5Shakespeare+context

Taming of the Shrew - Contexts

﻿As always, to really understand a Shakespeare play we need to know about the historical context of his plays. A very good way to do this without reading a lot is to study this picture. It is called //The Ambassadors//. It was painted by Hans Holbein, the younger, in 1533 (just before Shakespeare started writing his plays). The picture that I have uploaded (below) is not the greatest because I have enlarged it so much that it has pixilated. To see it better google it and look at it closely. it shows a number of things.
 * 1) Shakespeare's England was a man's world. Yes, there was a female monarch (ruler or queen) but the men under her and everywhere else ran the show. In //Taming of the Shrew// we see men trying to control and dominate women. The role of women was to serve men. In Act 3, Scene 2, Petruchio uses a number of metaphors that suggest that for men women were just a form of goods that they owned: 'I will be master of what is mine own./She is my goods, ... she is my house,/my household-stuff, my field, my barn,/my horse, my ox, my ass [donkey], my anything.'
 * 2) Shakespeare's England was dominated by the pursuit of wealth. Petruchio comes to Padua to make money as well as gain a wife ('to wive and thrive'). In Act 2, Scene 1, Petruchio and Baptista, in a sense, sell Katherina. Petruchio is to get 20, 000 crowns immediately and if Petruchio dies (which is highly likely given who he is marrying) Baptista stands to make a lot of money. Moreover, to marry well you needed wealth, as Baptista suggests in Act2, Scene1, 330-335: 'he of both/That can assure my daughter greatest dower [money and land]/Shall have my Bianca's love. Then Gremio and Tranio (disquised as Lucentio) try to impress Baptista with how much wealth and goods they have.
 * 3) In Shakespeare's England there was a popular saying, 'carpe diem' (seize the day). That is, do it now, don't wait, don't let anything stop you. There was another popular saying 'Momento Mori' (remember, you must die). That is, don't do it, don't try to be wealthy, go to church and do what the church tells you to do. If you don't do this you will die and go to hell. You can see in the painting that both men have seized the day and accumulated wealth and objects. They have really gone for it. You can also see in the picture a reminder that they will die. The thing in the forground or bottom middle of the picture is a shimmering skull (death). Neither man can escape it. They cannot go back (the green curtain looks like a hard wall) and they cannot go side ways (they look like they are hemmed in at the sides). Both men can only go forwards to the skull. Moreover, all the objects that they have accumulated and thought were so important just sit on the table like scattered and thrown away, useless junk. If you look in the eyes of both men they are dead. There is nothing in there. In //Taming of the Shrew// we see people seizing the day however they can. We also see no-one really considering whether what they are doing is right or wrong. It is all live for today, make money now.
 * 4) Lastly, if you look in the top left hand corner on a better picture you will see a crucifix (Jesus on the cross). Even though both men have tried to ignore and hide the Church (symbolised by the crucifix) they could not get rid of Christianity altogether. In the play, we largely see people concerned with money rather than the Church but the Church is still there because both women have to get married. Nevertheless, Petruchio, via his wedding, shows what is more important; money and the pursuit of wealth and goods. Petruchio makes fun of the religious ceremony.
 * [[image:Contexts_clip_image002_0003.jpg width="704" height="629" caption="The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein"]] ||