PROLOGUE sc.1
Ah
the frame story/structure where a drunkard is "tricked" by a bar host
and a lord. Seriously that's how this play starts. a lot of people cut
this section because it is awkward to keep consistent since it kind of
disappears most of the play. Plus its like this horrible dark version of
Prince and the Pauper where the Lord doesn't lose any status and the guy
turned to a Lord has it ripped away as a cruel joke later and no one
seems to learn anything except how they should tame their wives. See?
Hate this play. I'm sorry I can't be impartial.
*Can someone look up st. jeronimy?
*ah, let's focus on this line... "What's here? one dead or drunk?
See, doth he breathe"- has anyone noticed that Shakespeare's characters
have a real problem with figuring out if someone is dead or not? I know,
its probably because the whole stage convention and someone playing
dead on stage looks like someone playing asleep onstage but
nonetheless... its funny to read time and again that these people are so
unsure/confusing dead vs. alive so often.
*So players show up and they are going to act Taming of the Shrew
for the people in the frame story, but not without one of the all male
players dressing up as a girl and pretending to be a real lady
interested in the drunkard. There's potentially some interesting looks
at gender construction in this moment but mostly it seems to be your
typical hahahah guy dressed as a girl. that's funny. hahahahah
homosexual potential is so awkward and hysterical ha. ha. freaking ha.
OK, i will give it one genuinely amusing note- the lord says if the guy
playing the woman can't cry on cue he should just sniff an onion. nice.
Prologue sc. 2
Sly (the drunkard) is seen
commanding servants as the scene opens. They area ll treating him like a
Lord and he keeps telling him they are wrong, so then they start acting
like he's a crazy man. The similar trope used in Comedy of Errors works
much better in my opinion, remind me to blog about it when we get to
that play. This is just straight up mean Gaslighting shit. I feel like
if it started from the opposite end- if the drunkard started saying he
was a lord and everyone else decided to play along to avoid his drunken
rage maybe i'd like the frame idea more/find it less cruel. but to make a
man crazy for knowing what he is and not paint those people as the bad
guys- i dont like that. The servants reference all the great lordly
things at Sly's command, including a picture of Io (ah, let's set the
theme early- a woman who is literally turned into chattel in the form of
a cow. argh.)
Due credit: I like this line:
"Or do I dream? Or have I
dream'd till now?" -this whole dream vs. reality is a question
Shakespeare continually addresses, right? we'll come back to this in
later plays. if it seems like i'm not just remind me...
So then they send in Sly's fake wife after they've convinced him
he's a lord, and predictably the first thing he wants to do with his
wife is go to bed with her. but that would make the joke over pretty
fast unless they can convince sly that wives should have male
appendages, so they tell him he needs to wait a day or two because its
such a shock to her he's in his right mind again plus he could put
himself back into madness by exerting so much sexual energy.
another good line:
Frame your mind to mirth and merriment
which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life
If only i liked the merriment they present...
after
some arguing about what kind of play they are going to present, drunky McDrunkerson and his fake wife are going
to see, the frame story fades to the background and the actual play
begins.
Act 1, Scene 1:
OK, much like the frame
story, the actual play begins with relationship between servant and
master before we translate that relationship to the gender parts of the
play. Its very into hierarchy and the consequences of subverting
that hierarchy and the need to reassert that hierarchy at the end
(oops.. spoiler alert...)
The first character we meet is Lucentio, who was sent with his
father's blessing to padua because it is the "nursery of arts"- ok, so
he's come here to study and immerse himself in the arts. Maybe we can
get behind this guy. Tranio, Lucentio's servant, responds to his
intentions with the request that they not be Stoics and still party
amidst all this studying- we'll come back to this thought when we get to
Love's Labour's Lost. Lucentio seems open to Tranio's proposal that he
only study what he finds fun/what he likes, including partying if
that's a subject he enjoys.
The two then meet the residents- Baptista, the father figure in the
story comes in arguing with Gremio and Hortensio. Its interesting that
Gremio is described as a "pantaloon" anyway, here's where we get the
exposition- Baptista has 2 daughters and the younger one can't get
married before the older one. And it seems that everyone wants the
younger one. But Baptista tries to push the older one- Katherina onto
either of the younger one's (Bianca's) suitors. Did i mention that both
of his daughers are standing right there through this whole exchange?
way to go dad. Kate says some saucy things, often passive agressive, but
read the scene and think if she deserves this-
Katherine in this first scene is called: rough, devil, wench, stark mad, froward, fiend of hell, devil's dam, hell
Bianca meanwhile is complimented for her silence
More
exposition: Baptista says he is looking for a music teacher for Bianca-
well, maybe for both of them b/c he says children, but he speaks
specifically of Bianca. and Gremio and Hortensio decide it is in both of
their interests to find a crazy man to marry Kate so they can fight it
out for Bianca.
OK, back to the strange status stuff: Lucio asks Tranio for help
getting Bianca (how very roman comedy of him) and speaks in latin. the
clever servant archetype times. they come up with this idea that Tranio
will act as Lucio and pretend to be master to Lucio who is going to
pretend to tutor Bianca so he can woo her. Biondello enters and wonders
why the men have switched clothes, so Lucio tells him its to save his
life since he killed a man since arriving--- suuuuuure.
The scene ends with going back to the frame story
for four lines where we find Sly not paying attention to the play and
wishing it were over. I wish it was over too, Sly...
1.2
oh goody. now we get to meet Petruchio and his servant Grumio. It
seems to me from their first exchange that Grumio is either belligerent
or stupid or both. And can we talk about how intentionally confusing it
is that in this play there's a Grumio and a Gremio?! there's lots of
master/servant violence. which i dont find funny. A small note that I
didnt notice before, Petruchio tells his friend Hortensio that one of
the reasons he's in Padua is that his father passed away. Also, can we
just make it a rule that apparently, according to Shakespeare's
examples, a girl should not get involved with a guy from Verona?!
they don't have great track records... Hortensio thinks maybe Petruchio
should marry Kate, since he's looking for a wife, but warns petruchio of
Kate's disposition. Petruchio doesn't care. He just wants to marry
someone rich. Now I ain't sayin he a GOLDDIGGER...
I have decided i really hate the character Grumio.
OK, I
do think that now is a good time to address a common misconception about
Petruchio that irks me. I have seen some productions where Petruchio is
a crazy hick/country bumpkin and I think that is completely incorrect.
He's from Verona. He speaks as a very smart well-educated man. And THAT
to me makes him far more terrifying than a country ignoramus who does
mean things to women because he's so out there and crazy. You would hope
well educated men would know better.
Also, i am already annoyed by the foreign language bits in here.
again, i really just hate this play... can I just re-watch 10 things I
Hate About You instead of re-reading any more?!Brain flash, going to post from that movie. Which I dont own the rights to and should any legalese person try to come after me for all the movies i've posted on my blog please just go after whoever posted it on youtube instead.
More tomorrow...
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