The Taming of the Shrew | Gender Roles in Taming of the Shrew

A selection of critical excerpts exploring gender roles in the play; in particular, these excerpts highlight the critical controversy between the play as a sexist work versus those who view it as a a tongue-in-cheek view of traditional gender roles.

Since Katherina's shrewish behavior constitutes the central problem of the play, it is not surprising that most critical commentary on The Taming of the Shrew deals to some extent with its vision of the relative roles of men and women. Until well into the nineteenth century, audiences and critics alike seem to have accepted at face value what appears to be the play's central assumption about gender roles: that male dominance and female submission constitute the right and natural relationship between the sexes. In this context, Petruchio's "taming" of Katherina was generally seen...

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