The Taming of the Shrew - Alabama Shakespeare Festival

Transcription

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival
2014 Study Materials and Activities for
I will be
master of what
is mine own!
HA!
The Taming
of the Shrew
by William Shakespeare
Contact ASF at: www.asf.net
1.800.841-4273
Study materials written by
Susan Willis, ASF Dramaturg
[email protected]
ASF 2014/ 1
The Taming
of the Shrew
Wiving It Wealthily in Padua
Characters
Baptista, a wealthy citizen
Katherine, his older daughter
Bianca, his younger daughter
Gremio, an old friend and
wooer of Bianca
Hortensio, a neighbor and
wooer of Bianca, later
disguised as "Litio"
Lucentio, a student, wooer of
Bianca, later disguised as
"Cambio"
Tranio, his servant, later
disguised as "Lucentio"
Biondello, another of Lucentio's
servants
Vincentio, Lucentio's father
Petruchio, wooer of Katherine
Grumio, his servant
Curtis, Peter, Nicholas, Joseph,
Philip, Petruchio's servants
A Tailor
A Haberdasher
A Merchant from Mantua, later
disguised as "Vincentio"
A Widow, new wife to Hortensio
Setting: Padua and near
Verona, Italy
Welcome to another of Shakespeare's
raucous comedies! The classical model of
comedy is alive and well in The Taming of
the Shrew, with its marriageable young
women, eager suitors, scheming servants,
and blocking parent, at least in the case of
one daughter. Kate the shrew, of course,
becomes her own blocking character, for
no one wants to marry a strong-willed
harridan, does he? Well, unless she's rich.
Shakespeare wraps this comedy in layers of
appearance and reality, and most, perhaps,
with Kate.
Shakespeare's Shrew has become a
cause celèbre for feminists and others who
have rechristened this farce a problem play.
It is undeniably built on the framework of
farce, but Shakespeare, as usual, pops
the two-dimensional characters of farce
out toward full three-dimensionality with
interesting results. Hilarious highlights
abound, but we have the chance to feel
with and for the characters, to wonder
about them and their lives—which is quite
unusual for farce and quite characteristic
of the Bard.
About The Study Materials
These study materials are designed
to support and supplement instructors
teaching The Taming of the Shrew in
conjunction with ASF's 2014 production and
also to support teachers whose classes are
attending but not studying the play. To that
end, the material presents a series of units
focusing on various issues and basic literary
aspects of Shrew along with discussion
and analysis questions and also provides
a basic synopsis, a basic elements sheet,
design information (when available), and
both pre-show and post-show activities.
The units treat:
• Unit 1: Shrew and the Genre of Comedy
It's not easy wooing a shrew, as Petruchio
(John Preston) finds out in confronting Kate
(Monica Bell) for the first time in ASF's 1998
production of The Taming of the Shrew
• Unit 2: The Title's Metaphor
• Unit 3: A Thematic View of the Action
• Unit 4: Two Approaches to Kate and
Petruchio: Cultural Roles and Imagery
• Unit 5: Performance and Interpretation
• Unit 6: An Italian Context
For those not teaching the play, the
synopsis, the basic elements, and units 1,
2, 4, and 6 can be useful because those
units can function independently of textual
study.
Any of the pages can be used as a
class handout or the questions used for
group discussion or writing prompts. All
such activities and questions are shaded
blue in the materials.
ASF 2014/ 2
The Taming
of the Shrew
A Synopsis of The Taming of the Shrew
Prologue: The Sly Scenes
A lord and his huntsmen find
Christopher Sly, a passed-out
drunkard, and decide to play
a joke on him—they will take
him home, clean and dress him
grandly, and convince the drunk
that he is a lord. Sly only warms
to the possibility when his "wife"
appears (the lord's page dressed
as a woman). The two watch a
play performed by a traveling
troupe, a play about Kate and
Petruchio.
Shakespeare's text for Sly
ends here, which is why the
Prologue is often cut. The rest
of the Prologue may be lost, but
a derivative play, The Taming of
a Shrew, continues the story and
ends with Sly awaking hungover
outside the tavern, swearing that
he now knows how to tame his
own shrewish wife.
Verona
Venice
•
•
•
Mantua • PADUA
• • Florence
Pisa
The Geography of Shrew
A Man with Two Daughters
Two of Baptista's friends in Padua,
Hortensio and the wealthy, elderly Gremio,
want to marry his younger daughter, "sweet"
Bianca, but Baptista declares that Bianca
can only marry after her older sister Kate, an
outspoken shrew, marries. He will welcome
only tutors, not suitors. Lucentio, a newly
arrived young university student, sees
Bianca and instantly falls in love. Baptista's
problems have just begun.
Wooing—Schemes and Disguises
All the men scheme to woo Bianca.
Lucentio swaps clothes with his servant
Tranio, so he can pretend to be a tutor,
"Cambio," in order to woo Bianca, while
Tranio pretends to be "Lucentio." Hortensio
gets the same idea and disguises himself
as "Litio," a music tutor. Then Petruchio
shows up, a man with a recent inheritance
who is determined to wed a wealthy woman,
so he undertakes to woo "Katherine the
cursed."
Baptista readily agrees to match
Petruchio and Kate, then leaves Petruchio
to woo his prospective bride in a stormy
scene. Petruchio arrives at the wedding
late and dressed outrageously. Once
wed, he hauls Kate away before the
wedding feast.
Meanwhile, Lucentio finally wins
Bianca's love, so Hortensio vows
to wed a wealthy widow instead.
Meanwhile Tranio has imaginatively
outbid Gremio's dowry offer and won
Baptista's consent—if "Lucentio's"
father approves. So the servants find
a traveling salesman and convince him
to impersonate Vincentio, Lucentio's
wealthy father. While Baptista and
"Vincentio" make the wedding deal,
the servants arrange for Lucentio and
Bianca to elope.
After the Weddings
Petruchio intends to tame Kate's fiery
temperament by denying her sleep and food
in the name of love. Kate watches Petruchio
destroy a new dress and hat ordered for
her to wear to her sister's wedding. On the
road back to Padua he calls the sun the
moon; in frustration Kate finally agrees to
his absurd demand and they begin to find
harmony. They also meet Vincentio, who is
on his way to visit his son Lucentio.
In Padua the real Vincentio is nearly
arrested before Lucentio emerges from
the church and reveals the elopement
and disguises. The shocked fathers are
reconciled to the marriage, and at the
wedding banquet, Kate obliges Petruchio
by heeding his requests when the other
wives ignore their husbands' calls.
Kate's new hat (ASF 1998, Sonja Lanzener,
Monica Bell, John Preston)
Thinking about Plot
• Having two marriageable daughters
immediately sets up comparison/contrast
of them and their suitors. Do the
characters and your opinions change in
the course of the play?
• Disguise plays a big role in Shrew—what
does it say about people and behavior?
• Shakespeare's comedies often end with
weddings. This play has a wedding in the
middle—why? Is getting married the same
thing as being wedded?
