Sorry for the delay--I've been having connection issues with my new laptop! But no fears--you questions have arrived! After you read Acts 3-5, answer TWO of the following questions for Tuesday's class.
Q1:Petrtuchio's method to tame Katherine is similar to how an Elizabethan gentleman would prepare a wild falcon for service: "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" (151). Why might Shakespeare have Petruchio dehumanize Katherine in this manner? If they are both intellectual equals (as Act 2 seems to prove), why does he take this course of action, rather than trying to win her through love and affection? if this is a comedy, why would Shakespeare resort to such brutal tactics to bring together his two protagonists?
Q2: Why after several scenes of Katherine refusing to play Petruchio's game, does she suddenly give in and proclaim, "be it moon, or sun, or what you please./And if you please to call it a rush candle,/Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me" (187)? He she finally been broken by his gaslighting? Or is there another way to read her abrupt about-face? Do her words sound convincing? How would you advise the actress playing her to say or to act around them?
Q3: Though Katherine is the most prominent woman in the play, Bianca is more interesting than she first appears. Though she seems like the "nice" sister, is this completely true? How does she using her charm to work against her would-be suitors and get her way? And how does she seem to feel about her new husband by Act 5? Is this a love match? Any clues?
Q4: In Karen Newman's essay, "The Taming of the Shrew: A Modern Perspective" (in the back of the book), she notes that "The convention of mistaken identity...is not only a plot device in the play, but also works thematically to undermine notions of an essential self or a fixed identity" (235). Why might it be important than both Christopher Sly, the suitors, Katherine, and Lucentio's father, Vincentio, are all changed into something they're not? What might Shakespeare by saying to his audience that anyone, from the lowliest servant to the greatest lord, can wake up one day and not be who they think they are?
Q5: (one more for good measure!): Why do you think the Induction scene doesn't return at the end of the play? There is another version of this play (but probably not by Shakespeare) where they bring back the character of Christopher Sly. However, after Act 1, he's never mentioned again, and surely this wasn't an oversight on Shakespeare's part. Would returning the frame story benefit the play? Or ruin it?
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