TAMING OF THE SHREW

• As time elapses, new ideas and beliefs are developed, further progressing and advancing humanity into the future
• The Taming of the Shrew written by William Shakespeare


  circa 1590
• Elizabethan period

  • Strict standards for genders and social classes, creating division and prejudice
• Contemporary Australia

  • Lack of strict social rules regarding class and gender, rise for equality
• Toby Frow's traditional production of the text, performed in 2013, the ideas of the Elizabethan period regarding marriage, domestic violence and class, which was shaped by their context, are vastly different to the meanings constructed by a contemporary Australian audience
• Literary meanings are not everlasting, but rather fixed to an audience of a certain context
• Marriage in Elizabethan period

  Women were property and possessions of their fathers, to be bartered with for dower
• Baptista approves Petruchio's marriage proposal

  With a joyful tone, exclaims 'tis a match'
• Baptista responds to other suitors for Bianca

  'that can assure my daughter greatest dower / Shall have my Bianca's love'
• In contemporary Australia, love is the driving force for a marriage rather than economic gain, and arranged marriage remain uncommon
• Elizabethan England was a heavily patriarchal society, which gave women unequal opportunity and no autonomy
• Petruchio's plan to 'tame' Katherina

  Illustrates his plan of taming Katherina into obedience and submission
• Petruchio's methods to tame Katherina

  1. Starvation

  2. Sleep deprivation
• Elizabethan England was heavily patriarchal society, and women were not valued for their voice and therefore were not given a chance to express their experiences
• In twenty first century Australia, there is an uprise in women speaking out about their experiences of domestic violence as well as the MeToo movement that has arose so women are heard
• Contemporary Australian's are shocked and disgusted at the actions of domestic violence that Elizabethan people would be unfazed by due to their familiarity
• The tolerance of domestic violence differs and therefore the meaning taking away from the text is not universal over different contexts
• Elizabethan England

  • Strict social classes, federal system with monarch at the top, followed by noblemen and then labourers
• Petruchio's treatment of his servants

  Uses an aggressive tone and a frantic manner when directing the servants, stands over them and looks down upon them to belittle them
• Grumio, one of Petruchio's servants, expresses his experience of being beaten by Petruchio
• Contemporary Australian is a meritocracy where people are rewarded on the basis on merit rather than being allocated goods based on their social class
• A contemporary audience is prompted to take meaning out of the dangers of discrimination based on social class, whereas an Elizabethan audience conveys the idea that lower classes should serve the upper class as best they can
• Humanity is constantly developing and evolving, in effort of forming a society that is more accepting and open
• Toby Frow's Traditional interpretation of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew highlights the ideas of Elizabethan England regarding marriage, domestic violence and treatment of different social classes which are vastly different to values of today
• Literary meanings will vary across time periods, political context and other contexts and are therefore not ageless or unanimous
• Although Shakespeare perhaps did not intend to convey the meanings that are developed in the modern day, his texts give us great insight into the understanding on the way of which we have developed into the world that exists now