Women's Power In The Taming Of The Shrew

Mary Wollstonecraft once said “I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves. In The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, the objective of the males in the story and also in this time period is to get married and to acquire money and power. In doing this, the women of the story are often mistreated and overlooked. William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is subversive toward the patriarchal system in highlighting the unfair position women held in society. One way that Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is subversive that in the play, women’s voices and thoughts are able to be heard. For example, Katherine is given a chance to speak her mind when she gives her speech at the end of the play: “Fie, fie! Unknit

How? “She’s busy, and she cannot come”?
Is that an answer? (5.2.85-91).
By Bianca denying coming to Lucentio is shows that she is taking power over what she does and does not have to be controlled by men anymore, it shows subjectivity. Subjectivity is also shown when Kate is speaking to Hortensio and when he tries to get her to stop speaking she says: “Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak, And speak I will. I am no child, no babe.
Your betters have endured me say my mind,
And if you cannot, best you stop your ears.
My tongue will tell the anger of my heart,
Or else my heart, concealing it, will break,
And, rather than it shall, I will be free
Even to the uttermost, as I please, in words” (4.3.78-85).
Katherine is saying that she will not be silenced and declares her freedom in saying what she wants to say, it shows that she has subjectivity in that she has control over her mouth and what she says. By the women of the play having subjectivity, it shows that The Taming of the Shrew is subversive. Some may argue that Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is misogynistic in its treatment toward women. They might say this because there are many instances in the play where women are being mistreated and men are being treated better than the women. For example, when Petruchio is coming up with a plan to tame Katherine, he

Although there are examples of misogyny in the play, there are also a lot of examples of subversity in the play that show that there was something wrong with the real society and that women deserved to be treated better than they were being treated in Shakespeare’s time. In The Taming of the Shrew the women are sometimes given a break and the men are criticized for their shortcomings instead of the women. An example of this is:“By this reck’ning, he is more shrew than she” (4.1.79). Most of the time in Shakespeare’s day, women were generally the only people who got criticized for their behaviors and actions. A man being criticized is not something that happens often and although small, it still impacts and supports the claim that The Taming of the Shrew is a subversive play. This shows that Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is not a misogynistic play, but is instead a subversive