PETRUCHIO: They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command.-- Obey the bride, you that attend on her./Go to the feast, revel and domineer,/Carouse full measure to her maidenhead,/Be mad and merry, or go hang yourselves;/but for my bonny Kate, she must with me./Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret, 230I will be master of what is mine own./She is my goods, my chattels, she is my house,/My household stuff, my field, my barn,/My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing,/and here she stands, touch her whoever dare!
Shakespeare 175)
The quote gives great insight into the end note of a marriage created in haste, with the intentions of personal and familial gain and with the closing of the marriage as a "contract" including the exchange of large sums of money for the groom and his family. Petruchio, makes his deal, getting his bride (then leaving her behind) and yet with a clear sense that the father, Baptista need wonder just what a deal he has made with a mad man, and just what heartache he has dealt on his Shrew of a daughter, given that she has finally conceded to marry even when her resistance was logical. Marriage has massive implications for the partners, all their servants and future servants and also each ones birth family. If the decisions about marriage are not made correctly, and are made in haste then the "institution" is unlikely to fulfill the vast role it is given, to cement allegiance between families of equal or greater stature and bring wealth to one and prestige to another. Petruchio and Katherina each know they have been sold a "bill of goods" and Baptista has just learned of such on the day of their wedding. When the families all come together later, after the marriage of both main couples they find Katherina much changed. Closing a banquet the husbands all seek to prove the virtue and obedience of their wives and only Katherine obliges and then proves her loyalty by a telling of the demand of a virtuous wife:
Shakespeare 229)
It would seem that the value of each man, including the father to the girls has again been defined as a result of the way in which their women behave. The marriage that was born of trickery comes to be the marriage that all aspire to, and this defines the social character and standing of each man to the other and of each woman to herself, her marriage, her husband and even her birth family. The marriages that were wished and hoped for, and built on affection turn out to be those which were most challenging, as they were born out of hope that did not seed itself in reality. While the marriage that was completely contrived for economics and convenience became a model marriage indeed. It is unknown if this is meant to be a dramatic plot twist, or just a comical ideal, but each would be proven as a symbol of the changing of the tides of marriage.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. "The Taming of the Shrew." The Taming of the Shrew. Ed H.J. Oliver. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. 89-232.
Oliver, H.J., ed. The Taming of the Shrew. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
In Shakespeare, Bianca puts on a perfect performance of gentility and submissiveness -- the perfect daughter, until she is married. The audience sees her abused by her sister; in a way Petruccio will later abuse Katherine. "Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself, / to make a bondmaid and a slave of me;/That I disdain: but for these other gawds, / Unbind my hands, I'll pull them off
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Taming of the shrew is one of the most memorable and prominent Shakespearean comedies. It revolves around patriarchic themes such as taming of wild woman, a man's domineering character, female subjugation etc. But while many critics feel that the play chronicles the domination process in a marriage where Petruchio, the male lead finally overpowers his wild and aggressive wife, Katherine Minola, closer analysis of the play reveals that this is
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