Kent-Drury
English 312 Taming of the Shrew

• Questions for the entire play
1. Many of Shakespeare's comedies have been updated in recent releases for general audiences (e.g., Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream).  If you were a producer director, how would you go about updating Taming of the Shrew for modern audiences?  How would you stage the play? What would you keep from the original?  What would you change?
2. The BBC production of the play is relatively true to the play as it appears on the pages of your book. Did anything surprise you about the production or about the actors' interpretations of their parts?
3. In common practice, women like Katherine could be dunked in water, forced to ride through a town backward on a horse, forced to wear a bit in her mouth.  In folktales, they could be beaten and wrapped in a salted horse hide.  How does Petrucchio's treatment of Katherine compare?
4. Barbara Freedman says that ToS has many farcical elements. She defines farce as a dramatic form that depicts an aggressive action to punish someone for transgressions that are disguised or denied. Freedman also says that people laugh at farce because farce is able to deflect our attention from the cause of the aggression (because the situation seems absurd) and also away from the effect of the aggression (because the situation is surreal). Thus, farce can depict otherwise unacceptable situations in a way that makes them comic. Do you believe this definition fits ToS?  Explain.
• Questions for Acts I and II
1. Look closely at the interchange between Katherine and Petrucchio in Act 2, Scene i, lines 180-272.  Do you notice any clues in the lengths of the lines that suggest how the lines should be read?
2. What are the sources of humor in the first two acts?