The Taming of the Shrew (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Shakespeare - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

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Lydia rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

11/05/07

bookshelves: plays

Lucentio: Hey, I'm Lucentio. Who's that hot girl?
Bianca: That would be me. And hotness is about all I have going for me. Because I only have about 5 lines.
Lucentio: Wanna have sex get married?
Baptista: I'm her father, you whippersnapper. Get in line. She can't get married until her older sister does.
Lucentio: Who's that?
Katherina: ROAR! GNASH! GNARL! I don't want to get married, but I live in Elizabethan England so I must. I also have a violent streak and beat up my sister all t...more

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Madeline rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

05/04/08

bookshelves: shakespeare

Story time!

In the late nineties, a group of writers at Touchstone Pictures got together for a meeting. One of these writers stood up and said, "Hey guys, I just got the bestest idea ever - I just heard about this old play called The Taming of the Shrew, which is about two people that hate each other but then end up falling in love, and I think we should do a movie version of it, but - BUT - we just take the basic storyline, modernize the dialogue and storyline, and cast hot teen actors ...more Story time!

In the late nineties, a group of writers at Touchstone Pictures got together for a meeting. One of these writers stood up and said, "Hey guys, I just got the bestest idea ever - I just heard about this old play called The Taming of the Shrew, which is about two people that hate each other but then end up falling in love, and I think we should do a movie version of it, but - BUT - we just take the basic storyline, modernize the dialogue and storyline, and cast hot teen actors in the main roles."
"BEST MOVIE EVER!" the other writers shouted.
An intern was quickly dispatched to a bookstore to get copies of the play, because the writers figured they should probably read the original source before they ripped it off.
The intern returned, scripts were passed around, and the writers settled down to read.
Silence descended on the room. After a few minutes, one of the writers piped up, "Um, are you guys to the part where Petruchio decides to court Kate so he can get her money?"
"Yeah," said another writer, "and how her father basically sells her to Petruchio?"
The head writer was nonplussed. "It was a different era," he insisted. "We'll cut that part out."
Satisfied, they continued reading.
But soon enough, another writer spoke up. "Problem," he said. "Petruchio and Kate never fall in love - he just forces her to obey his every word by starving her and not letting her sleep. And then at the end Kate gives a speech about how women are useless and should always obey and respect their husbands."
The writers put down the scripts. One of them retreated to a corner to cry, another began banging his head repeatedly against the desk.
"It doesn't matter!" the head writer insisted. "New plan, guys: we just take the basic idea that two people who start out hating each other end up falling in love, keep most of the original character names and throw everything else from the play out the window."
The other writers were silent. Could they do it?
"And," the head writer added, "We'll throw in some awesome music and have a climactic Prom scene."
"BEST MOVIE EVER!" the other writers shouted.

And then they wrote the script for 10 Things I Hate About You, and it turned out to be actually a pretty good movie. As for the original play that started it all, the manuscript was never spoken of again.
The end.

PS: I know that was a very long-winded review that didn't even really talk about the actual play, but this was more fun to write than, "The Taming of the Shrew makes me want to go back in time and kick Shakespeare in the crotch."...less

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Rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

06/01/08

bookshelves: plays

Read in June, 2008

I heard once that 'The Taming of the Shrew' is a book that you either love or hate. I'm somewhere in between (how's that for decisive).
It's amazingly fun to see a nasty tempered woman learn obedience, though I do like to think at least a bit of her 'attitude' is still there, otherwise the play would be a tragedy, about a woman whose spirit was broken (like a horses?) However, that less than flattering depiction is not what I saw happening, it seemed more of a lesson for the 'feminists' of toda...more

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Chantel rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

11/30/08

bookshelves: plays

Infamously misogynistic.

Also, the musical Kiss Me Kate is based on this play. If I remember correctly (and I'm not sure I do), The Taming of the Shrew is a play within the musical. Pretty clever, but also misogynistic. I know it just reflects how things were for women at the time, but really, I don't want to read or watch that kind of bullshit.

