I have just finished reading The Taming of the Shrew, which is my least favorite of the Shakespearean plays that I have read so far. In Othello, I was really irritated by Emilia's death, sure, but at least Othello had a compelling (albeit depressing) plot. In Midsummer Night's Dream, even though the females acted stereotypically, everyone was being rather ridiculous, so the result was a lot of lunacy. In Romeo and Juliet, there are fights and a lot of tension; that's enough to keep me happy.
In The Taming of the Shrew, however, the entire plot is about how Bianca wants to get married and how Petruchio wants to tame Katherine, just because he wants to see if he can do it. And then he does. Then he shows off how he's tamed Katherine. THAT IRRITATES ME SO MUCH.
I think my irritation mainly stems from the taming of strong female characters. Bianca and Katherine make an interesting contrast, sure, but everyone likes Bianca because she's pretty and nice and sweet and submissive, whereas Kate frequently resorts to smacking people when she's mad at them. At least Kate dares to get mad, though. That can't be said for Bianca.
Additionally, I feel like it should have been either mostly Kate's story with a bit of Bianca's, or mostly Bianca's story with a little bit of Kate's. Not both, evenly split. That irritates me a lot, too.
Still, in all, I'm kind of glad it's happened. It's introduced me to a story I can rage at.
I mean, really. Why can't Katherine tame Petruchio? Why can't they tame each other? Why can't Petruchio get fed up with Katherine's crap and go off to hit on Bianca?
No comments:
Post a Comment