The Taming of the Shrew 963conceit, a type of elaborate, striking metaphor paral-
leling two dissimilar things; in this case, Romeo’s
lips become blushing pilgrims approaching a holy
shrine ( Juliet).
Shakespeare further stretches the limits of
Petrarchism when Romeo effectively avoids his
friends in order to rendezvous with Juliet beneath
her balcony. Noticing Juliet, Romeo says, “But soft,
what light through yonder window breaks? / It is
the east, and Juliet is the sun” (2.2.2–3). Juliet, the
sun, illuminates the dark backdrop of night and the
interfamilial rivalry between the Capulets and the
Montagues. She is not the moon, with whom Rosa-
line was associated and which represents the chaste
huntress, Diana. As the lovers converse, Romeo
finds himself in the physical posture of a Petrarchan
lover, standing below the balcony, pining for a dis-
tant love object. Whereas Renaissance women were
conventionally depicted as changeable and incon-
stant (like the moon), Juliet, in this scene, is the
more levelheaded lover, rejecting Romeo’s rash vows:
I have no joy of this contract to-night,
It is too rash, too unadvis’d, too sudden,
Too like the lightening, which doth cease
to be
Ere one can say it lightens. (2.2.117–120)Juliet’s words gloss the love affair as a whole; it
is brief, rushed, and fully realized in the space of
only a few days. Though they never loved except on
the stage, through Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare
has defined the conventions of erotic love in the
West and gone beyond those conventions to show
the effects of unbridled passion in a hostile culture.
Their very names are now synonymous with the
word lovers.
Anthony Perrello
SHakESPEarE, wiLLiam The
Taming of the Shrew (ca. 1623)
William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew,
though enormously popular, has historically pro-
voked criticism for promoting male supremacy in
marriage. Clashing with the play’s lively representa-
tion of female rebellion, Kate’s homily on female
subjugation puzzles audiences. This seeming incon-
gruity reflects two views common in Shakespeare’s
day: that female submission was a serious matter,
“natural” and divinely ordained, while female domi-
nation of the male was preposterously comical.
Sermons and conduct books warned that female
rebellion defied the “right supremacy” of husbands,
which was grounded in scriptural authority, and
popular representations of unruly wives depicted
them as powerful threats to their husbands’ virility
and reputation. Henpecked husbands cowering at
the feet of domineering wives armed with skillets,
however, were the stuff of comedy, and it is such
comedy, rather than the dry pronouncements of
authorities, that pervades Shakespeare’s play. Domi-
neering Kate terrifies her suitors, pillories Horten-
sio with a lute, strikes Petruchio, vows to see him
hanged, and orders him to jog home alone. Attempts
to tame her by withholding food and sleep are
unsuccessful. Though Petruchio maintains public
bravado, his desperation becomes obvious when he
asks the audience for advice. Witnessing his fellows
transformed into henpecked husbands by their here-
tofore submissive spouses, Petruchio doubtless fears
Kate’s earlier concession (that the sun is the moon)
to be a hollow victory. This comic husband needs
serious reassurance, which Kate readily provides. In
a neat combination of the serious and the comic, her
homily on “right supremacy” reassures Petruchio,
while its preposterous length reinforces the comic
theme of female rebellion.
LaRue SloanGender in The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew suggests that gender is
a performance. Determined to trick the beggarly
Sly into believing himself a nobleman, the Lord of
the Induction enlists a page to play Sly’s wife. He
instructs the boy to imitate the way noble ladies per-
form for their lords, speaking “with soft low tongue
and lowly courtesy,” and saying, “What is’t your
honor will command, / Wherein your lady and your
humble wife / May show her duty and make known
her love?” (1.109–116).
In Shakespeare’s day, a soft, low voice, humble
courtesy, obedience to command, and frequent
demonstrations of duty and love were essential for