The plot of The Taming of the Shrew is taken from the popular theme of “the war of the sexes,” where men and women are constantly pitted against one another for dominance in their marriage. The play begins with the alcoholic Christopher Sly being fooled into believing he is a nobleman and the play which is performed for him turns out to be the main part of The Taming of the Shrew. In the play, the wealthy landowner Baptista is attempting to marry off his two daughters, Katherine, the shrew, and Bianca, beautiful and gentle.
In order to ensure that he is rid of Katherine, Baptista will not allow anyone to marry Bianca. This causes all of Bianca’s suitors to try and find a suitable match for the unwanted Katherine. The play may seem to have a sexist attitude toward women but when you look at it more closely it’s intricacies reveal that it isn’t merely about men putting women in their places. Katherine is an assertive woman trying to cope with how she is expected to act in late sixteenth century society and abide by the unspoken ules.
The play ends with her conformance to the norms of society but it isn’t a wholehearted choice, it’s in her actions but not in her mind. Katherine assumes the role of an obedient, polite wife but she still retains her innate assertiveness. Katherine’s being tamed is not a matter of her being cured of her shrewishness but rather her having learned to get along in a man’s world. In this play courtship and marriage aren’t the result of love but rather an institution that people are expected to take part in.
Suitors are not judged by how much they love the woman but how much money and land they can give her. A woman’s suitors would all gather together and compare fortunes, and he with the largest fortune won her hand. Women are being treated like objects to be bought and sold, rather than human beings. I would not blame a woman with such assertiveness as Kate for having spoken up more than once about the unfairness of it all. If such things were going on in this day and age I believe there would be a lot more said than what dared to express.
The end of the play shows Kate being the most obedient of the three newlywed women. It is difficult to believe that Kate has genuinely been tamed; she is simply acting the way she is supposed to act according to the rules of men. Keeping in following with Shakespeare’s theme of deception, Katherine seems to be just biding her time and acting the part of obedient wife which was thrust upon her. Shakespeare would have done well to have continued the play to a point in time when she would have dropped her facade and shown the men just what a real woman is made of.
