The Taming of the Shrew By William Shakespeare

Literary Notes ● Genre o Drama  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)