Tame or Be Tamed!

I speculate that “shrews” have always since the beginning of mankind, or, shall I say, hot-headed, temperamental women have existed since the beginning of time.  Actually, According to Online Etymology, the term that describes a woman who is "peevish, malignant, clamorous, spiteful, vexatious, turbulent" originates in the late 14 century, so the fully assigned label had been used and worn for quite a while by the time Shakespeare had written his canon.   It is clear that Shakespeare loved to create feisty female characters with tongues like whips, as much as he depicted docile and naive maids like Juliet or Desdemona.  One does wonder, though, whether Shakespeare was merely have a jolly good time in drawing these characterizations, or whether his goal with to appeal to the masses;  I imagine it was a little of both.  Pamela Allen Brown wrote a brilliant chapter in her book Better a Shrew than a Sheep which was devoted to “Shrews Versus Wife Beaters.”  From what she has gathered, it appears that Elizabethan women did rally together to gain vengeance against men who had mistreated a fellow “sister,” so to speak.  Whether these stories were mere folktales, or whether there were women who did act out spitefully, such behavior runs contrary to obligations of the social role assigned to women in the Elizabethan era. 

Kate is such a vulgar misanthrope that her character is equally comically and vexing. Why does she act the way she does?  Is she envious of her sister, angry about social conventions, or saddened by her father’s lack of affection?  Even more puzzling is the fact that, upon marrying Petruchio, she flips around denounces her shrewish ways, announcing that she is a reformed woman:  a dutiful wife.   Our unbridled Kate is submitting to the servitude that is asked of her?   Nobody really has a complete explanation.  I assert that Kate is neither winking at us in her last monologue nor is she broken—both of those interpretations are merely part of the playful multi-dimensionality of Shakespeare’s playwright.  No, instead Kate is a comedic character fulfilling the role of a Shakespearean comedy.  Shakespearean comedies are fundamentally about love and social harmony.  They end harmoniously, settled.  Kate undergoes a transformation that brings her harmony.

This theme is fully played out in the BBC’s ShakespeaRe-Told production of Taming of the Shrew.  Kate has so alienated other people that her meeting of Petruchio pulled her out of her isolation.  He clearly melted her as he mirrored some of the erratic and coarse behavior that she displayed herself.  Petruchio made her a human and led her to a fully life—one that was rich with love.  Even though I tend to be critical of modern remakes, I thought this production was divine, and the masculinization of the female roles enhanced the contrast between the traditional definitions of an Elizabethan woman from that of a modern woman.