In the play “Taming of the Shrew”, both Petruchio and Katharina are less “shrewish” than they would have the audience believe. This is presented by Petruchio trying to be masculine, Katharina rebelling against society’s unjust values, and how her character is assigned a stereotype by a male dominant society. These contentions will be explored in this essay. In the play, there are several times when Petruchio is trying to present himself as an aggressive, domineering male. To try to prove his masculinity to Katherina, he berates and abuses his servants as to make him look manly. He wants to bend Katharina to his will and is willing to be cruel to her, to prove he is able to tame his wife and be virile. This, in turn, causes Curtis to state “By this reckoning he is more shrew than she” (act four, scene one), but Curtis has known Petruchio before this event and has not seen this shrewish side to him before. This suggests Petruchio is only putting on an act and is only presenting himself like that to Katherina, and his true nature is not so shrewish. Petruchio is also described as a shrew on his wedding …show more content…
Before Katherine even has any lines to speak, the audience is put under the impression she is a wild mean spirited woman, as her reputation for one is constantly voiced. The audience is viewing Katherine from a male perspective during the time of the Elizabethan period, and she is assigned the stereotype of a shrew before we ever see her character on stage. During this time period, most men would think of any strong minded, loud woman as undesirable, and because of this perspective, the audience today can also get influenced by thinking she is a shrew. Her stereotype is also assigned to her without anyone explaining why she really is a shrew. Baptista thinks his daughter was just born mean, but as explained in the previous case, this may not be