The taming of the shrew2

AUTHOR: William Shakespeare

TYPE OF WORK: Play

GENRE: Romantic comedy

LANGUAGE: English

TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN: Around 1592, London

FIRST PUBBLICATION: 1623

MAIN CHARACTERS: Katharina and Petruchio

TONE: Light and comic

Baptista, a gentleman of Padua,announces that his young daughter will remain unwed until her older sister, Katharina, a hellish shrew, has wed. When Petruchio, a gentleman from Verona,arrives in Padua, he decides to marry her.

Katherina: The “shrew” of the play’s title and the daughter of Baptista.

Petruchio: Eccentric gentleman from Verona.

Bianca: The younger daughter of Baptista. She is sweet and soft-spoken.

Baptista: Gentleman from Padua, father of Bianca and Katherina. He is good-natured but a bit superficial.

Lucentio: A young student from Pisa. He falls in love with Bianca anddisguises himself as a classic tutor for her.

Gremio and Hortensio: Two gentlemen of Padua and suitors of Bianca.

Tranio: Lucentio's servant; He assumes Lucentio's identity.Christopher Sly: A drunken tinker; The principal characterin the Play's induction.

English audiences of the Renaissanceperiod was a society concerned with marriage in general, thanks in part to Henry VIII’s separation of England from the Catholic Church in 1534.

The fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literaly work.

• Marriage• Social roles

Recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

• Disguise• Domestication

Objects, characters, figures, and colors used to representabstract ideas or concepts.

• Petruchio's wedding costume

• The haberdasher's cap and tailor's gown

• BEGINNING (exposition)

• DEVELOPMENT (rising action)

• CRISIS

• CLIMAX

• DOWNFALL (falling action)

(Introduction to the characters, setting,and basic plot.)

(Any events that occur leading up to the climax.)

(The highest point of tensionin a story.)

(Events after the climax, beginning to close the story, and leading to the resolution.)

Romeo and Juliet:

Inner emotional desire.

The Taming Of The Shrew:

Economic aspects of marriage.

JULIET “A pure effusion of nature”• Naïve, obedient and pure girl• Love at first sight for Romeo• Infantine simplicity and rare beauty• The passion as her state of being• A gift from heaven

KATHERINA “The miserable shrew”• At first, a petulant and irritable woman• She feels out of place in her society• Repulsion at first encounterwith Petruchio•At last, natural subordinationto Petruchio

(Katherina Minola,Act 4, Scene 3)

• Cintorino Valeria• Scuderi Antonio• Volpe Gaetano