In The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio tells Katherina, his spouse of simplest 4 or 5 days, that the solar is the moon and that an outdated guy is a tender maiden. Kate is aware of that she is taking a look on the solar and now not the moon, at an outdated guy and now not a tender lady—who would now not?—however Petruchio calls for that she see issues as he does. “It can be moon, or big name, or what I record,” he tells his spouse. At this level within the play, deficient Kate has been denied meals, sleep, and lovely garments. She has been wiped out and worn down via her new husband. “What you’ve it named,” Kate says of the solar, “even that it’s, / And so it can be so for Katherine.”
No recent student or director treats this play with anything else as opposed to a powerful consciousness of the patriarchal regulate bearing down on Kate. Each Petruchio’s “social standing and his wisdom,” writes Rachel De Wachter, “appear to underpin the patriarchal dominance which he intends to claim over Katherina. … It might be argued that a lot of Petruchio’s energy stems from his willingness to socially humiliate Katherina. In a way, he makes use of society’s hierarchy to oppress her.” Petruchio, writes student Karen Newman, makes use of “civilized coercion” to…
