Equalized Power in Elizabethan Marriage

So I think that my Tweethis was too specific which scared away potential commentators.  Or perhaps I just haven't found the right group through my social searching. I'm finding discussion groups but they are more focused on films and more recent developments rather than on discussing a play with no recent film adaptations.  Another problem I faced is that I view Facebook as a more private than public circle.  For example I only chose to friend individuals who I see on a daily basis (or did at one point like high school).  Thus my "friends" list is rather small only 100-200 people.  I certainly don't friend teachers or neighbors and that would limit the social circles that I could reach through Facebook.  However my former roommate did comment on my status (She graduated in Classics but knew tons about Shakespeare as her mother is an actress who still performs on stage.) and gave me an insight that I never would have considered otherwise.

Mini-Paper

Equalized Power in Elizabethan Marriage

Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew is often seen as males dominating women however if the relationships of power are looked at more closely a different story emerges.   Although Kate’s subservient attitude seems to be simply submission to her husband’s will, it is actually her shaping and controlling both her husband and their marriage. This dramatized movement of power from the man to the woman showcases the changing concepts of an Elizabethan marriage within this time period and positive possibilities of future relationships. 

The basic power struggle begins Petruchio decides to court Katherine in order to obtain her large dowry.  In these initial actions he states the widely accepted ideal of marriage being a means of obtaining sizable goods and land. “Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know/One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife, /as wealth is burden of my wooing dance . . . I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; /If wealthily, then happily in Padua” (1.2.64-66 & 73-74).  However as the actually wooing begins Katherine takes his words and wittily turns them against him.  She begins by taking his declaration, “Myself am moved to woo thee for my wife” and declares him movable and a proverbial idiot (2.1.195-200).  This witty banter back and forth otherwise known as stichomythia is only able to happen because both parties are at the same level of education or wit.  Their balanced facetiousness and ability to wield caustic parrying remarks further proves the equality of Katherine and Petruchio.

This battle continues and begins to showcase the failings of a traditional Elizabethan marriage.  Petruchio manifests his masculinity which would be widely accepted by conventional standards by arriving late to the ceremony clad in clothing that is not suitable for a wedding, and then afterwards demanding that they leave the bridal dinner where Katherine, called Kate by Petruchio, would be honored.   She pleads to be allowed to stay but is denied on the grounds that other men would steal her. “Grumio, /Draw forth thy weapon, we are beset with thieves; /Rescue thy mistress, if thou be a man. /Fear not, sweet wench, they shall not touch thee, Kate: /I'll buckler thee against a million” (3.2.233-236).  He used his position as her newlywed husband to forcefully remove her from the wedding feast which successfully demonstrated the common expectation of men dominating women and thus their marriage at that time.  However since Kate does not support his decision to leave the festivities, she refuses to fit into the classic role of a subservient Elizabethan wife which brings much discussion from the wedding guests.

Smith discusses this event in the text and the potential repercussions in her article, Performing Marriage with a Difference: Wooing, Wedding, and Bedding in The Taming of the Shrew.  “By exaggerating husbandly dominance, for example, Petruchio's performance draws our attention not to the power inherent in such dominance but rather to its inefficacy. Thereby a conception of marriage that expects hierarchy and mutuality to coincide effortlessly is questioned.” As the hierarchy of marriage is being challenged, we learn that the equalities in marriage are based on negotiation.  Kate discovers what Petruchio wishes and plays to that desire in order to achieve the agency to do as she wishes.  An example of this is when they are on the road to return to Padua for Bianca’s marriage feast Kate explicitly plays to Petruchio’s masculinity by claiming or confirming everything he says is true whether it is or not.  Petruchio begins by saying, “Nay, then you lie: it is the blessed sun.” Kate responds, “Then, God be bless'd, it is the blessed sun:/But sun it is not, when you say it is not;/And the moon changes even as your mind./What you will have it named, even that it is;/And so it shall be so for Katherine.” Kate knows that the sun is the sun and the moon is the moon and that her husband claiming that one is the other does not change anything.  He has no power to rename celestial bodies or change the gender of travelers on the road.  However, by satisfying his need to be thought of as superior Kate plays his game and responds in the affirmative in order to achieve her goal of reaching Padua.  In doing this she negotiates the loss of her intelligence in order to receive the boon of visiting her family once again.