ASF 2014/ 3
The Taming
of the Shrew
The Basic Elements of The Taming of the Shrew
The TEXT
• Approximately 2600 lines
(depending on edition)
• Almost 80% of the play is in
blank verse with very little rhyme.
About 22% is prose.
• The longest roles are
Petruchio, Tranio, and Kate
ACTION and CHARACTERS
• The action centers on Baptista and
his two marriageable daughters, Kate and
Bianca, who are strong contrasts. Baptista
says Bianca cannot marry until Kate is
married.
• All the wooers want to marry younger
Bianca; no one except Petruchio is willing
to take on headstrong Kate.
• Bianca's wooers are all "Mr. Wrong"
until the newcomer Lucentio sees her and
falls in love with her.
• All the wooers will go to extreme
lengths to get what they want, including
disguise and manipulation.
ALTERNATING PLOT LINES
• The play has a prologue (which is not
always performed) and then two plot lines,
each centering on the wooing and wedding
of one of Baptista's two daughters.
• After the Prologue, the opening three
scenes combine the plot lines; then the
scenes alternate focus on Kate/Petruchio
or Bianca/Lucentio until Act Five, when the
plot lines again unite in Padua.
SETTING
• There are also
two settings, Padua
and Petruchio's,
as is common in
Shakespeare's
comedies.
• Deciding how
wealthy or simple
Petruchio's digs are
is an interpretive
issue with telling
ramifications.
Wedded bliss—do these
two people look joyously happy?
Petruchio makes a fast and
unexpected exit with Kate before
the marriage feast in ASF's 2005
Shrew.
GENRE: COMEDY
• The play has farce's lively, fastpaced action. It often relies on physicality
(beatings, throwing things, chases) and on
character stereotypes, such as the rich old
man who wants a young wife.
• Farce deals with humanity's primal
urges—greed, lust, and/or gluttony. Its main
plot characters want money or gratification;
servants tend to want food or a sense of
power.
• Within this style, each plot line of
Shrew has a romantic core—it concerns
wooing and wedding. Thus, love also plays
a large part.
• The basic structure of comedy divides
and then reunites and offers the audience
the chance to sympathize with or ridicule
characters.
THEME: MISTAKEN IDENTITY
• A play that uses mistaken identity also
inquires what the actual identity is, a major
issue with Kate and perhaps with Bianca.
• The mistaken identity idea begins at
home, where we learn the daughters may be
different from their father's view of them.
• Bianca's wooers use a series of
disguises to try to win her hand in marriage.
Disguises are inherently comic but also ask
how far we will change ourselves to get
what we think we want.
• The pervasive theme of disguise in
the Bianca/Lucentio plot line echoes in
the Kate/Petruchio plot as he uses verbal
strategies and changes or attacks clothes
to make his point.
• The ending involves revelations—both
unmasking the disguises to reveal the actual
identities and often deeper psychological/
emotional truths as well.
THEME: TAMING a SHREW vs.
WOOING and WEDDING
• Male/female dominance questions fill
the play, starting with the title and its label
of "shrew." Who we see as shrewish in the
play may change or expand.
• Half the play shows us Kate's
adjustment to being a wife; we only get a
glimpse of Bianca as wife. Shakespeare
builds a comic contrast between being
wooed and being wedded.
ASF 2014/ 4
The Taming
of the Shrew
Genre: The Range of Comedy
UNIT 1: The Play and the Genre of Comedy
Comedy is a wide-ranging genre with
many approaches to subject, character, and
theme. Its general attributes in literature
include:

Hortensio tries—and fails—
to set Kate straight early in ASF's
2005 Shrew (Sam Gregory and
Kathleen McCall)
• a group (society, family) gets divided or fractured
• the action works to reunite the group
• the protagonist is like us or worse in values and behavior
• it has middle class and working class characters, not necessarily
aristocrats as in tragedy has, though
Shakespeare often has aristocrats in his comedies
• anyone not able to rejoin the group at the end is excluded
• primary emotions aroused are sympathy and ridicule
At one end of the spectrum
of comedy is farce, which
emphasizes stereotypical
characters and active physical
humor—slaps and beatings
that never do any real harm.
It is fast-paced, roustabout
comedy, usually intensifying
until a chase scene that
culminates the action and lets
the status quo re-establish.
Situation comedy plays
off of farce, for it puts a wellknown and often beloved
character in a series of challenging or
outrageous contexts and plights, as in
the classic tv series I Love Lucy.
Romantic comedy is
Shakespeare's specialty, showing the
tangles and triumphs of more threedimensional young lovers against
blocking parents and problematic
situations. It involves or ends
with several weddings and the
presumption of a happy ever after.
Comedy of ideas and comedy
of manners look at the society and
analyze social and even political
issues or satirize the mores and behavior of
the upper classes, as Restoration comedy
does brittlely and brilliantly.
Shakespeare, Farce, and Shrew
Shakespeare often combines aspects
of comic subgenres in his plays—farce with
his romantic comedy or romance into his
darker tragicomedies. Depending on how
one views Shrew, it can be a pure or mixed
subgenre of comedy.
Many commentators call Shrew a
farce, and it certainly has farcical aspects.
The label of farce has implictions for the
play, however, so the subgenre needs
more definition. To begin, farce asks the
audience to ridicule far more often than it
engages sympathy, a trait directly linked to
its characterization.
In farce, such as the Italian commedia
dell'arte, the characters are stereotypes,
such as the young lovers (the commedia
Boy and Girl in White, clueless because in
love), the old man who wants the young
girl (a combination of greed and lechery),
the braggart soldier (all blow and no go),
the perpetually hungry or sly, scheming
servant, and so on.
Shrew includes some of these types—a
lecherous old man (Gremio), a potential
braggart soldier (Petruchio), young lovers
(Bianca and Lucentio), and active servants,
including Grumio who gets beaten.
In farce's general plot terms, the
lovers cannot help themselves, so the
servants have to work out the happy ending,
thwarting love rivals and maneuvering
opportunities. In this regard, Shrew links
to farce, for the servants make the subplot
happen. Tranio and Biondello, who work
overtime to help Lucentio win his chosen
girl, are skilled at overcoming obstacles
and seizing openings.
The harder question is whether the
characters in Shrew are two-dimensional
stereotypes that we laugh at without feeling
for. Shakespeare's use of real feeling from
romantic comedy keeps us aware of how
fully formed his characters are—a real
challenge, given the stereotypical nature
of farce.
ASF 2014/ 5
The Taming
of the Shrew
About Shrews and Other Noisy Creatures
UNIT 2: The Title's Metaphor
Meet The Real Shrew
So many of us first
meet the word shrew
either in Shakespeare or
in conversation referring to
some outspoken woman that
we lose sight of the fact that
in that sense the term is a
metaphor. A shrew is actually
a small, mouselike, insecteating creature known for
its sharp shrieks. A fight
among shrews is not physical
but a "squeaking match," a
screaming contest.
