So, I've received a lot of requests to do a video about a particular Shakespeare play that I overlooked.
A little ditty commonly known as "Taming of the Shrew".
Now, barring upcoming exams or papers; people tend to request stuff they, you know...
Like and want to hear about in detail.
Now, I know that people who like "The Taming of the Shrew" exist.
My high school Shakespeare teacher was one.
What I don't know
is WHY?!
"The Taming of the Shrew" is a terrifying display of the kind of all-encompassing power a man can hold in a woman's life
and how it can be abused, and the whole thing is presented as some sick love story.
The female lead is this strong-willed, angry woman who is mentally tormented into marriage and subservience by the male lead
using straight-up FBI enhanced interrogation techniques!
We're talking starvation, sleep deprivation and a goddamn "there-are-four-lights"-situation,
and this from the guy we're supposed to root for!
Now, this play has been put through several variants, usually in an attempt to reconcile the story into something resembling an actual love story.
In some, the whole thing is an act, plotted between the two leads in order to win a bet.
In others, the female lead really does want to get married to the male lead,
but is reflexively bitter and defensive - or shrewish, as the saying goes.
But in this video, we'll be examining the original text of the play, so get ready for endless frustration.
And for clarification; the story with Katherine and Petruchio (the quote-unquote "Love Story") is only half of the story.
The other half is devoted to a much more traditional Shakespearean comedy,
involving Catherine's younger sister Bianca and
several suitors dolling themselves up in weird costumes, trying to win her affections.
It's really not anything new,
so I'm going to be primarily focusing on the most unique and thought-provoking parts of this play
which are also the most frustrating, so get ready for a lot of... emotion in this one.
The framing sequence for this play is that it's being presented as a play within a play to a very drunk man named Christopher Sly,
who through a series of shenanigans has been convinced that he's a nobleman as a practical joke.
This... adds very little to the overall story, but let's roll with it.
Now for the actual play.
Our story begins in Padua, where, to set the stage,
we have a wealthy lord, Baptista;
his younger daughter, the lovely and docile Bianca
and his elder daughter, the volatile and shrewish Katherine - or Katherina (depends on the version).
Unsurprisingly, suitors are lining up to marry Bianca,
most notably these two guys: Hortensio and Lucentio.
But there's a problem.
Namely, that Baptista will only marry off Bianca AFTER Katherine has also been married.
Now, nobody is thrilled with the prospect of Katherine getting married.
Least of all Katherine.
So Bianca's in a state of husbandless limbo while Katherine remains unwedded.
So the bottom line is, Hortensio decides he absolutely must get Katherine married so he can marry her infinitely more friendly younger sister.
Meanwhile, Lucentio happens to be passing by during some drama and immediately falls in love with Bianca (obviously)
and he decides to infiltrate their household in the guise of a tutor, Cambio, so he can creep on Bianca from a more practical distance.
And now enter Petruchio, our... protagonist.
*pain*
So Petruchio's friends with Hortensio, and while they're hanging out at Hortensio's pad
Hortensio fills Petruchio in on the situation, telling him that he needs to get this girl Catherine married,
and that she's super rich and wicked hot, but also a serious piece of work, and Petruchio's like,
"Don't even sweat it, bro! I'll fix that last part and everything will be just fine!"
*hurl*
Oh also, Bianca's got this super old suitor named Gremio.
He's looking for a tutor to hire for her as a gift to her father, and unsurprisingly hires Cambio
aka Lucentio aka another suitor entirely
COMEDY
Anyway, cut to Katherine interrogating Bianca over which of her many suitors she likes the most.
And this whole scene is really uncomfortable because... well, among other things,
it's clear that Katherine is wildly jealous of Bianca.
Not because of her looks or money or whatever (they're pretty much on even footing on that front),
but mostly because Bianca is so universally beloved and so definitively their father's favorite.
It seems like Katherine's fundamentally a very lonely person, and nobody's ever given her a chance or tried to get to know her as she is.
They want her to be something she's not. Someone else entirely.
A soft-spoken, kind ingenue like her sister, easy to marry off and subsequently forget about.
And I'm not saying she's a good person, don't get me wrong.
Just that she seems like a headstrong, angry girl in a world that treats both of those traits as fundamentally devilish and unforgivable when they manifest in women.
So you'd think that a suitor like Petruchio, who doesn't care how hard to manage she is, would be the ideal partner for her, right?
just
Just watch.
So Petruchio swaggers into Casa De Baptista and proudly proclaims that he heard Baptista had a wicked hot daughter named Katherine, who he'd really like to marry.
Also at this point Hortensio's in disguise as a music teacher to tutor Bianca. It's- it's pretty dumb.
So Baptista, once he confirms that Petruchio knows what he's getting into, happily signs away Katherine to him.
And before Katherine enters, Petruchio has a bit of a monologue, telling us - the curious viewers - how he intends to...
...tame Katherine.
Basically, by using his position of power and total control over her life to make her existence absolutely wretched
while assuring her he's doing it out of love the whole time.
*mood*
Can you see why I have problems with this play?!
So Katherine enters, and she and Petruchio have a pretty sweet argument
kind of similar to the one that Beatrice and Benedick have in "Much Ado About Nothing".
