The Changing Meaning of The Taming of The Shrew Essay -- Shakespeare T

The Changing Meaning of The Taming of The termagant Through the ages, it is common for words to change in meaning. As the valet around us changes, words often take on sore meanings to accommodate the changes in lifestyle and society caused by progress. Thus, it is easy to extend confused when reading literature that was written several centuries before, since the very identical words may hold varying meaning. In The Taming of the cod, D.E. Underdown offers background training which makes Shakespeares The Taming of The shrewmouse much more understandable in terms of the divisive ideas on women in society in different time periods. The Taming of the Shrew has a much different effect on contemporary readers than it may have had on 16th century readers, since the world has changed and society is immensely metamorphosed. When Shakespeare wrote The Taming of the Shrew, it was widely know that women should be subservient to their husbands. Today, however, in America this smell seems ludicrous. After the feminist movement, the fight for equality, women have gained much more autonomy and respect than they at a time had. With the increased liberty, it is difficult to seriously consider how women were once treated as possessions. Because of the incongruity in views of the two eras, pieces like Underdowns The Taming of the Scold are crucial to a modern understanding of literature that deals with obsolete social norms, chiefly since it puts the literature into the context of use of its creators social mentality. Through Underdowns piece, I was able to achieve a much better understanding of the significance of Petruccios taming of Kate in the examples which explain the common practices and occurrences of the age. Kate experienced a chariv... ...low the direction of their leadership or rulers. Through explaining the relationship between the family and society, Underdown divulges the intent with which Shakespeare wrote the play. In Kates surrendering to Petr uccio, Shakespeare maintains familial and social order. Since words and the meaning or ideas behind them change everyplace time, it is important to be able to put the literature into social context in order to derive from it its full meaning. Underdown addresses many issues in The Taming of a Scold which are relevant to Kate and Petruccios behavior that are not known or understood today. Pieces like Underdowns serve as a link up between two eras - the star in which the story was read and the one in which it was written. With the assistance of such pieces, it is possible for one to gather a much better understanding of the writers meaning in the story.