In the 14th century, the
term shrew referred to "a
wicked man," but by the
Renaissance, apparently,
the word shrew was an
equal opportunity descriptor,
used for men and women
alike, but perhaps more
often for women—if you
were boisterous, you were a
shrew. Slowly the association
focused exclusively on women
and became synonymous
with virago and harridan,
associated with "violent
temper and speech."
In The Taming of the Shrew, the term
shrew is used to describe Katherine, but the
issue of shrewishness extends far beyond
her outspokenness. It is worth considering,
in fact, whether it is her outspokenness
or her temper that causes Hortensio and
Gremio's complaints about her.
If noise is a factor, if insisting on one's
own way makes one a shrew, then Petruchio
also quickly becomes a contender for the
title. Is Petruchio inherently a demanding,
outspoken, brash man, or does he suit
his actions to match and thereby counter
Kate's? On hearing that she is rich but a
shrew, he tells Bianca's wooers,
Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?
be "of gentler, milder mold" (1.1.60),
presumably more like her sister.
To be outspoken, to want to be heard is
one thing; to be angry and mean is another.
Throughout the play Kate asserts her right
to be heard, and in her most eloquent plea
she also links being heard to expressing
her anger:
So perhaps the issue comes down
to the nature and source of Kate's anger,
the fire that fuels her voice—is it justifiable
or not? What makes a person so often
angry? Have conditions at home, sibling
rivalry, the presence of suitors, her own
need for attention or affection stoked Kate's
shrewishness, or is it just her way, like a
force of nature, an animal instinct? Does
Petruchio recognize Kate's psychological
needs and address them in his "taming," or
does he view her as an animal to be tamed
by deprivation? Interpreting Kate's "noise"
opens a host of issues in Shakespeare's
play.
Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea, puff'd up with winds,
Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordinance in the field,
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in a pitched battle heard,
Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang?
And do you tell me of a woman's tongue,
That gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a chestnut in a farmer's fire?
(1.2.197-207)
The issue is noise—animal noises,
war noises, nature's thunderous noises—
compared to the sound a woman can
make. The nagging wife and scolding
mother-in-law are stereotypes males seem
to treasure; Kate appears unattractive
to the local suitors because she seems
stereotypical in this way. Yet the men also
mention traits other than noise, such as
her being "froward," that is, perverse, and
"intolerable curst," spiteful.
So it is not just the volume level these
men object to, but also the anger or meanspiritedness. By contrast, when he sees
Bianca, Lucentio immediately comments
on the "maid's mild behavior and sobriety"
(1.1.71) and Gremio tells Kate she should
Your betters have endur'd me say my mind,
And if you cannot, best you stop your ears.
My tongue will tell the anger of my heart
Or else my heart, concealing it, will break,
And rather than it shall, I will be free
Even to the uttermost, as I please, in words.
(4.3.75-80)
Issues for Discussion and Analysis
• The two noisiest characters in the play are
Kate and Petruchio. But if one considers
the most willful characters in the play,
Bianca must be added and perhaps even
Lucentio. In fact, how many characters act
in ways that are "perverse" or "froward" to
established norms or familial values? Who
is the shrew in Act 5?
ASF 2014/ 6
The Taming
of the Shrew
Taming and Transforming 1: The Prologue
The Prologue and Christopher Sly
UNIT 3: A Thematic View
of the Action
"Lord" Sly watches the play from
his box seat (ASF 1987)
Christopher Sly at ASF
The Taming of the Shrew
has appeared three times at
ASF in Montgomery, and only in
its first production, in 1987, did
the Prologue and Christopher
Sly make an appearance. In the
other two productions, the play
began with the 1.1 entrance of
Lucentio and Tranio.
In 1987, having Sly on stage
the entire show watching from a
"box seat" added an interpretive
level to the play, and he became
involved when the actors used
him as the merchant who
becomes the faux "Vincentio,"
adding another layer to his roleplaying. This doubled role worked
so well Shakespeare might have
played it that way!
Anyone reading the text of The Taming
of the Shrew for the first time is often
surprised not to meet Lucentio and Tranio in
the initial dialogue but a character
named Christopher Sly, frequently
cut in production. Yet thematically
Christopher Sly is a very useful
character in the play, and one
should notice how closely his
experience of being transformed
from a drunk into a "lord" links
to Kate's transformation from a
shrew into a wife. Sly is bathed and
dressed and obeyed and lavished
with attention, while Kate is ignored
and denied food and chastized in
her new surroundings.
The entire issue of nature
versus nurture is raised by the
interplay between prologue and
main plot. Ironically, of course,
Sly could never become a lord;
he insists on calling for "small
beer" when offered finer liquors,
for instance. But whether Kate
changes, and if so how and why,
is a major concern of the play—or,
more accurately, the play-withinthe-play, since Kate's story is actually a
performance by a traveling troupe for Sly
and the actual lord's benefit.
The presence of that acting company
also highlights the idea that everyone on
stage is an actor, playing a part, as perhaps
the characters are, too, and as we all do
every day in our lives.
Laughter and Lessons
What Sly experiences is a joke, the
lord's whim, and at the end Sly is returned
to his place outside the pub. What Kate
experiences, however, is not quite a joke.
Depending on one's point of view, it is a
necessary lesson, a psychological mirror
image of her own obstreperous behavior
from which she learns tractability, or a
cruel and demeaning lesson in patriarchal
supremacy, treatment designed to wipe
out her spirit and turn her into a Stepford
wife. Or it could be that she and Petruchio
fall in love and are thus transformed from
their desires to dominate into cooperative
and companionate spouses.
What actually happens in the play and
on stage can prompt lively discussion, for
males and females do not always see the
play the same way, and the value of a
spirited woman and the definition of a "good
wife" or "good husband" can lead to debate,
as Shakespeare surely knew.
Issues for Analysis
• How does the Prologue and the trick played on
Christopher Sly affect our idea of the play?
• What issues raised by the "transformation" of
Sly are also applicable to Kate?
• How would the fact that we see a page (a young
adolescent boy) temporarily take on the role
of Sly's wife affect a Renaissance audience's
view of the other women characters in the
play—all of whom would also have been
played by boys?
• What does Sly have to gain or lose if he goes
along with his changed role? What does Kate
have to gain or lose if she goes along with
her changed role?
• Sly supposedly wakes up as himself once
again at the end of the play. What is the
comparable "wake up" action in the playwithin-a-play?
• Since Sly is (one assumes) not permanently
transformed, does that affect the way we
interpret Kate's tranformation? Is Kate truly
transformed? How and why?
• If the Sly scenes are performed, then the rest
of the action becomes a play-within-a-play, a
theatrical event, a fiction rather than a reality.
Does that affect the way one interprets Kate's
change, as a fiction?
• Should the Sly scenes be performed or cut
when Shrew is performed?
ASF 2014/ 7
The Taming
of the Shrew
Taming and Transforming 2: Baptista's Daughters
Baptista's House
"… No mates for you,
Unless you were of
gentler, milder mold."
