Taming of the critics

Edward Hall on abuse

Katherina’s abuse is played for laughs when what should be communicated is Katherina’s suffering.

Daniel Vitkus on irony

Kate’s final speech is a statement of contemporary doctrine, of male fantasy, or of almost unbelievable sustained irony.

Michael Billington on audience reception

Totally offensive to our age and society.

Penny Gay on ethics and comedy

We see that good comedy is never simplistic and its relation to conventional morality is often ambivalent.

Emma Smith on costume

Uses costume to signal hierarchies and to impose authority.

Rachel de Wachter on Petruchio

Much of Petruchio’s power stems from his willingness to socially humiliate Katherine.

Arthur Halliday on defiant women

When a woman is defiant, she is made to seem masculine, frightening and funny.

Arthur Halliarg on female speech

Women are most threatening when they attempt to assert their independence through language.

Germaine Greer on marriage

There is no romanticism in Shakespeare’s view of marriage.

Natasha Korda on class and tyranny

The only characters in Shrew with self-determination are the ruling class, while the rest of the characters are vulnerable to their tyrannical behavior.

Karen Newman on Bianca

It is that silence which has ensured Bianca’s place in the male economy of desire and exchange.

Anne Barton on Bianca’s ambiguity

Bianca may seem the ideal woman, but her character is more ambiguous, revealing the complexities behind appearances.