Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Taming of the Shrew Act 5, Scene 1

237.

we're almost to the end of yet another play! i feel like this play whizzed right by. everything happened so quickly, perhaps because there are two pretty equally weighted plots. neither got the amount of time i was expecting. i guess with all the movies out there that fill in the blanks between these scenes, i was expecting a bit more. oh well! let's get to it.


act 5, scene 1
Vincentio, Petruchio, Kate, and Grumio arrive at Lucentio's house. the merchant is there, pretending to be Vincentio, and he won't let them in. they argue over who the real father is. (see quote below.) when Biondello and Tranio enter with Baptista, they back up the merchant as Vincentio's father in order to support and stay true to Lucentio. Vincentio thinks that the servants have taken over and his son is dead. Baptista thinks that the real Vincentio is an impostor and tries to get him arrested. just in the nick of time, Lucentio and Bianca enter from their wedding, and reveal the truth. everything is explained and everyone is whisked off except Kate and Petruchio. Petruchio makes Kate kiss him right there in the street, and they exit to follow the rest of the group.


so i'm assuming that the end of this scene is meant to show us that Kate has truly bended to Petruchio's will once and for all. and that they are... happy? i suppose? subservient = happy, right? and here we have the line "Kiss me Kate" which, of course, is the title of the musical Kiss Me Kate, based on this play. what startles me most is that i didn't notice how messed up this all truly is when i first read this play in high school. i'm not judging or anything, i recognize that this was written in a very different time and place, but i'm surprised that the misogyny was not clear to me at a younger age.

when you look at the quote of the day, you will see my new favorite word. it means 'rogue likely to be hanged'. awesomely specific.

quote of the day:
'come hither, crackhemp.'
   -Vincentio

for tomorrow: act 5, scene 2

-rebecca may

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