Petruccios School

Vctor Antonio Ruiz Chvez

The Taming of the Shrew is probably one of Shakespeares most controversial
plays. Especially, the theme of sexism is a common topic of many discussions
around this drama, given the main plot tells about the story of a couple in
which a froward wife ends up getting dominated by her husband. As Barbara
Hogdon (2010) states:
The trajectory of their story, which puts on view, as in Shakespeares English history plays,
a series of resolutely masculinist scenarios, culminates in a finale where Katherina, the
tamed shrew, delinates the duties of husbands and wifes in marriage.
(Hogdon, B. 2010)

One key element to this criticism about the play is the very particular taming
process that Petruccio () execute to turn Katherina (the Shrew of the play) from
a Shrew into an ideal wife according to the standards of the ideal marriage at
the time of the play.
Furthermore, another even more controversial point is to conclude whether the
taming of Katherina really worked --resulting in a new Katherina for
complicated emotional--, or did not --implying Katherina is only pretending to
be the ideal wife only to accepted in society, while her untameable thinking and
power are intact.
Briefly, I would like to describe the process of the taming carried out by
Petruccio along with some of its most relevant features, in order to analyse
some of the main points that gave success to Petruccios taming method,
naturally, assuming it was successful. This is: its character, its efficiency, the
violence implied in it and finally a brief conclusion on the result of the taming
process.
Firstly, we have Katherina, the eldest daughter of Baptista, (a wealthy man
from Padua) who is acknowledged to be a beautiful girl --however not as
beautiful as her sister Bianca-- but better known for her behaviour and her
scolding habits. The attitude taken by Katherina towards his suitors (and
anybody else as well have rendered her a bachelorette with very little
possibilities to get married soon.
On the other side is Petruccio, a man from Verona who has some problems
with his economical fortune and who is willing to get married as soon as
possible for the sake of his fortune to any suitable wife, or in other words rich
enough.

As for the sexism discussion, the first point that I decided to include is that
Petruccio clearly declares his method has its roots in the hawk taming methods
. There it comes the first controversial ideological statement, putting a woman
in the same level of a bird doesnt seem really proper for modern thinking. The
process starts and Petruccio explicitly tell about his plans to get Katherine
tamed. Fasting is key to success, apparently. Thus, if Petruccio is using the
traditional taming methods it would imply the following, hes trying to train a
woman like an animal, especifically a hawk, which would be a really rude cruel
masculinist deed, nevertheless the hawk taming manuals include also an
afffective bond between the tamer and the tamed animal. This affective side of
the process of taming is shown in many parts of the play like: the affective
bond that the taming of Katherina creates is in sharp contrast with petruccios
first intentions (expand his fortune), maybe the play is suggesting the actual
good way to the perfect functional monogamic marriage. Yes, monogamic,
since the taming also includes loyalty.