The Elizabethan View of Women         Women in Elizabethan times had hardly a(prenominal) rights or luxuries. Their entire lifestyles dep shuttinged upon that of their husbands, picked out for them by their fathers. They had almost no say in their lives, and they were expected to be thankful for having individual to rule over them. This is made abundantly clear by Katherinas famous speech in 5.2.137-180 of The Taming of the termagant. She compares a wo realitys proper idolatry to her husband to that a subject owes a prince, saying that the man provides everything for the woman, and the least she owes him is her complete obedience. While the play is sometimes seen as mans tyranny over woman, it is in fact representing the conventional social function women played. In Elizabethan England it was almost universally accepted that this was a God-given right, confirmed in the Bible. A husband was expected to control his wife in all things, just as a king could dictate to a citizen or a pitying being could control an animal. (Boyce)         Much of the humor in The Taming of the Shrew is derived from the interplay of the enduring relationship between men and women and the role that Elizabethan society dictated women should play.
It was Katherinas rejection of that role and how Petruchio deals with it that the play centers on. His strategy - which is to comprehend her as if nothing is good enough for her, to the extent that she is not allowed to eat inferior meals - is to tame her as he would a wild falcon. And, as the conventions of the time demanded, she is tamed by the end of the story. Pertruchios need to tame her reflects upon the prevailing stereotypes of the time. The man was supposed to be in charge.
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