I apologize for posting this late however, my assignment was to analyze Act 5 of Taming of The Shrew and I believe in “better late than never!” I would like to particularly discuss Act 5, Scene 2, lines 179-188; These are the last several lines of Katherine’s speech to the wives.
But first, I can’t say that I’m particularly surprised by Katherine’s extreme role reversal, after all love makes us do crazy things. We never really discussed the idea of love being a factor towards Katherine’s transformation and I do believe that it was love that changed her. My argument isn’t necessarily that it was healthy love or even true love, but I find it to be the best explanation. I believe she had found a companion within Petruchio, initiated by their witty conversations, someone she felt a sense of loyalty to and a sense of security with. We all can easily say that you should never change who you are for someone else, they should like you for you, blah blah blah but sometimes your heart gets in the way of your mind. I think Katherine sacrificed apart of herself in order to feel loved.
Katherine loses her sense of self clearly and rejects the strength she once had for the sake of her husband. As a romantic, this is the saddest token of affection. It’s admirable her reverence for her husband but at the price she pays, I’m torn. I can’t imagine trading my beliefs for love, at best, I hope I wouldn’t. Is this perhaps an ideal of their time? As a woman of the Elizabethan Era is there much more to look forward to than succumbing to a man? If love makes you weak, love broke Katherine.
I like to think that love and the security of being loved by someone who will stand by her transform Katherine. I don’t see why at the same time we must necessarily assume that she’s been broken. In all of these plays, it may be hard for today’s readers to grasp how deeply a sense of hierarchy was embedded in a smoothly functioning society. As we meet her at the opening of the play, Katherine is a force for chaos and anarchy and neither she nor anybody else around her enjoys the identity she has fashioned for herself. If you allow that there are currents of wit and intellectual rapport between her and Petruchio, the final speech may not indicate so dire a fate.
Yea, its OK Lorey – I haven’t finished my “Shrew” posts either, hehe
But you bring a very interesting point and I agree with Prof. Berggren as well. In this play, maybe she didn’t have to give up who she was but rather compromise a bit and be more tolerant of those around her – perhaps Petruchio taught her that, not directly but rather indirectly by simply being in her presence and her having gotten used to it – rather than just being her usual sullen self being by herself, most of the time.
I think she eventually appreciated and liked Petruchio’s company and that’s how they ended up to be married. Even in the subsequent play we are reading, in a similar example, Beatrice maybe starts out of being less of a shrew lol in her dealings with Benedick, but they still end up together in the end as a part of a happy ending. 🙂