{"id":443,"date":"2020-01-10T09:18:55","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T16:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/?p=443"},"modified":"2021-07-09T18:06:40","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T00:06:40","slug":"is-shakespeare-a-feminist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/is-shakespeare-a-feminist\/","title":{"rendered":"Petruchio Doesn\u2019t Tame Katherine \u2013 Shakespeare Does"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEvery time I teach <\/span>The Taming of the Shrew<\/span><\/i>, I struggle with the question \u2013 is Shakespeare a feminist? Students ask and we wonder together; then it seems like I come to a conclusion, until the next year.<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Taming of Katherine<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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But something new happened the last time I taught <\/span>The Taming of the Shrew<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 We were halfway through Act 3 when a student told me they didn\u2019t want to read Katherine anymore because she either doesn\u2019t say anything or is \u201cmousy\u201d.<\/span><\/p>

And you know what \u2013 she was right!<\/span><\/p>

We went back and examined Katherine and she does get tamed in the course of the play, but we decided it was Shakespeare taming her.\u00a0 As the writer, he had the ultimate control over her character, her story, and her voice.\u00a0 And he effectively silences her.\u00a0 The old saying is true: The pen truly is mightier than the sword.<\/span><\/p>

I thought I did a good job of examining the <\/span>feminism and gender roles in <\/span>The Taming of the Shrew<\/span><\/i><\/a>, but it goes to show that our students are thoughtful, insightful, and can teach us.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Feminist Katherine Dies<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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One of my favorite quotes from Katherine at the beginning of the play is when she says, \u201cI see a woman may be made a fool if she had not the spirit to resist.\u201d <\/span>The Taming of the Shrew<\/span><\/i>, 3.2.215-216.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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This seems to be the turning point for Katherine.\u00a0 After this, she goes to Petruchio\u2019s home and slowly dies as a character.\u00a0 Gone is the forceful female that I come to love.\u00a0 Gone is the woman who isn\u2019t afraid to tell the truth and say what she really thinks.<\/span><\/p>

And then we devolve into the abuse and humiliation that Katherine suffers at the hands of Petruchio.<\/span><\/p>

I recently read a commentary stating that this was a comedy and we should all just lighten up \u2013 I won\u2019t quote it here, because I\u2019m so angry about it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also read about Shakespeare being a product of his day.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Other Shakespeare Feminist Characters<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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However, I guess I always had the hope that because Shakespeare wrote some of the strongest female characters in all of literature (think Lady Macbeth, Beatrice, and Viola) that he really was a feminist for his day.\u00a0 But that certainly doesn\u2019t show \u2013 not by the end of the plays.<\/span><\/p>

Lady Macbeth \u2013 Is basically the leader and controls Macbeth, but in the end, she commits suicide.<\/span><\/p>

Beatrice \u2013 In the final scene, as soon as she kisses Benedick, she doesn\u2019t have another line.<\/span><\/p>

Viola \u2013 She is shipwrecked, makes her own way as a man and works a servant (rather than seeks for pity as a woman), but in the end, she chooses marriage and is just a different kind of servant.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Looking to the Future<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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I\u2019m not too sure I\u2019m going to teach <\/span>The Taming of the Shrew<\/span><\/i> next year.<\/span><\/p>

But I applaud the up and coming female generation of students who recognize that they don\u2019t have to like, agree with, or participate in the silencing of women in literature \u2013 no matter how old or how good that literature is considered to be.<\/span><\/p>

Don\u2019t get me wrong, Shakespeare is a classic.\u00a0 But is this something I want to dedicate time to in my classroom?<\/span><\/p>

At the very least, I\u2019ll be looking at different plays.\u00a0 Perhaps <\/span>The Merchant of Venice<\/span><\/i>? Portia seems like a woman I could get behind \u2013 the wisest of them all.\u00a0 (Not sure if I\u2019m up the to the prejudice in the play, but that is a whole different conversation.\u00a0 Why are you so difficult William Shakespeare?!)<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every time I teach The Taming of the Shrew, I struggle with the question \u2013 is Shakespeare a feminist? Students ask and we wonder together; then it seems like I come to a conclusion, until the next year. The Taming of Katherine But something new happened the last time I taught The Taming of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,20],"tags":[27,33],"class_list":["post-443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-secondary-language-arts","category-shakespeare","tag-secondary-language-arts","tag-shakespeare"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1471,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions\/1471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}