The Taming of the Bunch is a play by the English dramatist William Shakespeare, written between 1590 and 1600, about a wealthy woman, Catherina (hereinafter referred to as Cather), who was transformed by Petruccio (hereinafter referred to as Peter) and became a gentle wife who "lost herself".
The screenplay has ups and downs, vivid plot twists and turns, and is a huge hit, and has been adapted into a movie and drama, with many fans. However, while readers and audiences enjoy the play, they can't help but be dissatisfied with The transformation of Kaiser in the play. In particular, he lashed out at the end of Kaiser's remarks that "male power is supreme" and "wives should absolutely obey their husbands".
In fact, Kaiser's taming is only a superficial phenomenon. Looking at the details of the script, it can be found that Kaiser has not been tamed from beginning to end. Instead, she tamed the self-righteous Peter. Cloaked in the cloak of "tamed", Kaiser successfully countered the raid and fought for his own interests in that era of male power. She is the biggest winner in this taming farce.
This article will analyze why Kaiser laughed at the end from three perspectives: dialogue, behavior and plot.
It is mentioned in the script that the two daughters of Kaiser's father hired tutors, indicating that Kaiser was well educated, which gave her a broader insight and a clever way of fighting. When Pete praised Cather for his virtuousness and said he had been moved, Catherina said
"Let the person who moved you here move you back."
It shows that she has a clear understanding of her own wind evaluation and does not believe Petruccio's lies.
There are also lines in the play that suggest that she is not ignorant of the society of the time.
"Go, fool, I'm not at your mercy." "Where did you learn this set of nice words?" "If a woman does not have the spirit of resistance, she will be toyed with for life."
In her dialogue with Peter, there are many code words, not to mention vulgar words. The governess would not have taught her this, and her father, as a gentleman, could not have said them at home. This shows that Kaiser is self-taught, and she has deliberately studied this aspect.
So why did she learn the tricks of the trade? Precisely because she has a need, she wants to fight and repel the unmarried.
She was very clear about the social status and current situation of women at that time, and also cultivated her own ability to understand tricks and fight against male power.
It is not that she does not go out of the door and does not step out of the second door, but she knows a lot about society. Because she had seen a lot, she had built a solid defense line in her heart, but whenever she heard similar rhetoric, she would raise an alarm, and the precautionary means were very good.
Father Cather and Peter are two very different kinds of people who need to take different measures.
Kaiser's father was a gentleman, and he did not hesitate to pay a huge dowry, sacrifice the interests of his younger daughter, and also match the notorious eldest daughter Xu. He was a man on the social average at that time, adhering to gentlemanly etiquette, plotting for his daughter, and being decent. Against his father, Kaiser's strategy was to become a "humble woman".
The name "Humble Woman" is a sharp weapon to restrain her father, and Kaiser makes good use of this weapon, making people afraid to ask for marriage, and also allowing Kaiser to have more freedom. Being able to control his father, Kaiser found a bay of comfort under the patriarchal society, and had the opportunity to breathe and maintain himself.
Out of her understanding of men, she is reluctant to hand herself over prematurely and let her fate be in the hands of people she does not understand. So she can drag it out. And it turns out that this method is not bad.
However, this is not a long-term solution, she is eventually going to get married, and her father cannot keep her for the rest of her life. Especially when her father announces that she is not married, the younger sister cannot marry either. There were already people who had to pay for her personal freedom, which the independent and free Cather could not tolerate.
So marrying someone became an urgent matter. Kaiser examined the suitors to see who was easier to grasp.
Those who hated her naturally could not do it, the so-called desirelessness was just, they resisted Cather at the beginning, they had no interest in her, and it was naturally difficult for her to grasp. For these people, Kaiser used the pungency as a weapon to expel them, and did not hesitate to break the heads of others with the violin to show their toughness and pungency. Scare off others.
Peter, on the other hand, took a "poison attack" against Kaiser. If Cather is tough, he's going to be tougher.
When he was unmarried, he dared to say boldly: "I will now make a vow to the heavens, you must marry me, not to marry anyone else, because I was born to tame you." "The domineering feeling is at a glance. When he returned to the door after marriage, he said that as long as he said that the sun in the sky was the moon, it must be the moon, forcing Kaiser to obey.
He coveted Cather's dowry, had a strong desire to conquer, and was ambitious for the conquest of Cather, in other words, he had a deep interest in Cather. When people have goals and pursuits, they are easy for people to control. Through her conversations with Peter, Cather felt that she could grasp Peter, at least much more likely than anyone else. So he pushed the boat along the water and obeyed his father's orders to marry.
After the marriage, Peter deliberately "fierce", so that Kaiser felt that it was too much, and even advised Peter not to be so angry. By her very nature, she should have quarreled with herself, but she chose to back down.
Because the object has changed now, Pete is not her father, does not eat her old set, so it is necessary to change the strategy. Of course, when she first arrived, she didn't know Pete very well, and she had to plan a little.
In the play, her constant concessions are actually a means of testing Peter, studying herself and the means to which degree is the most appropriate.
For her father's husband, Kaiser took a very different approach, and the means slowly changed.
Kaiser had a hot temper before marriage, and the name of "Humble Woman", but after marriage, she hardly quarreled with Peter, which was very different from her usual fierce style, too abrupt and unreal.