Except in that one, we're supposed to be impressed at how even they are;
how much their argument feels like a fight between equals.
While here, we're supposed to see the same behavior from Katherine as a travesty against womanhood.
So the others come back in and they're like "How'd it go?", and Petruchio's like:
"Aww, man! She couldn't keep her hands off me, dawg! We're getting married in a week!"
Which, you may note, is a lie.
But one Katherine does not address, for some reason.
Now, it might be because, like in the case of Beatrice and Benedick,
she's finally sparring with an equal, and she doesn't feel quite so alone anymore.
She might not even be averse to marrying Petruchio after that argument.
It's just a theory though. There's a lot of speculation about this play, so don't take my word for it.
So the wedding date is set, and with Katherine out of the way, Bianca's suitor-based hijinks get cranked up to 11
as Baptista promises her to Lucentio, who's not really Lucentio
but is in fact Lucentio's servant DISGUISED as Lucentio,
while the real Lucentio and the diguised Hortensio both tutor Bianca, while surreptitiously vying for her affections.
So from here, the play splits into two major tracks.
Firstly, the comedic overarching plot, in which several amorous suitors compete for Bianca's affections in increasingly ridiculous disguises;
and the quote-unquote "romantic subplot" of Petruchio and Katherine's, uhhh...
relationship
So the day of the wedding arrives, but Petruchio doesn't. At least, not on time.
This is extremely upsetting for Katherine, for a variety of reasons,
and even the characters in the play acknowledge that she's perfectly rational in being upset by this.
So Petruchio turns up late to his own wedding, dressed in a gaudy and God-awful outfit
and then, despite her very vocal protests, drags Katherine away from her own wedding party before she can get any food.
Everyone else finds this hilarious, of course,
because there's nothing funnier than a woman under total control from her husband, amirite, fellas?
So Petruchio takes Katherine to his country home...
Isolated. Far from any potential help.
I swear, if we were supposed to like Katherine, this thing would be a goddamn horror movie.
Anyway, this is the part where Petruchio starts putting his taming plan into full swing.
Now the first step... is STARVATION! :)
*retch*
He throws an overplayed tantrum at his servants, claiming the dinner they made is burnt, unseasoned, all that jazz,
and that he'd rather Katherine go hungry than have to eat it.
Out of LOVE, of course!
just
Okay, you know what? I was gonna give a rundown of all of the stuff that Petruchio does... but
You know what? I can't explain this more concisely than Shakespeare did. Just-
Just listen to this unaltered monologue from Petruchio handily explaining his methods.
"Thus have I politically begun my reign,
"And 'tis my hope to end successfully.
"My falcon now is sharp and passing empty;
"And till she stoop she must not be full-gorged,
"For then she never looks upon her lure.
"Another way I have to man my haggard,
"To make her come and know her keeper's call,
"That is, to watch her, as we watch these kites
"That bate and beat and will not be obedient.
"She eat no meat to-day, nor none shall eat;
"Last night she slept not, nor to-night she shall not;
"As with the meat, some undeserved fault
"I'll find about the making of the bed;
"And here I’ll fling the pillow, there the bolster,
"This way the coverlet, another way the sheets:
"Ay, and amid this hurly I intend
"That all is done in reverend care of her;
"And, in conclusion, she shall watch all night:
"And if she chance to nod I’ll rail and brawl,
"And with the clamor keep her still awake.
"This is a way to kill a wife with kindness;
"And thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humour.
"He that knows better how to tame a shrew,
"Now let him speak; ’tis charity to show."
This is TERRIFYING! Y-You see that, right?
Even if it's supposed to be funny, justified by the fact that she's pretty mean and she can hold her own in an argument,
Katherine has absolutely no power in this situation.
She can't fight back! She's alone in his house with no one to turn to for help.
In the eyes of the law and her family, she's his property...
and he's not gonna stop what he's doing until she starts acting the way he wants her to.
*sigh*
Anyway, Bianca's wedding rolls around, she's getting married to Lucentio, they need his dad's permission
so they bribe some random, old guy to pretend to be his dad with a court-document - pretty standard stuff.
And Petruchio finally manages to break Katherine's spirit enough to tame her, to the point where she agrees with everything he says.
The sun's the moon? Sure thing!
That old guy who's secretly Luciento's real dad is actually a beautiful, young virgin?
If agreeing with you makes you treat me like a human being, then sure thing, buddy!
There are five lights? Can do!
*groan*
Anyway, to make a long story short:
Bianca and Lucentio elope, identity based shenanigans happen and everybody has some cake.
The story wraps up with one of the more memorable scenes from the play.
The grooms - Lucentio, Petruchio, and Hortensio, who found some widow to marry over the course of the play -
making a bet as to who among them has the best wife.
Well, as it turns out,
Bianca and the widow both turn out to be rather *disobedient* wives
while Katherine is the very model of wifely obedience.
In fact, she gives a sizable monologue about the very subject,
talking about how women just aren't built to be argumentative and confrontational,
and it's far better for them to just get married and be happy.
After all, trying to fight your husband is pointless, because he holds all the power.
So the moral of this story is:
DEAR LORD, DON'T EVER GET MARRIED!