—Gremio, 1.1
Two households, both alike in comic
indignity, are where we lay our scene
in Shrew. As a single parent, Baptista
faces the singular challenge of raising
two maturing daughters. He makes the
mistake of playing favorites, letting Bianca
be his "pet." That behavior may date from
the girls' childhood, but it has continued,
by habit or choice, and now has unhappy
adult ramifications for all three members
of the family.
Bianca is the younger child and
is accustomed to being spoiled and
pampered. Kate may, of course, naturally
be shrewish, but she may also be driven
to this behavior as a way to get her father's
attention: she acts out. Both women
may be trapped in childhood roles, or
they may have grown into this behavior
over time. Something is clearly broken
in the family relationship, and Baptista
thinks it is Kate. Is it? Having unsuitable
wooers has added new stresses. Trying
to analyze the source of familial problems
in the Baptista household is worth the
effort, for it gives insight into the play's
major characters.
The Other Household—Petruchio's
Sisterly affection and rivalry in
ASF's 1987 Taming of the Shrew
(Evelyn Carol Case, Greta
Lambert)
Right: Daddy's pet, Bianca (Julia
Watt and Paul Hebron, ASF 2005)
It is also worth asking the nature of
Petruchio's household—is it a bachelor
pad or a well-ordered domestic machine,
an old family estate or a working farm?
His father has recently died, and he,
too, seems to have lived motherless for
some time.
Our assumptions about his situation
affect his character and Kate's future. Is
Petruchio living in his own home, or has
he inherited the family home in which he
has been living as the son? What effect
will a woman's presence, a woman's touch
in his household have on his everyday
life? For her part, what is Kate walking
into? How experienced is she at running a
household? As the older daughter, has she
been running Baptista's household since
her mother's death?
Questions about the Opening Situation
• How does one interpret the family dynamic
at Baptista's house? Are Kate and her
willful temper the problem in the house, or
is Baptista's obvious preference for spoiled
Bianca, Daddy's baby girl?
• Is Bianca innocent or conniving? Or is it more a
result of the girls' having grown up apparently
without a mother and now posing adult
challenges, including marriageability?
What are the production implications of each
option?
• Is Bianca what we would call a "princess" and
what does that mean about her attitudes and
assumptions in life? What does it take to woo
or be married to a "princess"? How does one
achieve a happy marriage?
• Is Kate a "shrew"? Does shrewishness start
at home? What does being (or being called)
a "shrew" mean about her attitudes and
assumptions in life? What does it take to
woo or be married to a "shrew"? How does
one achieve a happy marriage?
• No one seems to have a mother in the play. Is
this simply a fact of theatre practicality, since
the boys in the company played the women's
parts? Is it a fact of the patriarchal culture?
Would a mother have made a difference in
Kate and Bianca's upbringing and characters?
In Petruchio's? In Lucentio's?
• Compare the various households—Baptista's
at the start of the play, Petruchio's in the
middle, and then the projected household of
each newlywed couple. What is the dynamic
of each? Do we have "happy-ever-after" all
around?
ASF 2014/ 8
The Taming
of the Shrew
Taming and Transforming 3: Marriage Negotiations
About Arranged Marriage
"I come to wive it
wealthily in Padua;
If wealthily, then happily
in Padua."
—Petruchio, 1.2
In the Renaissance, most middle class
children and virtually every aristocratic child
would expect to have an arranged marriage.
Marriage was considered a business deal,
a financial settlement between families,
rather than a love match, because love
was seen as far too unstable an emotion to
base so important a bond as marriage on
(as our current divorce statistics perhaps
attest).
Getting the money right was very
important, and that is one reason that the
average age of marriage varied by class.
Marriages could occur at younger ages
if the families were monied, but working
class men (and women) were often over
25 when they married, because they had
to be financially stable and independent
(that is, not in their apprenticeship, which
lasted seven years from age 14 to 21) to
be able to support a family; the money had
to be there first.
"Arranging" Marriages in Shrew
One way to get a shrew's
attention while wooing, but
not for long; Greta Lambert
and Daniel Kern as Kate and
Petruchio, ASF 1987
"Ay, when the special
thing is well obtained,
That is, her love; for that
is all in all."
—Baptista, 2.1
We see a normal Renaissance
marital negotiation between Baptista and
Petruchio, who, since his father has died,
is representing himself. Petruchio inquires
about Kate's dowry—how much property
and/or cash he will get if and when he
marries her. For his part, Baptista asks
about Kate's widow's settlement, that is,
what happens to her dowry and any other
inheritance from Petruchio if she survives
him. Each man is very clear and specific in
these negotiations, and they make the deal
before Petruchio even meets Kate.
When it comes to Bianca's match,
Baptista turns it into a bidding war. He
offers no dowry; instead, he asks what
he is offered for Bianca's hand as if he
were auctioning her off, and Gremio
and "Lucentio" (actually Tranio, who is
fabricating his entire offer) try to outbid each
other. Since Gremio is telling the truth and
Tranio is embellishing, it is not difficult for
Tranio to win in the name of "Lucentio."
Questions for Discussion and Analysis
• How important is the business/financial aspect
of marriage? Were Renaissance customs
prudent in making financial arrangements
for marriage?
• Does Baptista look out for Kate's best interests
when he makes his deal with Petruchio, or
is he just glad to get rid of her?
•Why does Kate storm out of the wooing scene
and yet show up for the wedding when earlier
she so firmly says, "I'll see thee hanged on
Sunday first"? Is there any advantage for
her in being Petruchio's wife rather than just
Baptista's daughter?
• How might the two different marital negotiations
reveal or affect the two relationships and what
might they say about the people involved?
• One approach to wedding is traditional and
one non-traditional (or perhaps we might
consider it traditional in comedy—the
lovers make their own decisions). How
appropriate are the approaches for the
entire wooing/wedding process in each
case? How does it fit the play's pattern as
a whole?
• Do the couples in Shrew make their own
decisions in both cases? Is the traditional
aspect of the negotiations for Kate's hand
and dowry and the public wedding an
indication of some traditional element in
her nature feeding into her last speech or
a quick means to an individual end?
ASF 2014/ 9
The Taming
of the Shrew
Taming and Transforming 4: Disguise
Disguise and Discovery
Tr a n i o a n d t h e r e a l
Lucentio (John Pasha and
Craig Pattison, ASF 2005), and
Tranio disguised as "Lucentio"
with his own gaudy style
Much of the Bianca plotline is concerned
with an elaborate series of disguises by
her suitors. Both Hortensio and Lucentio
are willing to move out of their privileged
roles and become "tutors"
for her sake because they
want to be near enough to
woo her.
Lucentio's disguise as
"Cambio" begets even more
disguises—for someone
must seem to be Lucentio
and work on Baptista while
the real Lucentio works
on Bianca—so Tranio
experiences the opposite
switch, from servant to
privilege. The social fun of
changing class or status
would be acute in the
Renaissance, when class
was more rigid than it is
today. Tranio may even lay
it on thick in his "lording" (perhaps a bit like
Christopher Sly, since Tranio's experience
parallels Sly's).
