I kicked off my recent push to finish all of the works of Shakespeare with The Taming of the Shrew. I know I at least started this in high school, but I’m not sure if I finished or if I did finish it, if I actually understood most of it. I read it after I saw 10 Things I Hate About You, which is loosely based on it, so I knew the basic story, but wasn’t sure if I caught some of the details and nuances of the plays since I hadn’t read a lot of Shakespeare at that point.
In reading it this time, I’m pretty sure I did actually read the whole thing. Certain scenes seemed quite familiar and not just because of the plot. It’s one of his easier plays to understand, so maybe I didn’t have too much trouble with it back then after all, or maybe it’s because I saw the movie version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
The introduction to my version, which is in the Riverside Shakespeare, mentions that this play is usually enhanced greatly by seeing it performed, even more so than other plays. In just reading it, I think it comes across as more misogynistic than when viewing it. In the movie version, Katerina’s behavior is so terrible and blatantly needs to be corrected that you’re rooting for Petruchio to succeed. When reading it, however, you don’t see as much of Katernina’s bad behavior and therefore are much more sympathetic with her. And I can certainly understand her desire to to behave in such a way as to detour potential suitors rather than be pawned off on some guy she doesn’t like.
I also think the movie was more palatable because you see Katerina and Petruchio fall in love more, whereas in the play I’m not even sure that they really like each other even at the end. The humor is also more evident when performed because you get to actually see Petruchio’s odd and amusing actions. They are actually quite funny even in print, but seeing him in his very strange wooing outfit would make more of an impact in person.
I had an odd connection that came to mind when I read this. It made me think about reverse psychology, which makes me think of one of the Baby-Sitters Club books that I loved growing up. In one of them, Stacey uses reverse psychology on some of her terrible charges. When they don’t want to clean their rooms, she agrees with them that rooms are better when messy and makes them messier. When they demand she do something for them, she starts doing everything for them. She takes everything a step too far and it’s not too long before the kids correct their behavior. It was pretty funny and was a tactic I sometimes used when tutoring. I think it usually shocked the kids into behaving and it only didn’t work for me once.
Anyway, if you’re someone who doesn’t think they can understand Shakespeare, this is a good play to start with.
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