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Gender Roles In Taming Of The Shrew

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William Shakespeare disseminates various ideas of gender normalities of the Renaissance Era through his play, Taming of the Shrew. Throughout the play, Shakespeare provides archetypes of men and women that reveal the stereotypes of this time period. Furthermore, Shakespeare also displays the relationships between men and women that are expected of this time period. This era meant that women were submissive to men, and men were certainly the dominant gender. Shakespeare identifies in his play that if individuals are to waver from these gender expectations, they would be defying social norms and reaping the consequences of their defiant actions. In the play, Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare clearly portrays the time period of when women were …show more content…

He emphasizes that a rude female will be nothing compared to what perils he has faced in his manly lifetime. With this specific character, Shakespeare represents the male importance of dominating a female and self-promoting masculinity. The Renaissance Era depicted men as the superior sex, and men were eager to emphasize their masculinity and dominance over females, as Shakespeare illustrated in his play Taming of the Shrew. Shakespeare also demonstrates these expected gender roles in Kate’s wedding speech at the end of the play. Kate proceeds to explain how valuable a husband is and how much effort and dedication they offer to their wife and in return the wife is expected to be submissive and servant to her husband. Though this was a definite change of heart for this character, this example institutes the gender roles that Shakespeare has been depicting throughout the entire novel. The Renaissance Era had strict gender expectations, and this play made no exception to these gender norms, and Shakespeare furthers this notion through Kate’s behavior at the end. Kate is clearly ready to be a servant to her husband and allow him to be the dominant of the two of them. The relationship between men and women is decidedly harsh, and Shakespeare supports this throughout his

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Both the play and the film show a patriarchal society where women must be mild and obedient to men to be attractive. Shakespeare uses violent imagery when Kate talks to demonstrate her “Shrewish” behavior, seen in the quote “paint your face and use you like a fool”. Highlighting that in the Elizabethan society women were not attractive unless they were mild and gentle. Jung similarly

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It’s no surprise, that Shakespeare’s Macbeth was clearly constructed as a rebellion against femininity roles of the time. During the Elizabethan era, women were raised to believe they were inferior to men since men obtained desired masculine qualities such as strength, and loyalty, whereas women were viewed as figures of hospitality (1; 6; 28-31). Obviously, not being tempted by the luxury of subservient women, William Shakespeare rebuked this twisted belief, applying that women deserve more respect than their kitchen tables.

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Each female character is treated by men as a possession. However, there are also moments when they are presented as confident and challenge a male authority. This would have been exiting for Shakespeare’s female Elizabethan audience as women

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