How effective should Tranio's
embodiment/impersonation of a rich young
man be—what serves the comedy?
Another layer of disguise becomes
necessary when Tranio wins the bidding war
for Bianca's hand; that ruse necessitates
that he must have a father to sign the
agreement, and they cannot use the real
Vincentio. Instead, a credulous passerby
gets dragooned into service. On stage
the various roles double before our eyes
as if in a set of fun house mirrors, and
as the deceptions get more complicated
they are more and more fun to watch
as the deceivers try to rise to each new
challenge—and we especially enjoy when
the real Vincentio appears to burst their
elaborate bubble.
Since the real Vincentio's appearance
resolves the subplot, whose "real
appearance" concludes the main plot?
Questions for Discussion
•What kind of love is Lucentio's for Bianca? Hers
for him? Compare the secrecy and speed of
this love with Romeo and Juliet's. Is there ever
any love between Kate and Petruchio? If so,
where and how does it come about?
•How does love fit with disguise? Do lovers
disguise themselves as well as reveal
themselves in the wooing game? What does
disguise say about identity and/or honesty?
Are identity and selfhood important concepts
in this play?
•Does Petruchio use a form of disguise with Kate
just as Lucentio uses disguise with Bianca?
Are the wedding garb and his demanding
banter at home a reality or a role, a disguise
to achieve his goal?
The Subplot's Source
Educated Renaissance audiences
noticed the similarity between Shakespeare's
subplot and a popular Italian play, Ariosto's
Gli Suppositi (1509), based on classical
comic plotlines and translated into English
by George Gascoigne as Supposes (1566).
In this play a student, Erostrato (note the
"eros" in the name), has disguised himself
as a servant to woo Polynesta and has
indeed won her favor. For some months
they have been secretly sleeping together, a
collusion aided by her nurse, and Polynesta
is now pregnant.
Her father, who knows none of this, is
trying to arrange her match among several
rich but unsuitable suitors, among whom is
Erostrato's servant Dulippo disguised as his
master. The plot tangles in a familiar way
with Erostrato's father making a late and
plot-clarifying appearance. Interestingly,
two servants in this play are named
Petruchio and Litio.
The idea of "supposes" plays with what
those on stage suppose reality and identity
to be and the audience's suppositions
about reality and make believe. Notice how
Shakespeare changes the Italian comic
reality of illicit love and pregnancy to a more
Elizabethan assumption of virginity.
ASF 2014/ 10
The Taming
of the Shrew
Taming and Transforming 5: Taming a Spouse
FALCONRY
• Have an individual or small
group research the practice
of taming and flying falcons
for sport in the Renaissance.
Petruchio uses the sport as
a basis for his "taming" plan
for Kate. How humane was
the treatment of the falcons
in the Renaissance? How
do most trainers "break" an
animal and what does the
term imply? What would
Shakespeare's audience
know about the sport and
the practice of taming a
raptor?
See The Taming of the
Shrew: Texts and Contexts,
ed. Frances E. Dolan (Boston:
Bedford, 1996) for good period
information.
Taming
In his 4.1 soliloquy, Petruchio compares
his treatment of Kate to taming a hawk; his
goal is "To make her come and know her
keeper's call." Now we may feel somewhat
differently than did the Renaissance about
animal training and spousal abuse, the
spectrum within which his treatment falls.
If Petruchio is well intentioned and has
seen a way to release Kate from being
trapped in outbursts and unhappiness, we
more nearly accept his plan. If we see him
as just being selfish, willful, or patriarchal,
out for himself or inflicting the social
system on Kate, we may worry about Kate
and consider the match a dysfunctional
marriage.
In the nineteenth century, the most
famous prop used in a production of
Shrew was Petruchio's bullwhip, which he
cracked in the homecoming scene—though
he never actually hit anyone. What is
seen as behavior for show, in either Kate
or Petruchio, and what is behavior in
earnest determines much of the balance
of any interpretation of The Taming of the
Shrew.
Some Renaissance punishments for a scold—above,
the dunking (or cucking) stool: the woman was dunked until
she stopped talking back. Right, a "scold's bridle" which
had a tongue suppressor to keep her from talking.
Questions for Discussion
• What is the value of obedience or conformity
and why is that trait the central focus of the
last scene? Is the promise to "obey" still part
of most marriage ceremonies today? What
does "obedience" imply?
• Bianca proves willful in the last scene. Is that
new behavior on her part, or have we seen it
previously? Is Kate the only potential shrew
in the play?
• How should we interpret Kate's last long
speech? Is she cowed, brainwashed,
"tamed"? Is she in love? Is she playing a
game as in the sun/moon scene (4.5)? Is
she using a verbal disguise?
• Petruchio wins the bet and is also rewarded
by Baptista with a second dowry. For a man
who said he sought only money, he has
succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. How
do we assess Petruchio? Does the hawk/
taming image link to the action of this last
scene?
ASF 2014/ 11
The Taming
of the Shrew
Gender Roles: Dominance and Defiance in Acts 4 and 5
UNIT 4: Two Approaches to
Kate and Petruchio—
Cultural Roles and Imagery
The iconic Petruchio moment
in theatre history, the wielding
of the whip (from a 1838
edition of the play, based on
stage practice). To this day,
productions will often include a
whip among the props, usually
as a theatre joke.
Compare/contrast Shrew's
discussion of gender roles
in marriage to Chaucer's
"Wife of Bath's Prologue
and Tale," with its interest in
maistrye [mastery].
It always seems to start with the Garden
of Eden—our views of being created
human so often drop out of focus in the
blur of our having been created male and
female. Which aspect is more important
may depend on the context.
Today we often describe the marital
or quasi-marital bond as a partnership,
"my partner" equating to "my husband"
or "my wife." In this belief, implying joint
governance and mutual power if the
partnership is 50/50, we perhaps allude to
a business model that is not so far from the
financially-based arranged marriage of the
Renaissance, except that relationship was
not considered 50/50. It involved patriarchal
power and female obedience.
"And obey…," a phrase implying that
power demands a compliant response. For
thousands of years, obedience was bred
in the bone of a world ruled by angry gods
and monolithic rulers. Through time, from
ancient Athens to the French Revolution and
today's world, the assumption of totalitarian
government has been challenged with
ideals of democracy and with the voice of the
many rather than only the voice of one ruler
or an oligarchy being able to determine law
and justice. Voice is a concern that history
shares with Shakespeare's Shrew.
Shrew's Gender Roles
In Shrew, the nature of the marital
relationship is a central issue. The play
sports with the wooing and winning of
Bianca, but the more challenging and
interesting dynamic is the wedding of
Katherina and Petruchio, which occurs in
the middle of the play, not at the end. Thus
we watch them try to become a couple,
try to define and establish what their new
relationship will be, how they will proceed
with their now-joined lives.