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Elisa rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

11/20/08

Read in November, 2008

recommended to Elisa by: My English Teacher
recommends it for: Shakespeare fans

I studied this book with my english class (instead of Hamlet- I will eventually get over that) and this was the first Shakespearean Comedy that I have read. It was actually quite good, it had a strong theme and a good message (depending on what side of the spectrum that you are perceiving it from), it had great literary devices (if you're looking), but I found some of the characters to be a little lacking, yet the two main do keep you enthralled. It's not a comedy in the modern sense, of course,...more

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Chelsea rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

12/20/08

Read in December, 2008

The Taming of the Shrew is the comedy about two very different sisters, the younger one flirty and outgoing while the older is basically a harsh loud mouth. With three men waiting to marry the younger (Bianca) they must find someone to marry the older (Kate). They find Petruchio who at first seems unwilling to be a loud mouth himself. Kate seems not to be in to Petruchio but when he is late for their wedding she breaks down it tears. Petrchio through a couple mean tricks was able to tame the lou...more

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Wealhtheow rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

09/16/08

I bet every older sister secretly likes this play.

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Robin rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

09/12/08

bookshelves: shakespeare

Read in September, 2008

Just finished this for class. Reviews for this page are so much fun, I can't quit writing them just because I'm starting school again. Hence, Shakespeare reviews it is. We are reading seven in my "Skakespeare's Early Plays" class, so there will be a steady flow.

This was one of Shakespeare's earliest plays, and in my opinion, it was pretty subpar. As one of my classmates put it, Not all writing is Shakespeare, but not all Shakespeare is Hamlet. I couldn't agre with this more. Many o...more Just finished this for class. Reviews for this page are so much fun, I can't quit writing them just because I'm starting school again. Hence, Shakespeare reviews it is. We are reading seven in my "Skakespeare's Early Plays" class, so there will be a steady flow.

This was one of Shakespeare's earliest plays, and in my opinion, it was pretty subpar. As one of my classmates put it, Not all writing is Shakespeare, but not all Shakespeare is Hamlet. I couldn't agre with this more. Many of my favorite aspects of the Bard's writing is present here: deception, manipulation, botched schemes, and of course, love. But one of the main plotlines bothers me enough to lower my opinion of the entire play. On this I shall elaborate.

Here's a basic plot summary (if you've seen the movie 10 Things I Hate About You, skip this part, you already know). The Lord Baptista has two daughters: Bianca, who is a sweetie that everyone wants to marry, and Katherine, who's a "shrew", a woman that does not follow the societal standards for women of chastity, silence, and obedience. Multiple characters want to marry Bianca, but her father forbids it until Katherine is married off. The boys find a man suited to the task. His name is Petruchio.

Petruchio marries Katherine (despite that she detests him at first), and proceeds in the task of breaking her spirit, "taming" her, so that she behaves as a woman should. He has two soliloquys on the subject, one of which compares this to training a hawk to come to one's wing when beckoned. He starves her and tantalizes her with food she doesn't get, deprives her of sleep, and makes her life a living hell when she doesn't do his exact bidding, even when he's asking her to proclaim ridiculous untruths.

The scene where her spirit finally breaks is perfectly indicative of this theme. They're walking the road to her fathers house from his, in the sunlight, and he basically says, "Wow, the moon sure is bright!" She tells him it's the sun. He tells her they'll go home immediately unless she proclaims it to be the moon. She proclaims it to be the moon. He replies, "Nay, it is the sun." The final scene includes the lengthiest speech in the play, wherein Katherine immplores her sister, and all women, to obey their man.

Now, Shakespeare (of course) had to propagate the values of his own society, in order to please the Big Wigs that were watching his plays. So even if he were a radical thinker in favor of gender equality, as we'd all like him to be, he'd have to insert his beliefs very subtly. And there are those who believe he does so in this play. But even if he does, aren't there a dozen other great Shakespeare plays, comedy and tragedy alike, that include themes and values of weightier AND more agreeable morality and value that we could be reading? Do we have to read this horribly sexist material ~just~ because Skakespeare wrote it? Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, all of these plays certainly have bad people in them, and some have questionable themes. But I've read them all, and none of them feel to me like this one does. What really bothered me was when I went to discuss it in class, and none of the women even seemed bothered by it; they didn't even bring it up! Believe it or not, people were talking about how Petruchio and Kate were "well matched" and how he was doing it "out of love for her". Some of these things can be argued, but I really don't see them; fellow readers have yet to convince me.

