Taming Of The Shrew Speech Analysis

In Shakespeare’s time women were looked upon as servants, their only job was to please their husband, as their husband was the superior one of the household. Likewise, that social construct led Shakespeare to having that construct bleed over into his play, The Taming of the Shrew, where Katherine and Petruchio represent the classic patriarchal household.

This speech from Katherina at the end ties in all the things that Petruchio did to her throughout the earlier acts and what it did to her characteristics as whole. She talks about the submission of women to the stronger and superior men. This section of the speech begins on line 155, where Katherine enters her line about the role the husband has in a women’s life. This “rant” about a women’s

She explains how men are, in base terms, the “guards” of a women’s life and what they do for women. In line 155, a little bit into her speech she states, “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, / Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee, …” (155-156). Meaning, men are the lords of a women’s life, and they should have no control over what they do if it is not to do with house-keeping, child-rearing, or pleasing said husband. The next line follows with a list of all the work that a man does for his wife, “…commits his body / To painful labor…” and what pains he goes through, “To watch the night in storms, the day in cold.” (5.2.157-159). Here, Shakespeare uses much imagery to show that a man does much more work so the women can relax at home, saying that “…thou liest warm at home, secure and safe,” the man or husband is out working in the real world

For instance, in lines 164-165, Katherina says that “Such a duty owes the prince, / Even such a women oweth to her husband.” Here, this line compares the relationship of the woman and husband to that of a subject and a ruler, as a metaphor. In the lines that follow, Katherine describes some of the “worse” sides of a women, as they would have been seen back in Shakespeare’s time. Those traits are, “…froward, peevish, sullen, sour / And not obedient to his [husband’s] honest will, …” (5.2.166-167). Froward here means difficult to deal with or contrary and peevish is describing someone who is easily irritated by unimportant things, and both of these traits are found in Katherine earlier in the play. She then goes into her line of not being obedient to her husband and in Elizabethan times, a husband could “chastise his wife,” but he could not abuse her or be a tyrant