Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Let's Bust a Recap : The Taming of the Shrew

As you can see by the title of this post, I decided to go ahead and read The Taming of the Shrew before saying "Adios!" to February. I read this one faster than any of the three previous plays by Shakespeare I've read, and it was, by far, the most outrageous one yet.

As I did with Macbeth, I'm going to reveal the entire plot of the play, so if you are in the dark about this play and want to stay that way, this is your cue to leave.
In The Taming of the Shrew, we meet Baptista Minola and his two daughters, Bianca (the younger one that everyone's in love with) and Katharina (the older one who is the shrew in the title of the play). Baptista has decreed that no one gets Bianca until he can marry off Katharina. This poses a problem for all Bianca's adoring suitors, NOT because Katharina refuses to marry, but because no man alive is crazy enough to ask for Katharina's hand. Enter Petruchio. A man who is just as crazy as Katharina, looking for a wife with a rich father to offer a sizable dowry. He's easily talked into pursuing marriage with Katharina the shrew because he ain't scared and as long as she's easy on the eyes and comes with money, she's as good as the next broad. 

So off he goes to ask Baptista for Katharina's hand in marriage.

In the meantime, we've met Lucentio who has recently arrived in town, instantly fell in love with Bianca (without ever having talked to her, I might add), and has concocted a plan to spend time with her while we all wait for someone to marry Katharina. He has his servant Tranio pretend to be him so that he can pretend to be a tutor for Bianca. 

Back to Petruchio and Katharina. Baptista happily gives his shrewish daughter to Petruchio in marriage, and Petruchio's big plan to tame this crazy chick is to act crazier than her. He starves her, deprives her of sleep, and generally is the biggest nightmare you can imagine until she finally caves and becomes a docile, submissive little wife. Seriously. That's what happens.

So who ends up with Bianca? While Lucentio is pretending to be her tutor and wooing her, his man Tranio (disguised as Lucentio, remember) is vying for her hand in marriage and basically promises Baptista that between him and his father, Vincentio, he can make the best life for Bianca because he's the richest. Like pretty much, Baptista was holding a bidding war for Bianca. Not kidding. He conditionally agrees to give Bianca to Lucentio as long as his father, Vincentio shows up to validate everything that Lucentio has promised. 

Are you still with me? 

Tranio (still pretending to be Lucentio) hires a random old guy to pretend to be his father, Vincentio, and Baptista grants full permission for the wedding to take place. Tranio sends word to Lucentio that all's clear for the wedding at which point, the real Vincentio shows up

Right before Vincentio is about to beat Tranio to death for killing his son (the obvious conclusion when he sees him wearing Lucentio's clothes and lying to everyone), Lucentio and Bianca show up and make peace. Even though Baptista at first is all, "What the devil just happened?!"

So then everyone sits down to a feast together and Petruchio demonstrates just how well he tamed Katharina by making a bet with Lucentio and Hortensio (I know I didn't talk about Hortensio, but didn't you have enough to deal with keeping up with the rest of this story?) that if they all three called their wives, Katharina would be the quickest to obey. And he wins the bet. I'll be sharing Katharina's final words tomorrow in our Word for Wednesday so tune in to see just how completely Petruchio managed to tame the shrew.

My biggest beef with this play is that in the very beginning, a random lord is playing a prank on this drunk guy named Christopher Sly in which he (the lord) has convinced him (Chris Sly) that he's some hoity toity lord himself and The Taming of the Shrew is actually a play being presented to Christopher Sly. And we never find out what happens to him. The end of The Taming of the Shrew, which is actually a play within the play, is the end of the whole thing. What's the deal, Shakespeare??

Other than that, The Taming of the Shrew is outrageously hilarious, and I definitely recommend it. I definitely liked it better than A Midsummer-Night's Dream, but not quite so much as Much Ado About Nothing. Or maybe it's a tie with Much Ado About Nothing. They're both hysterical.

What do you think? Did you follow all that? Have you read The Taming of the Shrew? What is your favorite Shakespearean work?

13 comments:

  1. Dude, this is what 10 things I hate about you is based off of. I like that movie's ending better than how you said taming of the shrew ended.

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    1. Yeah, very loosely based off. The only things they have in common are that Bianca can't be romantically involved with anyone until Kat is. And that Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character tutors Bianca. But other than that, not really any similarities.

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    2. And that the Heath Ledger live interest is just as crazy as Kat. I love that movie, so I would totally read the play. Lol I can just see you shaking your head now, Hannah. Haha

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    3. Haha! I'm not shaking my head! I would be very interested in discussing the play with you if you read it because of how different it was from 10 Things. I realized pretty quickly that I needed to put 10 Things out of my head in order to fully appreciate the play.

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    4. That's so weird, because literally EVERYTHING you said in the summary reminded me of the parallel in the movie. I'd be really interested to read it.

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  2. I love this summary! It's been years since I read it, so I'm fuzzy on some of the details you mentioned, or I just missed those entirely when I read it. Much Ado About Nothing is probably my favorite too (Hello, Emma Thompson as Beatrice? She's perfection). Alisha Boley and I went to see Cymbeline in Atlanta about 18 months ago, and it was fantastic as well. Cymbeline is actually a dude. Who knew?

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    1. Ooo, Cymbeline. I'm not too familiar with that one. The three comedies I'm trying to decide between for next year's list are Twelfth Night, All's Well That Ends Well, and As You Like It. But maybe I should just scrap all those and go with Cymbeline instead. Haha!

      I'm glad you liked the summary! It was a little tricky to write because of all the people pretending to be other people. LOL

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    2. Twelfth Night is a must! I've taught it twice. To 16 year olds. Have mercy for the amount of cross dressing in that play and having to discuss it with teenagers. (What's a eunuch? Um...well...) There's a good movie adaptation as well from 1996 with Helena Bonham Carter. Cymbeline can wait, but it's kind of a tragi-comedy. It ends well. I think the Comedy of Errors is super confusing for the same reason - two sets of twins, who keep pretending to be each other. Haven't been brave enough to try that yet.

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    3. Twelfth Night is definitely the comedy I'm most familiar with which is why it's probably the one that will end up on next year's list. We'll see!

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  3. cymbeline is an epic for sure.

    it's interesting: upon reading your review of the play, i didn't feel as fond of it as i remember feeling after reading it years ago. hmm. maybe semi-adaptations like "10 things" makes you remember the original works in different and more flattering ways.

    and, of course, you should read twelfth night.

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    1. It was SO unlike 10 Things that at times I was like, how can they even consider 10 Things an adaptation of this play?! LOL

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  4. This is one of my favorite comedies. There is a really good movie adaptation starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

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    1. Hmm...I'll have to see if I can find that.

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