Taming Of The Shrew Irony Essay

Walter Engel

Meaghan Pachay

English 2220

18 April 2023

Short Paper 2

The Taming of The Shrew comically and farcically dramatizes the bizarre romance of Katherina and Petruchio to reflect the changing cultural era in which it was written. Within this drama, Shakespeare illustrates a caricature of the gender norms starting to be left behind in the Elizabethan era. Through overemphasis and satire, Shakespeare offers up a covert criticism of marital roles. At face value, the play promotes a twisted vision of marriage, wherein a froward woman is “tamed” through relentless courting and psychological manipulation. However, the play’s sarcastic undertones and dramatic, comic overemphasis demonstrate that there is more to the story than a didactic

It’s revealing how this play is introduced, as foremost a comedy, “Your honor’s players, hearing your amendment, Are come to play a pleasant comedy” (Shakespeare Induction.2.127-128). The messenger calls Christopher Sly “your honor” here, using high class language to go along with the farce that they’re tricking Christopher Sly into. The messenger is playing a joke on Sly, and much of what Sly is told is not truthful. The emphasis on “pleasant” embodies a tone markedly different from the reality of the play Christopher Sly is about to witness. The play, which despite having elements of a traditional comedy, is far more intense and erratic than the “pleasant comedy” the messenger describes. The irony of the messenger’s words sets the stage for a play that is meant to break expectations. Additionally, when Christopher Sly asks for more details, Bartholomew responds again vaguely with this, “BARTHOLOMEW: It is a kind of history” (Shakespeare Induction.2.137-138). The play is first portrayed as a comedy and secondly as a kind of history. The play being a history implies that it’s telling a story about the audience at the time and their past, with elements of both comedy and tragedy. It also implies there is dispute over what exactly this play is, and what it is trying to do. The way the play is introduced demonstrates how the form is attempting to shine a light on the way

This satire of gender standards sub-textually condemns shrew taming narratives of the past. The characters of The Taming of The Shrew treat Katherina with such open malice that it can only be taken as comic over-exaggeration. Take Grimio’s particularly nasty remark as illustration, “GREMIO: To cart her rather! She’s too rough for me.” (Shakespeare 1.1.55). To cart in this case means “treat her like a convicted prostitute by drawing her through the streets in an open cart. (With pun on court in 54.)” (McDonald & Orlin 130). Gremio flings this violent vitriol at Katherina with such a carelessness that it can only be taken in a satirically over exaggerated way. In the Elizabethan era, despite the popularity of shrew narratives, open physical violence against women was not the most socially acceptable practice, even despite the overall more misogynistic gender climate of the time. This sort of causal allusion to torturing a prostitute in such a comic way demonstrates to the audience the absurdity of the hatred of shrews. Audiences of the time would be familiar with shrew taming stories, and the play is toying with these conventions, taking them to their logical extreme. Although the audience is meant to laugh along with these violent statements, there is a logical disconnect between Katherina’s actions and the hate she receives that any audience could notice. Later in