William Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew Essay examples -- Shakes

William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew Over the past 400 or so years since Shakespeare wrote _The Taming of the Shrew_, many writers, painters, musicians and directors have adapted and reformed this play of control and subjugation into timeless pieces of art. In _10 Things I Hate About You_ and Kiss Me Kate from two very different times in the twentieth century, and paintings of Katherina and Bianca from the late nineteenth century, the creators of these adaptations have chosen to focus on the role of the two main female characters in the play. The ideas surrounding these women have changed through the years, from Katherina and Bianca simply being young women who deviated from the norm of Shakespeare’s time to women who embody feminist ideals and stereotypes of the more modern world. From the beginning of the play, the differences between Katherina and Bianca are highlighted through their interactions via dialogue. Early in the second act, Bianca pleads with her sister to not â€Å"make a bondmaid and a slave of me† because, as deemed by society, Bianca is not supposed to marry before her older sister (2.1.2). Bianca asks Katherina to â€Å"unbind [her] hands† so that she can get rid of all the gawdy implements she is forced to wear as a polite woman of the time, because if she doesn’t want to follow one rule, she doesn’t see why she should follow any of them (2.1.4). This immediately sets up these two sisters by showing how one depends on the status of the other to be truly happy, or happy as deemed by the doctrines of society anyway. Katherina rebuts this whining after their father enters, and ends the scene with her own speech in which she argues that Nay, now I see She is your treasure, she must have a husband; I mus... ... About You_.† Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism and Scholarship 22.2 (2004): 45-66. Expanded Academic ASAP. Westfield State College Library, MA. 15 April 2005. 15 April 2005. Ostlere, Hilary. â€Å"Taming The Musical.† Dance Magazine 73.12 (1999): 84. Expanded Academic ASAP. Westfield State College Library, MA. 15 April 2005. Schneider, Gary. â€Å"The Public, the Private, and the Shaming of the Shrew.† SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 42.2 (2002): 235-258. Project Muse. Westfield State College Library, MA. 15 April 2005. Schuler, Robert M. â€Å"Bewitching The Shrew.† Texas Studies in Literature and Language 46.4 (2004): 387-431. Project Muse. Westfield State College Library, MA. 15 April 2005. Shakespeare, William. _The Taming of the Shrew_. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Ed. Dean Johnson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. 142-171.