Essay on Taming of the Shrew: Stand by Your Man -- Taming Shrew Essays

The Taming of the shrew Stand by Your Man - The Psychotherapist Perspective The universal genius of the themes in The Taming of the Shrew, beg analysis and social critique. This comedic farce, by William Shakespeare, creates an elegant scene of a modern life and romantic love with all of its masks and pretensions. It is leisurely to assume the perspective of a psychotherapist while witnessing the drama of Katherine and Petruchios love affair unfolding. Concepts like emotional repression and therapeutic catharsis neatly fit the taming scenario. In fact, this play offers many new insights into what it takes to create an enduring, possible marriageif one understands it from a very contemporary, psychotherapeutic or blush spiritual point of view. If one is distracted by the recent womens liberationist perspectives of this play, it is easy to miss the integrity and practicality expressed in Katherines utmost exhortation to women on how to love their men Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee, And for the support commits his body To painful labour both by sea and land, .I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneeling for peace.. (Act V, ii, (150-153), (165-166) Viewed through the lens of a one kind of feminist critic, we could ask wasnt Kates taming the result of a brutal learn by a manipulative Petruchio who was a kind of shrewd behavioral psychologist? For at the close of the play, in this passage especially, Kate appears to have metamorphosed from an intractable, ill-tempered fair sex into a subdued, submissive Stepford Wife for Petruchio. And wasnt her final deliverance a humilia... ...nt to creating a deeper, more harmonious relationship involved a maturate acceptance of the dark, shadow sides of Kate. The baggage of her wounded past with all of its unmet call for had been waiting to be loved and transformed. In the radical courtship of Kate and Petruchio, a ll buttons got pressed, character armor was released, and in the mirror of lover and beloved, childhood vulnerabilities in the end diminished freeing up enormous reserves of creative energy. It is in this light that I appreciate Kates final impassioned speech to the other women who, in their selfish defiance of their new husbands had acted immaturely. For here, Shakespeare ironically exposes Bianca as the real, untamed shrew and reveals a very sagacious and loving Katherine. working CitedShakespeare, William. The Taming of the Shrew. Ed. David Bevington. New York Longman, 1997