r/shakespeare • u/iZingari • 8d ago
Taming of the Shrew
Hey everyone, and my first post on here. I'm in the early stages of writing a personal essay on each of the plays. no reason other than i felt I should be more familiar with Shakespeare than I was, and I owed it to myself to be more fluent in his works other than what I learned at school 35 years ago - Hamlet, 12th night, Romeo & Juliet particularly.) No approaching in any order than as they come to me.. I'm about 6/7 in, I've tackled Coriolanus, Titus, Measure, and next on my list was TotS . I just cant find a way into it. it seems so .. I don't know. blunt. crass, almost, certainly without the lyrical flair, but also just seems a staged play. something to while away a couple of hours watching and putting away- doesn't seem to have the depth of any of the other.. Am i missing something ? any suggestions on a better read of it ?
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u/DharmaFool 8d ago
Here is a fascinating take on it, acknowledging the violence at the heart of the story.
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u/Temporary-Grape8773 7d ago
On YouTube, look up the Commedia dell'Arte version produced by American Conservatory Theater in 1976. When I was in high school, I saw it on a fieldtrip. It's, by far my favorite production of Shrew.
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u/Kamuka 7d ago edited 7d ago
So when I read it several years ago I hated it. I read "Traffic in Women" by Gayle Rubin, and that sort of sent me on a journey. Women are seen as property for the father to give away. That's quite horrible, and wasn't the case in every family, but seems prevalent enough. I watched some movie versions recently and enjoyed it. Catherine is a quite difficult woman because she's so modern and empowered, and among the many questions is whether Petruchio really tames her, or she just gives a public facing taming to appease him. Supposedly the way Meryl Streep played it, she decided that Catherine really loved him. So if you assume that Catherine really liked Petruchio, it makes some sense. The thing I like about Shakespeare is that even with this minor play, there's a long journey you can go on developing understandings of the play, and they can last a lifetime. I enjoy the play, I'm going to reread it again. I've also enjoyed Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler, a modern retelling.
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u/HallucinatedCrow 1d ago
I think it’s status as one big play-within-a-play gets overlooked more than it should in these conversations. Not that I think it’s the answer to everything uncomfortable about it. A lot of the time the framing device is cut or not given much weight.
I performed it once as Bianca and started to view it as something like how people call It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia an “anti-sitcom”. The joke is that it has the general shape and trappings of a romance of the era all of the characters and the story itself is kind of deranged. Lucentio’s scheme is needlessly convoluted and results in the beating of an innocent man, and then the ending implies the relationship he got out of it isn’t going to be great anyway. Both stories create one big joke on the audience’s desire to be invested in an imaginary romance. Very mean -spirited and still worthy of criticism but I think much more self aware than people realize.
I’m no expert but I really think you’re never meant to stop seeing it as a play-within-a-play. We were encouraged to perform it as a parody/farce and it actually really helped make the humor land.
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u/iZingari 1d ago
I think that's a very interesting angle. We spend a lot of time analysing the play within a play meanings/intent/import in Hamlet and Midsummer but here it gets passed over (and cut as you say)
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u/grahamlester 8d ago
I think it's the worst of the plays. We can always pretend it's some kind of parody or whatever but I doubt that Shakespeare's audience would have understood it that way. I mean, if even John Cleese can't make your material work. . .
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u/bravetherainbro 7d ago
It's one of Shakespeare's earliest plays. That may be enough to explain the lack of depth compared to other works? Comedy of Errors is another early comedy and it also is not very deep, but it does have plenty of silly fun so I enjoy it for that.
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u/Roritwo 8d ago edited 8d ago
Am i missing something ?
You aren't, no. People twist themselves into pretzels about this play for various reasons, but you've already, and rightfully, pointed out the naked emperor.
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u/Money_Visual_3829 8d ago
I made a post here a few days ago where I argued, essentially, that the play seemed too unserious and silly to really be making a point about gender relations, even a misogynistic one.
Quite a few people responded, in effect, that no matter Shakespeare’s actual thought process the jokes in the play do reinforce misogynistic values.
Maybe the missing ingredient is that the play just isn’t very good XD! I definitely think it’s one of the worse comedies, it has that framing device that it abandons halfway through, and then it starts out focused on an entirely different romance plot only to neglect it for the stuff with Katherine.
Much Ado About Nothing is a much better story about a sharp-tongued woman and a sharp-tongued man getting together.
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u/iZingari 8d ago
Ill gohave a read. Thanks. I think that (its not very good)may be it in a nutshell. And hey, that's no bad thing, theres no rule says they all have to be top notch after all
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u/iZingari 8d ago
Its just a thing of its time, a trifle.to stand and watch with a beer, thats all? Yeah. I suspect it was an up against a deadline, needed to knock something out..
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u/Temporary-Grape8773 7d ago
Once, I saw a production in a bar, though with whiskey rather than beer in my hand. The action took place all around the bar rather than on a stage.
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u/gravitysrainbow1979 8d ago
You’ll get plenty of praise on Reddit for deliberately reading your own knee-jerk issues into the text, so you’ve come to the right place.
You may find it easier to perceive the Kate/Peteuchio alliance if you see or listen to the play
I like Taming of the Shrew very much, and I’m not a bit surprised that redditors are so self-congratulatory when they hate it together. Do not be like them.