“The Taming of the Shrew” is a comedic play composed by Shakespeare. The play is centred around the Elizabethan conventions that were relevant during Shakespeare's time. The ‘Taming of the Shrew’ is based around the story of two young damsels who are sisters, but very different from one another. Bianca is the youngest sister and is praised for being a submissive and beautiful girl, a true manifestation of the male fantasy, while Katherina, the oldest sister is notoriously known for being shrewish and rough. The conventions portrayed in the play are patriarchal dominance and female subordination between Petruchio and Katherina, courtship and dating whilst showing the power imbalance between women and men throughout the Elizabethan era, and finally …show more content…
This hierarchy is represented by the dialogue that occurs between Tranio and Lucentio. The young noble, Lucentio confides in his faithful servant Tranio about his desire to wed Baptista Minola's daughter Bianca, but having difficulties due to his fellow schoolmaster as Lucientio thinks he also wants to pursue Bianca. Shakespeare’s credible use of connotations when Tranio responds in lines 135-138, “we’ll overreach the greybeard Gremio, the narrow-prying father Minola, the quaint musician, the amorous Litio, all for my master’s sake, Lucientio,” displays his unwavering dedication to helping Lucentio, his master. Tranio is an excellent representation of the loyalty and devotion that were required of servants during that age since he shows that he is willing to outsmart and deceive other suitors competing for Bianca's hand, indicating that the servants during Elizabethan times were loyal and tried their best to keep them content as their purpose for serving them while the masters didn’t feel the need to keep the attendant pleased. This allows the audience to recognise the different treatment the servants and masters proposed to each other. We effectively acknowledged the social hierarchy through our re-enactment of, “The Taming of the Shrew,” with the positioning of the master and servant on the stage and the body language they utilised. We placed Lucientio in the middle to illustrate his importance with his confident body language and Tranio on his side, slightly behind him to convey a shadow with a more reserved body motion, ensuring his subordinate role, by utilising these theatrical techniques we allow the audience to understand the difference of power portrayed throughout the servants and masters. By using the stage positions and body language, we adeptly portray differences of