The Taming of the Shrew

By William Shakespeare

Literary Notes

●Genre oDrama

Tragedy Comedy

●Themes

●Symbols

●Setting

●Plot

●Conflict

●Writing Style

●Dramatic Conventions

Drama: A story written to be performed

●Tragedy

- Romeo and Juliet

- Macbeth

●Comedy

- Taming of the Shrew

- Twelfth Night

Farce (commedia de’ll arte)

●Uses impossible

and/or exaggerated

situations to achieve

a comedic effect

●Modern examples

might include Billy

Madison or skits from

The Chapelle Show

Comic methods used within the

play: ●Situational Comedy: role

exchanges; disguises

●Visual Comedy: facial

expressions and antics

●Action Comedy

●Physical Appearance

Comedy

●Verbal Humor Comedy:

can often use puns (play

on words)

Themes: the fundamental and often

universal ideas explored in a literary work ●Marriage as an

institution

●The effect of social

roles on individual

happiness

●Appearance versus

reality

Shrew: small mean rodent

Setting: the time and place of a narrative

●Induction: The English

countryside outside an

alehouse and at the

Lord’s home

●Scenes I - V: Padua, Italy

– 1593 –1594. Time span

is about one week to ten

days

Writing Style: Shakespeare often changed

his style of writing based upon the social status of

his characters ●Prose: Ordinary language used to emphasis characters of low social status

●Iambic Pentameter: Pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables that uses five patterns to a line; used to emphasis characters of high social status

●Example:

To swell the gourd and plumb the hazel shell.

*The structure of the play is

unique, because it the only work

by Shakespeare that is a play

within a play. The Induction

serves as a framework for the

play, however the characters in

the Induction are abandoned

after Act I Scene I.

Dramatic Conventions: techniques

that give the audience information that could not

be given from the action of the play

●Concealment: allows a

character to be seen by

the audience while

remaining hidden from

the other actors

Dramatic Conventions

●Soliloquy: character

talks to himself,

revealing thoughts

and feelings that

would otherwise go

unvoiced

Dramatic Conventions

●Aside: character

speaks directly to the

audience without

being overheard by

the other characters

on stage

Dramatic Conventions

●Dramatic Irony-

occurs when the

audience knows

information that might

change the behavior

of the characters if

they were aware of it

Major Players

●Baptista Minola- rich gentleman of Padua;

father of Katherine and Bianca

●Katherine Minola- the shrew

●Bianca Minola- younger daughter; acts

innocent and sweet

Major Players

●Gremio- foolish old man; suitor to Bianca

●Hortensio- suitor to Bianca; disguises

himself as a music teacher

Major Players

●Lucentio- gentleman from Pisa; falls in love w/ Bianca at first sight; disguises himself as a Latin teacher

●Tranio- Lucentio’s servant; disguises himself as Lucentio

●Biondello- Lucentio’s other servant

●Vincentio- Lucentio’s father from Pisa

Major Players

●Petruchio- gentleman from Verona; agrees

to woo Katherine the shrew

●Grumio- Petruchio’s servant (often acts as

the comic relief in the play)