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Staring Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton

You know, I remember watching this a long time ago (or at least it seems like a long time ago). I know I was a teenager, and I was interested in Shakespeare’s plays. So, I compiled a list of movies based on his plays and watched many of them. And I can honestly say that this movie was one that I… really didn’t get.

I remember thinking that Katharina had just cause in being ‘shrewish’. I remember taking her side in the entire movie. I remember not liking Petruchio at all and I despised Baptista (Katharina’s father) even more. I remember feeling sorry for ‘Kate’ most of the way through, and at the end of the film, I couldn’t understand how anyone thought the film ended well. Of course, I was a teenage girl, and I really didn’t know much about the world, the context of the story, or characters that had multiple sides. I was used to villains, which had only one dimension. The nefarious knave who only wanted one thing… to be bad, and to defeat the good guy. At that age, I chalked it up to a silly story and moved on with my life.

I am so glad that I got the chance to watch it again. Now, as an adult (but still a baby to most :3), I can see things, understand things better. I now know that marriage during that time wasn't always about love, or ideal matches. I also know that in that day and age, a woman was her husbands property. If she was lucky, he was considerate of her. If not… then not so. Ever since I re-watched this (several times) I’ve been thinking about the backstory of it. What led up to it. And what Shakespeare may have been thinking when he wrote it.

Katharina, our untamed shrew, is so well played by Elizabeth Taylor… I can’t help but wonder if it’s just because she was such a good actress, or if some people are simple born to play certain roles. We first see Katharina as a raging maid in her father’s house. She’s down-right violent to anyone, including her younger sister who’s only offense is to actually gain the interest of the local men. I could very easily see Katharina’s tittle as ‘shrew’ earned simply and seeming without consequence. She seems a very smart girl. Her will is strong, and her tongue is sharp. Perhaps she realized that most men wanted to woo women and for women to be biddable. Perhaps, some unlucky fellow tried to woo her with weak poetry or simpering declarations of love. And perhaps this appeal was met with clear disdain. Perhaps this fellow said to his buddies, “That Katharina. Such a shrew!”, and that was all it took. And hearing her name associated with the term, perhaps Katharina expressed her hatred for the whole system by showing everyone just how much of a shrew she could be. She rages at her sister and her father, who both abide by the system she hates. They see no problem with the system, only with her. She loathes her father for favoring her sister. Still, Bianca may be the more clever between them. She is not a simple girl, and surely she knows that being fair and amiable is the best way to secure suitors…. something Katharina will not condescend to. Still, the girls’ father, Baptista, will not allow Bianca to wed until Katharina is wed first. Thus, the biggest dilemma to all. Katharina has no suitors because she is a shrew. She refuses to change herself to fit the system. Her father refuses to deter from tradition (oldest married first then the younger). Bianca cannot marry. Bianca’s suitors cannot even petition for her hand. A stalemate from all directions, and there’s nothing to do.

Enter Petruchio.

Petruchio is an exaggerated example of masculinity (at the time, that is). He drinks too much. He’s too brash. He’s too violent. He has no interest in women except for securing wealth. It’s obvious from the scenes of his home later in the movie that he doesn’t clean or manage his home very well at all. One might say that the only thing making Petruchio different from Katharina is that he is male, and therefore there are allowances made for his behavior. He is often seen as cruel and unyielding as well… I remember, when I was much younger, thinking he was bipolar. But there is method in his madness. Petruchio may be many things, be he’s obviously a dominant male. He believes that the man is the head of the house, and that the woman belongs to her husband. In that time, it was absolutely true. And while I still hold that the man is the head of the house, any man referring to his woman has his chattel is in for one hell of a knock-down drag-out tussle. He uses cruel kindnesses to “break” Katharina. He shows her how cruel and contrary he can be towards her as a reaction to her contrary behavior. When she disagrees with him, he lashes out. The first real test comes when he calls for tailors to make clothes for Katharina. They show her a cap, but Petruchio says that it isn’t fitting. Katharina is cross, saying that she wants the cap. He says he doesn’t want her to wear it and it’d please him if she wouldn’t. She refuses this, and he destroys it. Then he lashes out at everything in the room, tearing all the clothes up, claiming it doesn’t suit his wife. He claims that he does these things because the things the tailor is offering her isn’t good enough for her. But really, it’s punishment for her attitude. Unbeknonst to Katharina, he tells the tailor to make dresses for her anyway.

At last, the war between these two is made peace in the final act of the movie. In the night Petruchio goes to Katharina and tells her that they’re going to her father’s house, to the wedding of her sister, in finery. When she asks the time, he says it’s 7 in the morning. She says it’s 2 at most. He then says “It shall be 7 or I will not ride!” Then he reveals the crucial clue, letting Katharina see how she can live as the mistress of her home in peace - “Look, what I speak or do or think to do, you are still crossing of it.” And then Katharina sees that what he wants is for her to be agreeable to him. To him and to what he wants. And, maybe it’s not what she wants… but it is the world she lives in. And in order to live her life happily, she has to adapt to that. Before he can storm off in a huff, Katharina - quite demurely I might add - says “tis seven.” relenting to the rule of her husband. There are many parts after this in which Petruchio tests Katharina, and she passes each one of them well. In the part which he says that the sun is the moon, she agrees that it is the moon. He then calls her on it, saying it’s ‘the blessed sun’. She replies with, “Then, God be bless’d. 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 Katharine.”

In the end, Petruchio and Katharine may never have the most smooth marriage, but there is room for peace and contentment between them. It is perhaps a much better match that Bianca’s secret elopement and eventual wedding to Lucentio, the fellow we see at the opening of the film who disguises himself as a professor. It’s doubly better than the marriage between Hortensio and the ‘lusty widow’. Because, for all his faults, Petruchio is never cruel to his ‘Kate’ just for the sake of being cruel. There are other themes and plots through the movie, but honestly they are so simple that I tend to pass them over for the twisted knots that Petruchio and Katharine weave. I can imagine that this couple do go on to some form of happiness. And perhaps the others do as well. In the end, Katharina makes her Petruchio happy with her, in front of God and everyone. Which is more than can be said for the other two couples. And I suppose that could be taken as a happy ending (you take what you can get).

I had to wonder, when I was watching this, if Shakespeare was not very aware of the harshness women faced in a man’s world… and if perhaps his plays reflected the plight of women on purpose. Women who were trapped within worlds of their own, but utterly dependent on men… Men who, many times, make mockeries and wagers of their own wives. Shakespeare’s women seem dynamic in their making, and this makes me wonder if perhaps he were in some secret confidence with many women. Either that, or he was very attentive to the women he did know.

For all these things, I enjoy this movie very very much. If only to see Elizabeth Taylor portraying such a vivid character arch for Katharina. She does it brilliantly and beautifully, much the way she lived her life. Perhaps it’s better to see it in this way: Petruchio didn’t shackle Katharina into a life she didn’t want… he showed her how small her world had been, and made it bigger. He showed her that she didn’t have to be the shrewish maid in her fathers house, and that she could - with some effort - adapt and become the mistress of her own house. If such a change can end in such an agreeable way, perhaps the story ends on a more hopeful note than even I had imagined.