Women In The Taming Of The Shrew

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According to the New Oxford American Dictionary a shrew is defined as “a bad tempered or aggressively assertive woman.” The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare is about a man that is going to tame a shrewish woman. He applies different strategies throughout the play to tame her, or what he believes is taming her. Katherine is not being tamed at all because she manipulates Petruchio into getting what she wants. Katherine begins manipulating Petruchio when they first meet. She thinks if she does what Petruchio wants her to then he will get her the things she likes. Kate starts to realize if he is going to be a gentleman then he will not hit her, so she took full advantage of being able to strike him. “Good Kate, I am a gentleman. Kat. That I’ll…show more content…
What! Art thou ashamed of me? Kat. No, sir, God forbid; but ashamed to kiss. Pet. Why, then let’s home again. Come, sirrah, let’s away. Kat Nay, I will give thee a kiss, now pray thee, love, stay”(V.ii.147-154). Here she says she does not want to kiss him but she agrees anyways and kisses him on the nose instead of on the lips. Kate did what Petruchio wanted but she did it in her own way. Everyone thinks Petruchio has tamed Katherine but Kate is just getting her way. When Petruchio calls for Katherine and tells her to go get the other wives, she does. She goes to get them and brings them back pushing and shoving them. “See where she comes and brings your froward wives as prisoners to her womanly persuasion” (V.ii.139-140). She brings them back like prisoners, pushing them to their knees. She later explains how a wife should act according to the time. All she had to do was to learn to control herself better than before and she uses her anger to get her way. Instead of yelling, she listens just to get something that she likes later on. She does what Petruchio tells her to do at the end, and she does it shoving and yelling, but she is saying what he wants to hear so he is okay with it and thinks she is
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