Dramatic Criticism on Taming of the Shrew

1. Dramatic Criticism on Taming of the Shrew And the Elements of Drama

2. The playworld of a play? • The imaginative environment • that a play asks us to enter • when we read it, or see it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • The Taming of the Shrew (Renaissance Padua, Italy) • Top Girls (20th century London)

3. Essay question on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew • “Bianca and Lucentio are in fact seminal characters, instrumental in understanding Katherina and Petruchio.” • How successful is the sub-plot in affirming the transformation of Katherina in the main plot? • Question is asking you to examine and analyze the dramatic function / roles of Bianca and Lucentio in the sub-plot in relation to the main plot of Petruchio and Katherina;

4. Responding effectively • Address and engage the focus of the question, and all its requirements; • Demonstrate keen relevant insights; developed by a line of argument, supported by relevant supporting textual evidence • Followed by analysis of dramatic devices in relation to relevant central concerns • Comprehensive coverage; • Presented in a structurally coherent manner

5. The two plots function to parallel each other; parallelism as a dramatic technique; • The two plots also contrast with each other; antithesis as a dramatic technique; • Shakespeare appears to be presenting Katherina, the shrew, as being ultimately tamed in the main plot; • While the opposite is the case where the presentation of Bianca is concerned in the sub-plot; this female rebel pleases herself by appearing to conform; • Bianca deceives others by assuming an appearance of good and gentle womanhood; • Only at the end do others see Bianca’s true colours

6. Representations (linguistically; through language; stereotypically or atypically?) • Roles (in a play, dramatic roles / functions in relation to the plot of the play) • Relationships (male-female character relationships)

7. We strive to get true representations of reality • Such as • Beliefs and statements • Vocabularies and conceptual schemes • Any number of different systems of representation for representing the same reality

8. Nursery rhyme representation of gender • What are little boys made of? What are little boys made of? Boys are made of slugs and snails and puppy dogs’ tails; That’s what little boys are made of. • What are little girls made of? What are little girls made of? Girls are made of sugar and spice and all that’s nice; That’s what little girls are made of.

9. Conventional formula for Drama • People go to a play in the theatre to be entertained, rather than to be improved; A possible formula for the delivery of such theatrical entertainment: • simple action; • easily recognizable characters; • intrigue, and secrets; • points of crisis and entanglement; • a just conclusion to the play

10. The well made / well crafted play? • As well as having dramatically interesting characters • Is driven by a good plot; • At its most basic, the characters of a stage play are mere dramatic devices (somewhat similar to characters in a computer game) • The characters of a play are placed there to make the plot of the play work, and entertain; • For example the dramatist’s use of ‘stock’ characters • Characters easily taken down from the shelf; and held in stock for repeated use

11. Stock characters • Since a play must have conflict to be entertaining for its audience • Must therefore have characters assuming different conflicting roles • Goodies and Baddies • Heroes and Villains Mixtures • Those that appear good but are not; • Those that appear bad but are good;

12. Stage characters and audience expectations • We expect to be able to place stage characters in a recognizable social type (e.g. Katherina Minola?) • Also that they have hidden depths to their personality that will only gradually become apparent to us; • We expect that their MOTIVES will only gradually become discernible, as we match their actions to their words • And that we become aware of the implications of what they say, as much as the surface content; • We expect that the story of their past has some bearing on their behaviour in the present; • And we expect them to adapt to changing circumstances, to develop;

13. Understanding character role in terms drama based criticism • Role in the play (TS) of Baptista Minola? • Conventional, typical Renaissance patriarch; paterfamilias; concerned about his daughters; • Role of Lucentio (TS)? In relation to other characters, and also in relation plot development? • Lucentio is presented in the role of the young, good looking, gallant, idealistic type wooer, yet rather ridiculous in his romantic aspirations; • His role is also intended to be a foil; a counter-opposite for Petruchio; (that is his dramatic function) • NOTE: df. A foil is a secondary character who contrasts with a major character;

14. Three aspects of stage characters • 1) Character conception • Is the character simply drawn, or complex? • The dramatic character is conceived simply on the basis of a gender or racial stereotype? • E.g. Re- Taming of the Shrew; Stereotypically female? Stereotypically Italiano? • Complex characterization is considered the best standard; but of course some characters are considered simpler than others;

15. Stage Characters and Role  Plot • NOTE: Characters in a play are mere devices placed in the play to make the plot work / function; • An important aspect of the vast majority of stage characters is their plot function; • If a character is being used as a foil, this is purely for the benefit of the audience; (We do not have foils in real life); • A character’s function / role as a foil is specific to drama based fiction;

16. What is the main function of characters in drama, in dramatic terms? • To serve the plot of the play; • Pope Joan? Her stage character role? • Her role is meant to parallel and at the same time ironically juxtapose / contrast that of Marlene in order to develop the plot.

17. Character development • Character development / dynamics are clearly very much linked to / tied up / intertwined with the plot; • Characters change because of what happens in the unfolding action of the plot; • Plot and character are inter-dependant

18. Formal Function of Stage Character • Aspects of character which are specific to the rhetorical dimension of the play • The way the play ‘speaks to’ its audience; • Through the way characters function as narrators, confidantes, and foils

19. Character and aesthetic function;Aesthetic aspect of character in drama • Stage characters can provide the audience with much direct pleasure by the way they speak; the way they say what they say • And because of the way they behave; either their outlandish, or stereotypical behaviour; • E.g. Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew

20. Moral types of character • Social types of character; • What of Katherina? What type is she? • Katherina is presented as a stereotype; • Katherina has a stereotypical role to play; • She is the stage woman scold / shrew who must be punished and reformed for her waywardness; • She is required by the genre (comedy) to change; • Katherina’s relationship with other female characters? • Inevitably confrontational; oppositional;

21. Pitfalls to be avoided: • 1 You must not think about, or see Stage Characters in the same way you think about or see real people; • The Julius Caesar of history, and drama, different; • 2 One cannot think about stage persons in isolation from other characters; • 3 Nor in isolation from the development of the plot; • 4 Do not ever simply describe a character; one must show how the character is presented through analytical commentary on dramatic techniques used by the playwright to present a given character; • 5 Do not confuse qualities of a character, and role;

22. Study of stage characters in Drama • Assess the role or function that the character performs in the play; • Examine in detail the key speeches that the character makes, and the key acts / scenes in which s/he appears; • Gather a representative range of evidence from the play to support your view of the stage character, and his / her Role in the play’s plot structure; • And Relationship with other characters;

23. Theatrical qualities of Petruchio’s role • Petruchio is cast in the dramatic role of the leading suitor / wooer of Katherina; • And portrayed as the most masculine and dominant male character; (contrasts with Lucentio, Hortensio, and Gremio, mere wimps, by comparison) • Is he presented as a playful, macho suitor or a misogynistic bully? • That depends on whether we as an audience are compelled to think that Katherina has gained or lost by meeting him, and ending up being married to him;