The assumption of patriarchal power
precedes this interpersonal negotiation,
for Petruchio bargained for Kate's hand
before he met her. When they do meet,
she assumes she has a say and says "no,"
but Baptista joins their hands as if she had
not spoken. Cultural deafness—the history
of what happens when women speak. Is
it any wonder Kate yells? The men don't
hear her, or if they hear her, they do not
listen to or heed her, but label and reject
her out of hand, which is much the same
thing. Is Kate wrong to speak?
Kate has a voice and wants to use
it, wants her opinion heeded, wants her
perspective and preferences taken into
account as they do not seem to have been
in her life. Petruchio, for his part, assumes
he knows best; he has the responsibility of
ownership and power and has grown up in
a world that supports his dominance.
So what actually happens in the play?
Some argue the two fall in love; some
argue Kate really wants to submit and be
dominated; views abound. Look at the
wooing and wedding scenes, but, more
importantly, look at the wedded scenes—if
there is change, that is its most likely place,
and ask questions.
Interpretive Questions to Consider
• Does Petruchio stomp Kate into
submission, making her a tame, responsive
animal? That's one use of power and one kind
of marriage.
• Does he mirror her own demanding nature,
either because he shares such a nature or
because he wants to get her attention? That's
another use of power, one that may acknowledge
that she's there.
• Does he recognize her as a person,
perhaps a trapped or troubled person, and bother
to help her out of the trap? (Is he, too, in a mental
trap?) That's yet another use of power, one that
wants to improve or make a difference.
• Does he hear her voice and ask that she
hear his? That, too, is a use of power, but the
results in personal, emotional terms may be
quite different from dominating an animal into
submission.
• What has happened between Petruchio
and Kate while they're away from Padua, and
who are they as a couple when they return?
ASF 2014/ 12
The Taming
of the Shrew
The Clothing Makes the Man—Imagery at Work
"Training" Does Not Mean
Obedience?
In her book Adam's Task,
Vicki Hearne asserts that
"training is only superficially
about obedience; what it's really
about is constructing a language
in which you can have this
conversation that will carry on
for your entire life, a conversation
about what matters and what
doesn't matter. Does it matter
if you come when I call you, or
does it not matter? … the training
is the means to an end, and the
end is not obedience. It's just
better understanding, better
communication."
(from interview with David
Wroblewski, author of The Story of
Edgar Sawtelle, which includes dog
training)
• Is Petruchio's "taming" about
dominance or communication?
Can a bird change its feathers? A tiger
its stripes? Display is a vital part of nature,
but it would seem to be ingrained. Is that
also true for us? Human display seems to
involve far more than one's psychic birthday
suit—our mental feathers or stripes.
Since clothing is one of the major image
patterns in the play, Shakespeare asks if we
also put on attitude as we put on clothing.
The first time Petruchio meets Kate he plans
to use reverse psychology on her—"Say
that she rail,/ I'll say she sings as sweetly
as a nightingale." The second time he sees
Kate he uses clothing, specifically his wild
wedding garb, for effect. When Baptista
and others challenge his unseemly attire,
he simply replies, "To me she's married,
not unto my clothes. / Could I repair what
she will wear in me / As I can change these
poor accoutrements, / 'Twere well for Kate
and better for myself."
Shakespeare emphasizes the clothing
element by making clothes a major plot
point, especially in this scene, for one could
scarcely get a bigger set-up than Biondello's
description of Petruchio's garb and horse.
Once he has arrived, everyone protests that
this won't do. Clearly Petruchio is raising
the issue of what is essential and what
superficial in an individual and in social
behavior; he focuses the comments on
himself, but what he says is equally true of
Kate and people's reactions to her. It also
has implications for Lucentio's attraction to
Bianca, given where the action ends: "The
more fool you for laying on my duty."
• Does Petruchio see the difference between
Kate's "self" and the way she manifests
that self? What prompts his strange and
quite conscious behavior at the wedding?
Is he just acting out or does he have a
purpose?
• In a play with such an emphasis on disguise,
should we also see Petruchio's wedding
garb as a disguise? If so, what is the
nature of the disguise? Why this, in context
of the other men's disguises?
• How much of conventional behavior is
bound up in one's clothing—the right look
for the right setting: a funeral, a pool party,
Friday casual at work versus a business
meeting with a major client? Do people
judge each other by their apparel?
• How much of our clothing is non-essential, a
product of the fashion and clothing industry
rather than need? How often do we buy
new clothes? How long do we keep them?
Do we "own" fashion or does it "own" us?
Just married! And who's the shrew now?
Who's acting out and not "garbed" properly?
Who wants whom to behave? (ASF 2005, Chris
Qualls, Doug Rees, Kathleen McCall)
ASF 2014/ 13
The Taming
of the Shrew
How Kate Is "Garbed": Clothing Imagery 2
Later in the play, after Petruchio's
outrageous garb at the wedding,
Shakespeare gives Petruchio another
major piece of action related to clothing.
Petruchio has ordered new clothes for Kate
to wear to her sister's wedding. When Kate
sees them, she admires how fashionable
they are—"I never saw a better-fashioned
gown" and "this doth fit the time, / And
gentlewomen wear such caps as these."
But Petruchio rejects the garments.
Specifically answering Kate's description
of the cap, he responds, "When you are
gentle, you shall have one too, / And not
till then," a comment that warns, assesses,
and inspires. Later he explains,
Kate in ruined wedding
dress tries to figure out her
new husband in ASF's 1987
Shrew set in the 18th century
(Greta Lambert and Daniel
Kern). How apt is it that
they're both redheads?
Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father's
Even in these honest mean habiliments;
Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor;
For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich;
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honor peereth in the meanest habit.
What, is the jay more precious than the lark,
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
[…] O, no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse
For this poor furniture and mean array.
If thou account'st it shame, lay it on me.…
(4.3)
Petruchio shares with Kate the view
he earlier expressed to the wedding party,
that externals are not most important. He
also implies that she herself is valuable
and perhaps also her "singing," her voice.
The image pattern completes in the final
scene when, on Kate's unexpected return
when summoned, he tells her to doff her
cap because it "becomes you not." What is
unbecoming is cast aside, and this action
leads into Kate's speech on obedience.
• Has Kate learned that anger and her shrewish
behavior, like an unbecoming cap, should
be removed? Or, as with the sun/moon
debate, has she learned to play the game
of embellishing whatever wild proposition
Petruchio makes? Or both?
• The verbal "attire" Kate wears in the last scene
has caused intense critical discussion and
debate. Does it fit her as the docile, quiet
stereotype so valued in women early in the
play, or has she created a new fashion more
appropriate to her husband and herself?
Watch and join the debate.
• Given the nature of the clothing imagery,
analyze Petruchio's next demands—about
time and about sun/moon. What is he serious
about in these demands and what does he
want from Kate? What does he get?
On the journey to his house,
Petruchio manages to ruin Kate's
wedding dress in the mud. He
then destroys the new dress
he promises her, but in some
productions, as Susan Branch's
2005 ASF designs show, the
"new" Kate gets to wear that
stylish new dress and hat.
