The Taming of the Shrew

1. The Taming of the Shrew By William Shakespeare

2. Literary Notes • Genre • Drama • Tragedy • Comedy • Themes • Symbols • Setting • Plot • Conflict • Writing Style • Dramatic Conventions

3. Genre:category of literary composition, characterized by a particular style • Poetry • Short Stories • Novels • NonFiction • Drama

4. Drama:A story written to be performed • Tragedy - Romeo and Juliet - Macbeth • Comedy - Taming of the Shrew - Twelfth Night

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. *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.

11. 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

12. Dramatic Conventions • Soliloquy: character talks to himself, revealing thoughts and feelings that would otherwise go unvoiced

13. Dramatic Conventions • Aside: character speaks directly to the audience without being overheard by the other characters on stage

14. Dramatic Conventions • Dramatic Irony- occurs when the audience knows information that might change the behavior of the characters if they were aware of it

15. 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

16. Major Players • Gremio- foolish old man; suitor to Bianca • Hortensio- suitor to Bianca; disguises himself as a music teacher

17. 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

18. 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)