In order to tame Cather, Peter tortured her materially and mentally. Not allowing her to eat, not letting her sleep, not letting her wear fashionable clothes, step by step encroaching on Kaiser's self-space.
"This dress is for a lady, and you are not a lady, so what are you wearing?"
In this case, Cather could not blatantly resist. In the social context of the time, married women were the property of their husbands and were subject to their orders. Her blatant struggle is bound to be intolerable to the world, and it will also bring disaster to herself.
Cather is a smart woman who will not put herself in a desperate situation. So she pretended to change and satisfy Pete's competitive spirit, while the gentle gradual change did not make Peter suspicious.
In this situation, Cather is the hunter and Peter is the prey.
At the end of the plot, Peter makes a bet with the crowd that his wife is the most obedient. To prove it, he had Kaiser come.
Cather didn't come at once, and after three or four requests, Pete said, "Just say I ordered her to come and see me," and it was only late.
This sentence shows that Peter's patience is about to be worn out, and patience is at a critical point. Coming at this time is the best time to satisfy his competitive spirit the most, and it is better than coming at once. With this bet, Cather also figured out Peter's bottom line.
If Cather were truly and completely obedient to her husband, she could not have been late. This also implies that the words she finally said about women's morality were insincere, but they were just the embodiment of the "stick + jujube" policy.
There is a process of human change that takes time. Not long after Cather and Peter were married, they became so submissive that they contrasted sharply with their former fierceness and seemed unreal. The only explanation was that it was her strategy, and she understood how to satisfy Pete so that she could benefit and live comfortably.
From the outside of the play, her transformation is so fast, for the needs of artistic display. As a script, "The Taming of the Taming" is used to perform and earn income. The compact arrangement and abrupt plot can stimulate the audience's perception, increase the artistic tension, and obtain satisfactory artistic effects. After all, the audience is God, and they have to pay for it. Cather's final announcement, to a large extent, was addressed to the audience, in line with the "mainstream values" of the time, and catered to the audience's tastes.
This also requires us to derive from the script, higher than the script, and interpret the deep meaning behind the dramatic text.
From the above point of view, Cather did not and tame, this is only her way of pursuing personal freedom, and it is Petruccio who is tamed.
In the era when Shakespeare wrote the play, women had not yet attained independent status, and were even regarded as male vassals, part of men's property. Beauvoir's so-called second sex is also, women are far from being equal to men, they can only be subordinate to men, it is for the "second sex".
This is also fully reflected in the play. Kaiser's father could influence his daughter's marriage, get Cather married with a single word, and force Bianca to stay in the middle of the word—even if someone pursued her. Peter, who came to propose marriage, ignored Cather's human dignity, but regarded her as an object of conquest, intending to plot Kaiser's dowry.
Back in Shakespeare's time, Elizabethan law had no specific provisions for the status of women, and women had almost the same rights as men before marriage, but after marriage, women's legal rights disappeared and became part of their husbands' property.
At that time, the disregard for women's rights and interests was the norm, and even if there were avant-garde women who wanted to live freely and get rid of shackles, they could not get support and could only provoke criticism.
Men set standards for women, prescribe virtuousness and virtue, and women also take this as the standard, and do not feel embarrassed at all. Society forms a stable structure, and the awakening of one or two people will not help, but will be regarded as an outlier. Like Cather in the play, the name of "Humble Woman" spread far and wide, the father had a headache, and even his sister expressed disgust.
In this case, it is undoubtedly dangerous to stand out and shout about women's rights and interests, and it is doomed to be fruitless. It was precisely because of this outcome that Kaiser turned to a more beneficial way for himself, thinking that he would win the greatest interests.
She was educated, had her own independent mind, and knew what to do to get what she wanted. Since Peter spoke wildly and loved to take risks and conquer, it was better to satisfy his desire to conquer and let him "have face". He was satisfied, and he was better off.
This also enlightens us in modern times that the education of people is indispensable, and the way of struggle can also be soft. Education is a necessary way for us to get rid of social stereotypes and discrimination and realize personal values, and "soft struggle" is an excellent way for us to protect ourselves when objective conditions are not conducive to individuals.
Some people may say that this still means that Cather has succumbed to male power, and she should take a clear stand against and fight with Peter to the end, so as to be worthy of being a new era woman.
This kind of statement is actually standing and talking without waist pain. In those days, the husband had control over his wife, the husband could not resist the wife, and Kaiser, since she was Mrs. Peter, had to obey legally and morally. After marriage, Pete is not her old father, will let her "pungent" behavior, direct struggle does not apply to Peter.
Art is based on life, and Shakespeare's works do not come out of thin air, but are widely drawn from life. Since there was a figure like Kaiser, it shows that there must have been women similar to her at that time, who took ingenious measures to fight for their own interests in real life. That is, Cather is not an illusory being, and there must be archetypes in life.
In Shakespeare's other works, there are also a large number of women with a spirit of resistance, such as Portia in "The Merchant of The Basics of Feelings", Beatrice in "Nothing to Do" who is not willing to accept the humiliating fate of women, and Desdemona in "Othello".
As a master of the Renaissance era, Shakespeare's respect for humanity far exceeded that of the times, as did his attitude toward women. A closer look at the text, the social background of the time and the author's personality, we can find the true character of the characters hidden behind the text, and thus see the true value of the artistic classics that transcend the times.