ASF 2014/ 14
The Taming
of the Shrew
Shrew on Video—Fascinating Productions to Compare
UNIT 5: Performance and
Interpretation
Clockwise from above:
Elizabeth Taylor as an fiery
Katherina; the 1976 ACT
commedia production; the 2005
Shakespeare Retold version;
and the 1980 BBC series
production.
Using available video resources is a great
way to introduce students to ideas about genre
and the play. Using them also makes fine
comparative analyses about interpretation of
character, scene, and issue. The Taming of
the Shrew has a number of good productions
available on video (none of which includes the
Prologue scenes), especially:
• Franco Zeffirelli's 1966 film starring
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
(playing off of their reputations, hers
for attitude, his for alcohol), set in a
Renaissance Italian Padua. Sumptuous
design, physically active and fun, with
subplot much cut.
• American Conservatory Theatre of San
Francisco's 1976 commedia dell'arte
style stage production taped for
television by PBS's Great Performances
series. Superb commedia style and
acting, terrific fun, pure farce (or is it?).
• The BBC 1980 made-for-television
production (part of the BBC's Complete
Canon series) starring John Cleese as
a sober, Puritanical Petruchio (except at
his wedding). Conceptualized design and
non-farcical interpretation for those who
want more than knockabout.
• The 2005 BBC "Shakespeare Retold"
version, a cut script in a modern setting
with Kate as a workaholic Member of
Parliament.
Whether you are teaching the play or not,
moments from any of these productions can
help engage students in the vivacity of Shrew
by piquing their curiosity. If you are teaching the
play, comparing the endings can be especially
useful about the range of interpretation possible
for this play. Moments to watch:
• Kate/Bianca/Baptista (early 1.1 or 2.1)
• Kate/Petruchio wooing scene (2.2)
• wedding scene
• arrival at Petruchio's or sun/moon scene
• the end of the final scene
ASF 2014/ 15
The Taming
of the Shrew
Shrew's "Time" on Stage—What Is "Doing Shakespeare"?
Changing the locale of Shakespeare's
plays in modern productions is as common
as a singer covering a hit song in her
own style. Yet for theatre audiences, how
the plays "should" be done generates an
ongoing debate.
Part of the debate about
setting and time period argues
that on Shakespeare's stage
almost all the costumes were
Elizabethan garb. In other
words, he produced his plays
in "modern dress," so the
characters on stage looked
much like the audience,
whether the play was Macbeth
or Twelfth Night. Therefore,
we should perform them in the
same spirit, in our modern dress,
so the action will be as immediate
to a modern audience as it was to
his. (This view does tend to overlook
the fact that the language is four
hundred years old no matter what
clothes the actors wear.)
On the other hand, some argue that
because Shakespeare's stage almost
always performed in Renaissance garb, so
should we; Shakespeare should be done
"as it was meant to be," so the words and
the garb fuse—and time doesn't move.
These are sometimes called "museum"
productions. Yet all the social clues that
Renaissance clothes provided for a
Renaissance audience are lost on us. We
usually can't tell a tacky gown from a fine
one in that period. If Shakespeare lived
now, how do we know what decision he
would make?
The most common recent production
approach for most directors has been to
find a congenial setting in time and place,
one that can illuminate the action of the
play, whether it be Stonehenge for King
Lear, the High Middle Ages for Richard II,
or outer space for The Tempest. ASF has
used both the Renaissance and "other eras"
approaches, performing the history plays in
historically accurate costumes and Troilus
and Cressida in modern military uniforms,
Romeo and Juliet both in Renaissance
tights with jerkins and in polo shirts with
khakis, and even Twelfth Night once as a
1930s' Busby Berkeley musical. The setting
is an interesting part of the interpretive
discussion, not a rule.
Design for ASF's 2014 Taming of the Shrew
A very fashionable 18thcentury Lucentio in ASF's 1987
Shrew (David Harum with
Steven David Martin); ASF's allAmerican 1950s Shrew in 1998
(Monica Bell and John Preston);
and ASF's 1950s Italian Shrew in
2005 (Doug Rees and Kathleen
McCall)
Detailed design information such
as period, set, and costumes is not yet
available for ASF's spring 2014 production
of The Taming of the Shrew. When it is, it will
be added to the study materials, so check
back for design ideas and sketches.
ASF 2014/ 16
The Taming
of the Shrew
Italian Wedding Proverbs
UNIT 6: An Italian Context
• At the start of the play, which characters believe one or more of these proverbs?
• Who believes which proverb at the end of the play?
• How true are these proverbs in general? Are they stereotypes or insights?
La buona moglie fa il buon marito. — A good wife makes a good husband.
Chi ha moglie ha doglie.
— Who has a wife has strife.
Chi non ha moglie non ha padrone. — Who has no wife has no master.
Casa senza fimmina 'mpuvirisci.
— A house without a woman is poor.
Casa il figlio quando vuoi e la figlia — Marry your son when you choose, quando puoi.
your daughter when you can.
Donna danno, sposa spesa, — The husband reigns, but the wife governs.
moglie maglio.
Italian Wedding Customs
Litio's serenade of Bianca brings
disaster at Kate's hands in this 1950s
production with "Litio" as an Elvis
clone (Ray Chambers, ASF 1998)
A critical commonplace about
Shakespeare's comedies asserts that,
although he sets many of these plays in
Italy, they actually reflect English society
and customs. Many aspects of the plays,
such as the Prologue scenes of Shrew,
bear this out, but perhaps the plays are
not without their Italian aspects. Consider
some Italian wedding customs in context
of the action of Shrew:
Engagement
• Some Italian marriages are still discussed
if not arranged by the families.
• A groom who proposes himself usually
serenades his beloved first. (Compare
to Hortensio's approach as Litio)
The Wedding
• On the day of the wedding, it was bad
luck for the bride to wear gold before
she gets the wedding ring
• Sunday weddings are supposed to be the
luckiest. (On which day of the week are
Kate and Bianca married?)
• The bride arrives last at the wedding
mass while the groom waits in front of
the church with his groomsmen. "Her
lateness, depending on the number of
minutes, would have a different meaning
to the groom." (Consider how Shrew
inverts this tradition.)
• In northern Italy (where the action of Shrew
is set), the groom brings the bouquet of
flowers for the bride; it is supposed to
be a surprise. (How much of Petruchio's
arrival is a surprise for Kate?)
The Reception
• Guests toss small bundles of candycovered almonds at the couple as a
wish for fertility and a sign of "the union
of bitter and sweet." How appropriate
would this "bitter and sweet" message
be for the couples married at the end of
Shrew? Or for any marriage?
• The best man greets everyone arriving
at the reception with a drink to toast the
bride and groom; a typical toast is "per
cent'anni" [for a hundred years].
• The men kiss the bride for luck and to
make the groom jealous.
• Food is very important, and the wedding
feast often lasts well into the night with
as many as 14 courses, music, and
dancing. A wedding, a feast, and/or a
dance are the standard elements of a
comic ending. Shrew provides a comic
bonanza.
