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Representations of Women in Shakespeare

The purpose of this research is to examine the representations of women in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Much Ado About Nothing. The plan of the research will be to set forth the pattern of ideas in each play as it relates to the representation of women and then to discuss the means by which the characterizations emerge in the plays.

Although the details differ from play to play, what these three plays share is a line of action that demonstrates the coping strategies of women who are obliged to find--and who proceed to enact--a specific and appropriate social role. The pattern The Taming of the Shrew as a whole can be said to define the pattern of female characterization in the play as well. The action of the play builds around the methods Petruchio uses to more or less domesticate Katherine, not to turn her into a drudge but rather to tame her as he would a pet falcon, to "cure her mad and headstrong humor" (IV.ii). Kate's character development is the content of Petruchio's determination to kill Kate's social wildness with kindness. By deliberately manipulating her experience of reality, frustrating her attempt to have a more or less normal domestic living experience, Petruchio aims to teach Kate a permanent lesson in her proper role as partner in enabling such experience in marriage. In the process, the play accomplishes two things. First, it defines the perimeter of marriage as a match between loving partners, each of whom incurs obligations to the other. Thus a woman's role is to "serve, love, and obey" (V.ii), but a man's is to "commit[] his body / To painful labour both by sea and land" (V.ii). Second, it illustrates the maturation of Kate's character, which is the moral arc of the play, by means of the nature of her relationship with and perception of her husband.

What has to be understood about Petruchio's project of frustrating Kate's attempts to go to sleep, to eat a regular meal, to as...

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Representations of Women in Shakespeare. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 17:55, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1711975.html