The Taming of the Shrew - AO3 (context)

Question 1

What are 3 key contexts in the induction?

Answer 1

• Society was very patriarchal
• Clear social hierarchy between upper and lower classes
• Use of hunting imagery reflects poor treatment of the lower classes

Question 2

What are 3 key contexts in Act 1?

Answer 2

• Fathers arranging marriages for their daughters and choosing her suitor
• Money was a significant aspect of marriage - they had a dowry to bring to the marriage. Legally, women would have no possessions - the dowry would be transferred to the men.
• Men had greater freedom of decision-making and movement - Katherina struggles to understand why this is (she’s intelligent and has her opinions)

Question 3

What are 3 key contexts in Act 2?

Answer 3

• Fathers would traditionally marry off their daughters to men of their choosing, with no say of theirs whatsoever.
• Bargaining for women was a common thing to do surrounding marriage proposals, when deciding who the right woman was for a gentleman. They’d show off how much they owned, in order to convince their father to let him marry her.
• The eldest daughter had to be married first, before the youngest daughter could.

Question 4

What are 3 key contexts in Act 3?

Answer 4

• Petruchio passionately kisses Katherina in the church, which would’ve been seen as modest.
• We can assume that she didn’t want him to do this, so Petruchio was assuming that she’d possess qualities of a good wife, who’d be willing to meet her husband’s sexual demands.
• Modern audiences would be shocked by Petruchio’s treatment of Katherina, but Elizabethan audiences would be used to it.

Question 5

What is a key context in Act ?

Answer 5

Modern audiences would be shocked at the treatment and marriage of Katherina by Petruchio and Grumio because even though it is “normal” for a husband to treat his wife this way, it is still very extreme and lots of people would be shocked.

Question 6

What are 3 key contexts in Act 5?

Answer 6

• Regardless of the audience’s views of Katherina’s taming and Petruchio’s techniques, most would feel happy and relieved that she isn’t a shrew anymore, because order has been restored.
• This reflects how it was normal for a husband to have an obedient and submissive wife during Elizabethan times, and if a husband was unable to restrain his cantankerous wife, it would be frowned upon (for the husband and wife).
• Baptista’s reaction to Lucentio and Bianca’s marriage; they haven’t fulfilled normal marriage practices and he isn’t happy about this.