• Friends play tricks on the new couple.
In Shrew, does the wager amongst the
husbands count as a trick?
• A band plays mazzurcas and tarantellas,
usually danced as a group dance.
How many related customs appear
beyond Italy? How many can be found
in American wedding customs?
ASF 2014/ 17
The Taming
of the Shrew
Words, Words, Words
VOCABULARY
The text of the play is remarkably
clear and straightforward (and funny). The
Renaissance meaning of a handful of words
may help understanding:
• "wealth is burden of my wooing
dance"—the burden is the basic,
underlying melody
• "for dainties are all Kates"—a cate is a
delicacy, confection (pun on name)
• "read the gamut of Hortensio"—a
gamut is a scale in music; he uses a
G scale (ut is the same as our do in
do re mi…)
• "doff this habit"—here habit means
outfit, clothing (we still use the word
for nuns' garb), but implying our other
meaning, too
• "I fear it is too choleric"—likely to
prompt anger
• "though you hit the white"—bianca is
Italian for white
Word Play: How "Italian" Are They?
Shakespeare wryly jokes with his
English audience about his Italian setting
in the play. In the second scene, after
Petruchio berates his servant for 19 lines
in English, he turns to greet his friend
Hortensio in Italian, a simple, heartfelt
"well met" (Con tutto il cuore ben trovato),
to which Hortensio replies with a welcome
in two lines of Italian.
Grumio, Petruchio's servant, a born
Italian who has just come with him from
Verona to Padua, then interrupts—"Nay,
'tis no matter, sir, what he 'leges in Latin…."
He has no idea what they're saying and
clearly thinks they are speaking a foreign
tongue that he is not educated enough to
understand.
But it's Italian, supposedly his native
language—were he really Italian and not
an English actor standing before a set of
English groundlings who would probably be
as clueless about Italian or Latin as Grumio
is. So Shakespeare gives his audience a
wink and a smile. He also gently asks if
the action of the play is about "them" or
about "us."
Gremio straining to hear the
words and Lucentio disguised as
"Cambio the scholar" who has all
too many words—the love poems he
holds and his own secret wooing of
Bianca (Philip Pleasants and David
Harum, ASF, 1987)
ASF 2014/ 18
The Taming
of the Shrew
Pre-Show Activities: Engaging the Play's Issues
Baptista meets the real
Lucentio and Vincentio when he
learns Bianca has eloped. (Paul
Hebron, Julia Watt, John Pasha,
Joe Vincent, ASF 2005)
FAMILY MATTERS
THE COMPETITIVE SPIRIT
• Have small groups enact brief scenes
involving either parents and children
or siblings when:
— one of the children is the "pet" and gets
whatever he/she wants
— one of the children is always a "success"
according to the parents
— one of the children acts out and rejects
"good" behavior
— one sibling stands in the other's way
— the negotiations of birth order (e.g. are
the rules different?)
and then have a group member interview
the role players to learn how they feel
about the situation, what choices they
have, and if they have alternatives
[This exercise will let the class recognize
the dynamics of Baptista's house when
they see it and will put the situation on
familiar ground. It can also be framed
as a free writing exercise.]
• In school, we champion our sports
teams and other school activities. What
happens when competition is social? Do
males compete with males? About what
kind of things? What is such competition
based on? Does this behavior bolster
group dynamic or rivalry?
And do females compete with females?
About what? What is the competition
based on? Is it constructive?
What happens if this competition gets into
bragging rights about who has the best
____? (Fill in the blank: car, hairdo,
boyfriend, sports record, online game
score, whatever.) What comes of such
competitiveness? What is "best" based
on?
[In Shrew, the men compete for Bianca,
and the women/sisters inherently vie.
Shakespeare describes behavior that
is universal.]
PRETENSE and DISGUISE
BUILD-A-SPOUSE
• Engage the class in a discussion of
role-playing versus pretense. When do
we "try out" attitudes and actions, and
when do we pretend to be something
we're not? What happens when we do?
Are these behaviors useful or harmful
to oneself and
others? When do
people feel like
they want to use
pretense? How
do other people
react when they
discover the
pretense?
How is pretense
like disguise on
stage? Can a
physical disguise
also suggest a
psychological or
social disguise?
[Disguise is a major element and image
in Shrew.]
• Make a visual or verbal collage of what
qualities and traits you think are important
in someone you would want to date as
a long-term girlfriend or boyfriend. The
collage should clarify what aspects are
most important and which less.
On the back, put a paragraph discussing
what the dating relationship is and
why these traits matter in such a
relationship.
• Do the same for someone you would
want to marry. How is marriage different
from dating?
[Shrew focuses on getting married and
being married.]
ASF 2014/ 19
The Taming
of the Shrew
Post-Show Analysis: Discussion/Writing
TAKE A STAND
• So is Kate the shrew in the play, or isn't
she? Is she a shrew when the play
opens? Is she a shrew when the play
ends? If not, is anyone else a shrew
as the play develops? Back up your
stand with details and discussion of
why you think so.
• Based on the play you saw, are the
characters two-dimensional farcical
stereotypes, or are they threedimensional human beings? Point to
examples that support your view.
• What point is Shakespeare making
about identity and relationships with
the disguise motif and its development
in the play? Do we live our lives
playing roles or pretending to be
someone we're not? Do we use any
guise to maneuver situations to get
what we want? Does he suggest that
disguises bring happiness? Discuss
your view with details and reasons
why you think so.
Newlywed Kate in her
new home, denied food and
sleep, confused, down—but
not defeated (Kathleen McCall,
ASF 2005)
• Are Kate and Petruchio more honest
and self-disclosing than Bianca and
Lucentio? Do they know each other
better by the end of the play? What
does your answer imply about the
play?
• Does Shakespeare think the process of
getting married is the same as being
married to someone? How do the two
plot lines relate to the idea of marriage
in the play? Point to specifics and
discuss their relevance to your view.
• How much of Shrew is simply a result
of being driven by the wild energy of
farce that must get crazier and crazier
until the bubble bursts and we can
get back to "normal"? Does the genre
drive the play or do the characters and
their changing relationships? Discuss
why you think as you do.
• What should we think about Kate and
her last speech? Does she capitulate
and become a Stepford wife? Does
she learn what obedience means? Is
she a "tamed" animal? Is she involved
in an elaborate, witty game with her
husband? Is she still "Kate"? Between
her words and the way she delivers
them in context, what conclusions do
you draw and why? Does her speech
as performed make the play lighter or
darker?
• Is "taming" an appropriate approach
for one human being to take with
another in a long-term relationship
involving trust and commitment?
What does "taming" entail? Under
what circumstances might it apply?
Do those circumstances apply in the
play? Is Kate or any other shrew in the
play actually "tamed" and what might
that mean in terms of character and
behavior? Point to details to support
your point.
• On the issue of shrew/noise, are both
Kate and Petruchio "noisy"? What do
men think of what women talk about?
What do women think of what men
talk about? Can we communicate?
The Taming
of the Shrew
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