Taming Of The Shrew Research Paper

Appearance and personality have always held a great influence in terms of identity, people who follow the medias stereotypes on what people should look like are regarded as the ‘ideal’ human compared to people who look and act differently. There are many examples of this in modern society such as models and celebrities who manipulate and influence people about who they should be instead of who they want to be. These themes are recurring throughout Shakespeare’s romantic comedy the Taming of The Shrew, with many of the characters temporarily changing their clothing and personality for their own advantage. It is the story of how Petruchio, a money hungry noble seeking a rich wife, attempts to “tame” the aggressive and bad-tempered Katherina Minola

Lucentio and Tranio easily manipulated Baptista by simply switching their clothes to trick him into thinking that they were different people as Lucentio said: ‘We have not yet been seen in any house, Nor can we be distinguished by our faces for man or master (Lucentio,196).’ Similarly, the pedant easily persuaded Baptista that he was Vincentio so effectively that the real Vincentio was almost jailed, simply because his attire and personality was what most people would believe a rich father would be like, as Tranio said in attempt to jail him: ‘Carry this made Knave to jail. Father Baptista, I charge you see that he be, forthcoming (Tranio,196).’ This shows that people constructed fake identities of themselves by disguising their clothing and personality to manipulate others, such as deceiving them into thinking that they are of a higher or lower social class. This also shows how important appearance was when defining who someone is, and that people commonly judge others based off their outward appearance and personality. While disguising clothing and personality does construct a fake identity, it does not affect the person's real

This is evident when Lucentio easily switched from being a Latin teacher named Cambio back to himself and apologised for all the confusion caused by the disguises, as he said: 'Here’s Lucentio, right son to the right Vincentio, That have by marriage made thy daughter mine While counterfeit supposes bleared thine Eyne (Lucentio, 97).' Likewise, when Petruchio came to his wedding in ragged clothes they told him to change into more appropriate clothes immediately, but then he made a point saying she will marry him not his clothes: 'To me she’s married, not unto my clothes (Petruchio,91).' However, Christopher Sly was an exception to this as he genuinely thought he was a noble and could not change back like the others. This shows that disguising clothing and personality rarely changes anything on the inside because their mind are aware that this outside personality is fake, as when Christopher Sly was deceived into thinking that he was a noble, it fixed because he genuinely thought that the fake identity was real. This also shows that manipulation using disguises can only be applied to people who hold appearance in high regard, as Petruchio didn’t care about the clothes he was wearing but he affected everyone around him, making people think he was some sort of