Maybe I'm crazy. If you dig heavy old school reading, pick up the play and read it, then tell me if I am.

P.S. In later Shakespeare reviews, I may not include plot summary. Sorry. It took a long time....less

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~riff rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

05/09/08

bookshelves: plays

Read in July, 2006

recommended to ~riff by: Oregon Shakespeare Festival
recommends it for: Any Thespian

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

You have to understand, from a production standpoint, you have to pick and choose the themes of the play and motives of the character.

Before I get into my review, I want to point out that Shakespeare had the horrid position of having to appeal to two groups of people:

The upper class, of course, who not only attend the theatre as a leisure activity, but also to learn; they'd be the first ones in Elizabethan society to be able to tell you the origins of the "theatre" as "the...more

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Chae rated it:

(review of isbn 1580495214)

03/30/08

recommended to Chae by: Mrs. Miska
recommends it for: Anyone who likes Shakespear

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

To start i just want to say that The Taming of the Shrew may be my favotire Shakespear play. Not to mention it's so nice to read something other than a tragedy from Shakespear. I didnt know much about this book before i started reading... so i kept waiting for people to start dying!

The way this book began was very interesting, this book in a way delivers two stories in one. The first tells the story of a beggar who passes out drunk, a lord finds him and takes him to his house and makes all ...more To start i just want to say that The Taming of the Shrew may be my favotire Shakespear play. Not to mention it's so nice to read something other than a tragedy from Shakespear. I didnt know much about this book before i started reading... so i kept waiting for people to start dying!

The way this book began was very interesting, this book in a way delivers two stories in one. The first tells the story of a beggar who passes out drunk, a lord finds him and takes him to his house and makes all his servants pretend that the beggar is actually a lord who previously had gone crazy and thought himself to be a beggar.

This story line in itself is so interesting. The part i thought was halarious was when Sly (the beggar) keeps wishing to be left alone with his "wife" who is really Bartholomew dressed up.

The Taming of the Shrew is then presented as a play to Sly... i think it would be interesting to reread this book, because from my previous Shakespear experience there is alwasys some reasoning for the way he writes his plays and some sort of symbolic purpose. I'm quite sure I took as much as i was supposed to away from this seemingly random introduction. Although it was very entertaining!

My teacher had previously told me that this play was essentially the movie 10 things I Hate About You, and i was amazed as to how many paralleling aspects there were. Even the two daughters names in the play were actually Bianca and Katherine! I always think its interesting after seeing a movie to read the book and see what Hollywood actually decided was "relevant" enough to take from the book. Although, as we all know Hollywood sometimes fails misserably compared to the wonderful world of books =-)

I thought the Taming of the Shrew perfectly falls in with the rest of Shakespears works of arts, and if your ever in teh mood for something a little more light hearted... this is the book for you.

The only complaint i have about this play is that Kate gets way to "tamed" i know goes with the title, but in this time and age is is almost sort of hearbreaking to see(or read) of a woman with that behavior. By the end of the book Petruccio has her in todays language "whipped."

The reader is almost forced to feel bad for Kate because she is truely being what many would say abused. Kept from food and sleep in order to be tamed. I think there are also underlying symbols with the costume that Petruccio wears to his weddign with Kate. This shows that Petruccio has control and is able to embarass her if he feels fit, setting the tone for the rest of the marriage as the one wearing the pants.

The taming of the Shrew, Literlarly is just that, a tale of a once strong willed woman, who is tamed by her husband into domesticity....less

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MacK rated it:

(review of isbn 0521425050)

11/08/07

bookshelves: brit-lit, classics, dramas, mr-macks-syllabus

Read in April, 1999

I know that a great many of my friends and fellow English majors dislike Taming of the Shrew. It's chauvanistic, it's simplistic, it's got an Induction that makes absolutely no sense and requires a character change that's so absurd that it makes the greatest poet of all time seem ridiculous for even suggesting it.

But I do like it, it's like the guilty pleasure that you get from renting a frat boy comedy instead of a Kurosawa. It's got some nice opportunities for slapstick and verbal repartee...more

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Katarzyna rated it:

(review of isbn 0198320345)

07/10/07

Read in January, 2000

I enjoy Shakespeare a lot.
This peticular comedy is one of my favourit. Even though, in majority of cases, my great boyfriends and I are on the friendly terms, they will eagerly comply with the opinion that I am the typical Shakespeare Shrew!

