illyria looks a lot like Elizabethan England, the pretence issue!d with invention allows for the ridiculous. The same applies with A Midsummer Nights Dream; set mostly in forests behind Athens, where the main characters are tricked and put under spells by fairies. The idea of the audience enjoying the contents whilst
But that our soft conditions and our hearts The questions concerning marriage and love are frequent in the texts. Unlike many love stories, Shakespeare deals, more realistically, with the proper dispositions that a man and woman might arrive at in order to find a more peaceful, if not perfect, union. At the beginning of the play, Kate is far from Padua's most eligible maid. Though her father, Baptista, has promised a substantial dowry to both her and her sister, he has made things increasingly difficult by deciding that Kate must marry before Bianca. Kate's transformation from the 'shrew' to a potentially happily married wife, is the plays primary dramatic element, and it is Petruchio that breaks through the verbal barrier that Kate assembles between herself and marriage. It is this change in character that Shakespeare had to encourage the possibility of, towards his audience. Petruchio manages to create a situation where his success in finding the most subservient wife is highlighted and congratulated by himself. He infact, understandably, considers the relationship to be ideal: And, to be short, what not that's sweet and happy." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ only having their wildest imaginations as to the settings is reinforced within The Taming of the Shrew: it having an 'inner' and 'outer' play. The former set in the English countryside, and consists of the first two scenes, called the "Induction". There, a group of English actors prepare to present the latter, 'inner', play - which is the story of the events in Italy. (The theme of plays amongst plays, cross-dressing characters and such like, not only a method of engaging the reader, but also reminiscent of both plays mentioned above). Though even providing literary reason, the quite unexpected speech that Katherina delivers at the end of the play, does encourage one to ask the question as to whether it is ultimately out-! In essence, The Taming of the Shrew is a love story. However the forms of 'prearranged' compared to 'free' love that it manifests,
Some common words found in the essay are:
Taming Shrew, Bianca Kate's, Lucentio Hortensio, Vii169-172 Kate, Katharina Petruchio, England Italy, Induction English, Baptista's Katherina's, Nights Dream, Petruchio Katharina, taming shrew, elizabethan england, katharina petruchio, play former, bianca kate's,
Approximate Word count = 1409
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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