Shakespeare’S Comedy The Taming Of The Shrew Has Been...

Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of the Shrew has been criticized for centuries by everyone who has read it. Many people believe that Shakespeare intended to exude feminism through this work, while others believe that the entire play is extremely misogynistic. I believe that the witty humor, the descriptions of the characters, and the resolution of the story all reveal that Shakespeare set out to write a comedy in which women were praised for their tenacity, and the misogynists of the world were mocked. Katherine, commonly referred to as the â€Å"shrew† throughout the play, had a sense of confidence about her which suggests that Shakespeare intended to create an extremely free-willed and independent woman. Katherine wasn’t concerned with†¦show more content†¦She didn’t conform to the status quo, and she wasn’t going to marry simply because her father, or any man, said she had to. Shakespeare used his play to question the values of society; was having a pretty face and submitting to her husband the most important thing for a woman to do, or was it something else? Bianca embodied everything women in any day and age don’t want to be. Her entire reputation was based on the fact that all of the men wanted to marry her, which made her the sister who was living under the subject of men, not Katherine. When all of the suitors saw Bianca, they fell in love with her image, which became clear when Lucentio said, â€Å"I saw her coral-pink lips move and perfume the air with her breath. I saw nothing in her except what is virtuous and lovely† (Crowther). Bianca was known for her pretty face and her docile nature, while Katherine was known for her wit and her strong will. Katherine was fiercely independent, and she embodied a self-sufficient woman who didn’t need a man to be fulfilled. Another way in which Shakespeare challenged the social rules was by creating a situation in which an intelligent woman realized that the only way she would be able to acquire what she wanted was to outsmart her husband. A shrew of a woman wasn’t tamed by a man; an arrogant husband was skillfully outsmarted, and therefore tamed, by his wife. Katherine became subject in order to express her own ideas, and she learned how to deal withShow MoreRelatedwisdom,humor and faith19596 Words   |  79 PagesChesterton, Niebuhr, and Auden 27 Conclusion 34 Copyright  © 2011 by Walter G. Moss WISDOM, HUMOR, AND FAITH: A HISTORICAL VIEW â€Å"And frame your mind to mirth and merriment, / Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life.† Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, Scene 2. â€Å"Laughter without a tinge of philosophy is but a sneeze of humor. Genuine humor is replete with wisdom.† Mark Twain, quoted in Opie Percival Read, Mark Twain and I (1940), 17. â€Å"Humor offers both a form of wisdom and