English 10 Homework help!?

Question

Give me the definitions or examples of visual comedy, situation comedy, action comedy, verbal humor, physical appearance in the book "The Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare.

Answer 1

The play, Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare’s comedies. It portrays the humorous events regarding the suiting of Kate, a shrew dwelling in the city of Padua. It portrays many ideas about love and marriage that do not quite fit with our current views and what we know about relationships.

It can be argued that the comedy of the play makes it universal, but it contains some themes that will not be received in the same light as they were during Shakespeare’s time. The comedy is still mostly universal. The visual comedy in the play, like Kate falling off of her horse into the mud, is still universally appealing. The comedy of actions is also equally universal. For example, Petruchio’s actions would be just as humorous now as they were in Shakespeare’s day. But, the situations that erupt from his actions are sometimes questionable in whether they are humorous or if they border into off-color disrespect for Kate, or females in general. The majority of the play is universal, but I feel the major themes the play puts forth are a little outdated and lacking of respect.

The major theme is portrayed by the attitude towards marriage shown in Petruchio and Kate’s relationship. First the relationship was started entirely against the wife’s will, and for the fiscal benefit of the husband, with no intent of love involved. This is especially shown when Kate walks onto the roof of her father's house. The first thing that Petruchio does is states his worries about loosing not Kate, but his "20 thousand crowns," that he was promised if he wed Kate. Petruchio used his wife only as a stepping block, and later after "taming" her, used her as a status symbol. His method of "taming" her was suppressive, and locked her into a position she did not willingly want to be in. After she was tamed, she stopped speaking of her feelings and misgivings honestly, and suppressed them. In a relationship, the second most important thing is to be able to openly share and reveal your feelings, which is not what the play of this play shows. In the play, Kate is forced to suppress her feelings just to get food, or to be able to visit her friends and family. Petruchio "tames" Kate by rewarding her for being obedient, and punishing her when she disagrees with him. In psychology, this would be a form of operant conditioning, called shaping, which is the same general way people train dogs. This shaping can be seen in the scene on the road from Petruchio’s dwelling to Padua. He forces her to agree with him that it is the moon, not the sun, or else she would not be able to attend the celebration at her father’s house.

Even though she does agree with Petruchio and obeys his commands at the end of the play, I feel Kate is not really tamed. She is just being obedient so she can get what she wants, and in essence, she is taming him. And he falls into it beautifully when she puts on her facade and seems to change her attitude. After this, he is kind and sweet to her. But, there is no way to tell if her speech at the end of the play (to the other wives) is what she truly believes of if it just an act. Judging on the fact that her previous sudden change was cognitive, not based on emotion, I would think that she decided to give the speech for the same reason – to impress her husband (and his friends), and get what she wants.

I feel that the undertones of the play and the themes presented are outdated, and put forth ideas that are not welcome to be influencing the current generations. Furthermore, the attitude of Petruchio shows blatant disrespect for both Kate and women in general. In my mind, these things overpower the universal appeal of the humor, making the comedy loose its universal appeal.

Answer 2

Read the book... or since you're most likely to do that you can watch the movie.