Expository Essay On Taming Of The Shrew '

Isabelle Lewis-Smith
English 2
Mrs. Sieckert
3/6/23
Expository Essay
American author, spiritual leader, and political activist Marianne Williamson once said, “We don’t know how to be women because we were taught it was not OK to be girls. Our most natural impulses were thwarted and distorted”. Williamson is highlighting how women have been suppressed, silenced, and conditioned to seek male validation for centuries. The comedy play Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare highlights the injustice that women face on a daily basis. Katherine, the main character, is forced into a marriage with the controlling Petruchio who wants to tame her into conforming to social norms during the Elizabethan era. More recently, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the

After getting approval to marry Katherine from her father Baptista, Petruchio informs Katherine that she has no choice in marrying him and that he will tame her to be an obedient wife: “And bring you from a wild Kate/ Comfortable as other household Kates./ Here comes your father. Never make denial./I must and will have Katherine to my wife,”(Taming II.i.292-295). Petruchio telling Katherine that he will “tame” her associates with the theme that women should conform to the standard of the normalization of sexism including, being modest, virginal, quiet, and obedient. Petruchio uses strong language such as “must'' and “will” to acknowledge the pattern of mistreating women, and men being controlling and forceful towards women. Almost 500 years later, Adichie brings up the same idea to protest against men having authority over women: “We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, ‘You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. If you are the breadwinner in your relationship with a man, pretend that you are not, especially in public, otherwise, you will emasculate him,” (Adichie 27-28). Taking away the power of having a choice from women is demeaning them as humans. Telling women that they can

After Katherine and Petruchio’s wedding has taken place they are invited to her sister Bianca’s wedding. This is the first time Katherine has seen her community since her wedding, she knows she must impress the other guests by showing she is “tame”. At Bianca's wedding the husbands, including Petruchio, make a bet to see who has the most obedient wife by calling forward all the women. Katherine is the only wife who comes when called; she makes a speech shaming the wives for not being obedient: “I am ashamed that women are so simple/ To offer war where they should kneel for peace;/ Or seek rule, supremacy and sway/ When they are bound to serve, love and obey/” (Taming.5.ii.171-174). Katherine using powerful words such as “ashamed” confirms that her speech upholds the standard of wanting to be seen as the most obedient wife, talking poorly of the other wives so she can be seen as the best wife; this is the first time where Katherine has had power because she is following the social norm of likeability. Almost 500 years later women Adichie brings up that women still fight to be the most liked by men. Women will change the way they talk, act, and present themselves for the validation of men: “We spend too much time teaching girls to worry about what