In both Shakespeares, Taming of the Shrew, and Wolfes, A Room of Ones own, the writers illustrate the deviously suffocating repercussions of sexism on liberty and the human spirit. Judith and Katherine are both intelligent and free-spirited characters with the brightest of futures, yet society and its rules perniciously choke their existence from them. The slow destruction of each woman is made more tragic by the promise and potential stolen from them and the world.
An example of Judiths untapped intelligence is in Wolfes description of her ability to read, write, and think for herself despite the restrictions placed on her by her family, She had no chance of learning grammar and logic, let alone of reading Horace and Virgil (Wolfe 1021). Katherines self-confidence and pride are seen in her world-wise response to Petruchios advances in Act II, Too light for such a swain to catch, And yet heavy as my weight should be (2.1 .204-205). Moreover, her true nature, that of a caring and loving person not a mean and spiteful shrew, is displayed in the first thirty lines of Act II when Katherine in genuinely concerned about her sisters predicament and the hurt she suffers when her flippant sister merely taunts while metaphorically and literally hiding behind their father. As both authors continue to develop their characters, they begin to describe the shackles that their families and society place on them and their eventual downfall.
Baptista and Judiths fathers similarly believe they have their daughters best interests at heart, when they chastise and scold them for not being docile and loving daughters that should want nothing more from life than to please their fathers and witlessly obey their husbands as shown in, Then he ceased to scold her. He begged her not to hurt him, not to shame him in this matter of her marriage (Wolfe 1021). The irony that a man feels that he is the injured and betrayed one, when his child refuses to submit to what amounts to indentured service should not be lost in quotes like the following from Katherines father, Was ever gentleman thus grieved as I (2.1.38)? While there are countless examples of Katherines spirit, like Grenio comparing her to a devil on several occasions, the insidious lengths that are taken to pacify her again make it abundantly clear that her actions are merely a response to society and not personality faults.
Throughout the third and fourth acts Katherine is systematically reduced to nothing more than a robot by Petruchio. After her father already attacked his daughters pride and sense of worth by using her as a bargaining chip and marrying her off to the first person to show any interest whatsoever in her, Petruchio assails her remaining spirit and eventually even her sanity. With actions that can only be described as tortuous, Katherines will to defy ebbs when she is denied food, sleep, and interaction with anyone outside of her home. The culmination of Petruchios scheme takes place in act IV when a bereft Katherine actually concedes that it is night when it is obvious to her that it is day in the following, Then God be blessed, it is the blessed sun. But sun it is not when you say it is not, And the moon changes even as your mind. What you will have it named, even that it is, And so it shall be so for Katherine (4.5.18-22).
Judiths spirit and will are broken less directly by society as she is denied any avenue to pursue an acting career, or for that matter anything else than a life as unwilling wife to an actor -manager. The main difference between Shakespeares lady and the fictional Judith is that in the end, Wolfe empowers her character to seize control over her life in the only way left to her, suicide.
Regardless of their ultimate fates, it is apparent that Judith and Katherines disobedience and disruptive behavior is a direct, and truly the only reasonable, response to the forces that society levies upon them. When faced with the abhorrent reality that none of their potential or wishes would ever be realized or even considered, the two women fought back with every ounce of spirit in them. The result of their struggle left one dead mentally and the other physically. If there is any higher price to pay for personal liberty or proof of character needed, I dont know where to find it.
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