The Taming of the Shrew, Act 5, Scene 2. IS SHE IRONICAL?

KATHARINA

Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband's foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready; may it do him ease. ...more I enjoy Shakespeare a lot.
This peticular comedy is one of my favourit. Even though, in majority of cases, my great boyfriends and I are on the friendly terms, they will eagerly comply with the opinion that I am the typical Shakespeare Shrew!

The Taming of the Shrew, Act 5, Scene 2. IS SHE IRONICAL?

KATHARINA

Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband's foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready; may it do him ease.
...less

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Ali rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

04/12/07

bookshelves: classic-dramas

For me as a man of theatre, reading a play is kind of ”one man performance”, and totally different experience compare to the very same plays performance at theatre or in film form. I consider them as three different versions of one story.
The Taming of the Shrew is also a fantastic film version of the play (1967), with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton which is directed by Franco Zeffirelli.
این نمایش نامه ی شکسپیر با نام "به تربیت آوردن دختر ...more

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Steven rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

06/16/07

bookshelves: thebard, theplayisthething, womenareamystery

This is the way to kill a wife, with kindness.

Some consider this play sexist, I have no idea why:

Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintence commits his body
To painful labor both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst though liest warm at home, secure and safe,
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks, and true obedience-
Too little payment for so gre...more

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Elena rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

11/26/08

Read in November, 2008

I thought I hated this play because of the way Kate grovels before her man by the end, but it's absolutely hilarious. Lots of stunning word-play. How that guy could mess with words. The groveling is too silly to hate, though I have to say I rather liked Kate better as a shrew. I read this again because it's basically my Thrushbeard story, sort of, and I wanted to see how he went about letting it unfold.

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Haylee rated it:

(review of isbn 1411400410)

09/22/08

bookshelves: read-in-2008

Read in September, 2008

recommends it for: Shakespeare and "10 Things" admirers

I love this story. I have loved this story for a long time (because of Kiss Me, Kate and Ten Things I Hate About You) but I had never actually picked up the book and read it. I find it is not my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, though I still like it a great deal. In this particular play the names seem more similar to one another than, say, Hamlet or Much Ado About Nothing, so it was harder to read (especially since I tend to read quickly over the dialogue and forget to look to see who is speaki...more

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Aaron rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

12/15/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in October, 1999

Not my favorite Shakespeare play, but still an interesting read. I think it is universally accepted that there was a (standard) fifth act that has been lost to time, so a lot of things are left without being wrapped up. Shakespeare explores/illustrates several themes in this one, notably marriage, attraction, vanity, compatibility, and spoiled-ness, if you could call it that. Nothing goes as planned, of course, and the story is more about the fun on things going wrong than any lesson learned. Al...more

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Christopher rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

12/06/08

I love Shakspeare. I hated this. I also vehemently hated Kiss Me Kate. Yet I loved 10 Things I Hate About You. Then again, my friends condemn me for hating Dangerous Liaisons and enjoying Cruel Intentions. John Hughes really affected me as a child.

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Lindsay rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

09/11/08

Read in December, 2003

The Taming of the Shrew, written by William Shakespeare, is characterized by bantering dialogue and switching character identities within a predominantly male society. The “play-within-a-play” structure was written with very few stage directions, allowing variable interpretation with regards to how the actors express their thoughts and feelings. This flexibility can affect how dramatic the play comes across to its audience. Throughout The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio’s character unfold...more

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Paul rated it:

(review of isbn 074347757X)

02/23/08

I'm probably in minority here in that I find Petruchio and Kate a far more interesting couple than Beatrice and Benedick (from Much Ado About Nothing). Maybe I've just fallen in love with Elizabeth Taylor's performance of Kate, but there is so much going on with this woman. I'm going to agree with Bloom and say that Kate fell in love with Petruchio at first sight (and much more reasonably than Romeo and Juliet), but how does one stop playing the shrew, a life-long role, immediately? And how does...more

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The Taming of the Shrew (Dover Thrift Editions)

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