Taming of the Shrew Contexts

Question 1

Stock comic characters

Answer 1

Archetypal characters, distinguished by their flatness.

• Young lovers = Lucentio and Bianca
• Disobedient young women = Kate (+ later Bianca)
• Fools and clowns = Biondello + Grumio
• Servants and masters = Lucentio + Tranio, and Petruchio + Grumio.

Question 2

Commedia dell’arte

Answer 2

A form of 16th-18th century comic Italian theatre based off of stock characters.

Question 3

Commedia dell’arte example in the play

Answer 3

• Pantalone (an old man who is obsessed with money and always cuckolded) = Gremio
• Il Zanni (male servants or clowns who enjoyed practical jokes but could be cowardly) = Grumio + Biondello
• Gli Inamorati (the charming and scheming young lovers) = Lucentio and Bianca start off as this.

Question 4

The shrew and shrew literature

Answer 4

• A stereotypically bossy woman - popular in the 16th and 17th centuries.
• Talking too much was considered shrewish.

Question 5

Elizabethan views on marriage

Answer 5

• Upper classes = Marriage was transactional and not based on love.
• Fathers chose a husband and provided them with a dowry - land, money, valuables.

Question 6

Interpretations of Elizabethan gender roles

Answer 6

• Women seen as the property of men: ‘owned’ by their fathers and then ‘sold’ to their husband.
• Women expected to be quiet and obedient.
• HOWEVER - Queen Elizabeth being on the throne, some historians argue, influenced domestic relationships.