In her famous speech at the end of The Taming of the Shrew, the once-clever Kate proclaims: Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy guardian, your head, your sovereign, the one who takes care of you, and for your maintenance commits his body to hard work both on sea and on land [...] While you stay warm at home, safe and safe, and demands no other tribute from your hands than love, good looks, and true obedience. (5.2.150-3,156-7)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned'?Get the original essayShakespeare's highly controversial comedy features a quarrelsome and disobedient Kate, who gradually comes to understand the value of loving submission to her husband Petruccio. Or is it? Is the above quote sincere or sarcastic? Some understand Kate's conformity as the clever disguise of a woman with no alternative; others view Kate as a tragic figure and see the ending as misogynistic and disturbing rather than relieving. Later critics believe that efforts to insert a feminist agenda into a popular 16th-century play have obvious drawbacks, not the least of which is that they rob the play of its true warmth and value. For them, the love between Katherine and Petruccio is sincere and deep, reinforced by the fact that, despite the farce and satire that dominates the storyline, it ultimately focuses on explaining true love in its historical context, namely as a mutual devotion within a limited framework. hierarchy. William Shakespeare relied on a variety of sources when composing his work, and The Shrew is no exception. For example, his embrace and departure from the folk tales he used as a basis for The Shrew highlights the creative message he sought to convey in the play. According to Leah Scragg in her article “Shakespeare Modifies Folktale Material,” there are over 400 versions of folktales that follow the motif of the taming of shrews (93). But it is important to note that Kate does not resemble the typical scolding as she is presented sympathetically (Scragg 98). In fact, Kate's first sentence elicits sympathy by placing her in a position of weakness: "Pray, sir, is it your will / To make a fool of me among these friends?" (1.1.57). As the plot develops, more and more elements of Kate's resentment toward her father and derision toward her suitors become apparent, adding a level of complexity that is absent in most ordinary tales shrew taming. Kate doesn't seem to need any simple "taming"; she is presented as needing to find a relationship in which she will be treated properly. For some critics, the play is about her success in meeting this need as her relationship with Petruccio develops. The other major deviation from standard folk tales of The Shrew noted by Scragg is that Kate is not a wicked, disobedient witch, but a pitiful, isolated spirit in need of education (99). Petruccio's behavior and his disregard for social norms do not cause her to submit; instead, it "not only gives Kate a mirror image of her own behavior, but leads her to recognize her own dependence on the orderly conduct of daily life and the conventions she had previously scorned » (100). Kate comes to understand that if she fulfills with love the role that society expects of her and her husband fulfills his own role with the same love,joy can be found. It is important to get as close as possible to understanding the exact paradigm of love and marriage that Shakespeare was tapping into. For example, in her essay “Love Wrought These Miracles,” Margaret Lael Mikesell presents an illuminating connection between the message of The Shrew and a literary genre of Shakespeare's time; apparently, similar visions of love are found in the Protestant conduct books and domestic pieces that were so popular in Shakespeare's time (Mikesell 106). The ideal marriage according to this genre is a mutual and devoted love which is expressed through "reciprocal obligations" and "strict respect for hierarchy" (107). When compared with the quote from the first paragraph of this essay and the following, obvious similarities in respect for hierarchy and customs can be drawn: “place your hands under your husband's foot. / As a sign of what duty, if he wishes, / My hand is ready, may it make his task easier” (5.2.178-80). This paradigm of mutual love within the hierarchy gives instant meaning to The Shrew's actions. While the New Comedy demands the defiance of hierarchy and total mutuality, common stories of shrew taming demonstrate brutal domination without love; Shakespeare resolves The Shrew with a perfect balance of both. Petruccio and Kate come to play different roles, but they are “equal in temperament and drama,” particularly in the sense that they are both often referred to as “crazy” (Mikesell 108, 116). There are other notable differences between the sources and the play. which demonstrate how well this paradigm is suited to the play. The first is that, while in other versions of the story the husband eats a large meal while the wife starves, in The Shrew Petruccio and Kate starve together, and the comic role of taunting the others with food is instead entrusted to another character (117). The second difference concerns how the play ends, as the usual conclusion involves the husband ultimately forcing his wife to submit. However, Shakespeare uses education, as opposed to direct physical violence, to bring about "the same kind of reciprocity within the hierarchy celebrated in the books of conduct as the foundation of a marriage, a family, and a healthy society” (117). The evidence thus cited is by far strongly in favor of interpreting Kate's transformation as genuine, her final speech as sincere, and the result as true love. On the one hand, it would be very difficult to ignore the fact that Kate's final speech bears a strong resemblance to the Protestant domestic treatises that were prevalent in England during Shakespeare's time. Adding to this evidence is the happy ending, during which Kate and Petruccio kiss lovingly and immediately leave to enjoy their wedding. There is no explicit reason to assume that love is a sham or that Kate is insincere; any considerations external to the text – such as a prejudice against the depiction of women as submissive – can therefore be refuted by the paradigm of mutual love within the hierarchy that was so common at the time. It is important to note, however, that not all critics are convinced by the aforementioned evidence. Coppelia Kahn, for example, argues in “The Taming of the Shrew Satires Male Attitudes Toward Women” that Petruccio's strange behavior shows how men behave absurdly toward women (127). She states: "The obvious force that Petruccio exerts on Kate by marrying her against her will in the first place, then denying her every wish and every comfort, stomping, screaming [...] is only a representation wacky.