The Framing of the Shrew: Induction, Gender, and Agency in William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew

Author

Samantha Stringham, Utah State University

Date of Award

5-2023

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Departmental Honors

Department

English

Abstract

Shrews abound, not only in Shakespeare’s works but in our modern world. Katherine, Shakespeare’s titular shrew, is in the good company of Beatrice, Adriana, and even, some argue, her seemingly virtuous sister Bianca. These women, all of whom push against the confines posed by the social conventions of Renaissance womanhood, have become increasingly relevant as women, now more than ever, demand that their voices be heard and continue to rally against the assertion that railing, scolding, turbulent behavior makes one a shrew (or perhaps, that being a shrew is an inherently bad thing). The increasingly feminist leanings of modern audiences make The Taming of the Shrew less than palatable as women are brutally punished and this punishment is celebrated. Indeed, Shrew’s treatment of women has certainly contributed to the play falling largely out of favor with modern readers, audiences, and scholars who, in engaging with the play, often attempt to (reductively) link shrewish behavior to empowerment, making the play more agreeable through the guise of female agency in the face of patriarchal oppression. However, such arguments often overemphasize the nature of Katherine’s eventual transformation while ignoring Shrew’s Induction, whose framework calls into question the play’s structures of power, control, and (illusive) agency. When included, the Induction allows us to fully explore Shrew’s gamification of courtship without falling into a reductive conversation regarding female empowerment or oppression by inviting the audience to engage with the complex interactions between metadrama, artificiality, and gender which indicate a difference in agency and consequence for male and female characters. This, in turn, creates space for increasingly nuanced commentary on gender in this play that is typically reductively viewed as celebrating either the subjugation of women or the hard-won and rebellious empowerment of a “shrew” in the face of patriarchal control.

Recommended Citation

Stringham, Samantha, "The Framing of the Shrew: Induction, Gender, and Agency in William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew" (2023). Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects. 964.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/honors/964