However as they debate and engage in verbal battle, they come to trust and enjoy a more equal relationship with each other.  A former roommate of mine brought additional light to the interactions between Petruchio and Kate: “In my Shakespeare class, we discussed the analogy comparing Kate to a hawk, and Petruchio as her trainer. The trainer goes through as much work as the hawk, needing to stay with it at all times. You could argue that Petruchio is the same way, in that he forgoes food and sleep when he deprives Kate of it, and he is just as humiliated as she is.”  His humiliation would continue as he instructs his wife to embrace the male traveler on the road.  Both individuals know that the traveler is male even though Petruchio initially claims that he is a “Fair lovely maid” (4.5.35).   The battles and struggles that shape their relationship “dramatize a marriage that leaves Kate and Petruchio negotiating not only gender hierarchies but also love, sexuality, and parental demands. The Taming's particular reiteration of marriage enacts a series of negotiations for power, none of which results in a marriage based on simple domination and submission or perfect egalitarianism” (Smith).  As they negotiate both Kate and Petruchio find equality in their marriage.

At the last scene, which is the culminating climax of the revision gender roles within marriage, Kate proves that rather than being tamed she has chosen to shape her marriage with her wit and agency.  At face value, Kate’s speech could be considered her final submission to the men but when interpreted with a careful eye it declares that women who choose to serve the men control the power in the relationship.  Holly Crocker agrees with this analysis of Kate’s final speech as she wrote in her article, Affective Resistance: Performing passivity and Playing A-Part in The Taming of the Shrew:

Shakespeare’s play is also a game that uses femininity to distribute categories of wealth and status. Furthermore, to be comprehensible, animating feminine virtue requires the typology of the shrew. . . Katharine as virtuous provides the rhetorical apparatus for demolishing the differences in agency that separate the sexes.  Without winking at the audience, Katharine shows that female submission must be a performance, because her autonomy derives from redirecting agency through the guise of passivity (311).

Kate’s choice of acting out her submission further proves “the room marriage leaves for maneuverability by enacting one that incorporates her wit and sexuality into her very performances of submission. Thus by thinking of marriage (and the female subjection it requires) as performative, we can read Kate's agency through her reiteration of the role of wife--a reiteration that stresses her reshaping of Petruchio and their marriage.” (Smith) Kate changes her situation and position within the marriage to Petruchio by the few actions and choices that are available to her.  This modifies Petruchio’s actions and the way he views Kate.  Rather than being viewed as an object or a means of obtaining wealth and sexual satisfaction, Kate becomes seen as an equal in wit, charm and worthy of his trust because of the relationship they have built between them.  Claire pointed out that “in the last scene, Kate is invited into male space by Petruchio, she is invited to speak (a masculine act), and in the end Petruchio is left speechless.” Later on when the wives are bidden to “place your hands below your husband's foot:/In token of which duty, if he please, My hand is ready; may it do him ease” (5.2.188-190) Kate does so as an action “not one of subservience, but of trust, because she knows he won't tread on her foot” (Monson).

The Elizabethan marriage changed from one which had the man dominating both the marriage and the woman to a marriage that had more equality between the partners because of the fluidity of their roles.  Kate shows this as she uses her agency as she performs the show of submission.  In conceding to her husband’s desires for the sun to be called the moon, and a male traveler embraced as if he was female, she feeds his need for masculinity which gives her more power and control over the relationship and a higher position than previously possible within an Elizabethan marriage.   In the end, the battles and power negotiations bring about an atmosphere of mutual trust that allow for greater growth as a couple demonstrated by Kate fearlessly placing her hand underneath her husband’s boot which showcase a wonderful potential for relationships and marriages in England’s future.  

Works Cited

Crocker, Holly A. “Affective Resistance: Performing passivity and Playing A-Part in The Taming of the Shrew.” Shakespeare Quarterly 54, no.2 (summer 2003): 142-59.

Monson, Claire. “Statement on Kate and Petruchio’s Marriage.” Facebook.com. 31 Oct 2012. Web. 1 Nov 2012. https://www.facebook.com/jessica.asay1. 

Smith, Amy L. “Performing Marriage with a Difference: Wooing, Wedding, and Bedding in The Taming of the Shrew.” Comparative Drama 36, nos. 3-4 (fall-winter 2002-2003): 289-320.