Prompt: Choose a
character from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay
in which you (a) briefly describe the standards of the fictional society in
which the character exists and (b) show how the character is affected by and
responds to those standards. In your essay do not merely summarize the plot.
In Shakespeare’s time, women were raised to be
wives. They essentially had no power, were
viewed as home makers and child bearers, and were completely controlled by
their husbands. On top of this, these “women”
were often times still girls, being married off as early as fourteen. In this society where women were at the mercy
of men, Katherina of William Shakespeare’s The
Taming of the Shrew, did not fit in.
Shakepeare's character, Katherina, is not your average woman in this time period. She is headstrong and not afraid for a moment to give her opinion to a man. Katherina's younger sister, Bianca, on the other hand is absolutely perfect. Bianca is young, beautiful, kind, and has captured the heart of more than one man in Taming of the Shrew. Because Katherina knows she is not the woman Bianca is, the type of woman she needs to be to get a husband, she rebels from her society.
To deal with societies rejection of the "spinster", Katherina responds by acting like the most unattractive woman. She gives off the attitude that she does not want or need a husband so to defy society's standard of what a woman ought to be. Since she is so dreadful, a man must be paid to "tame" her to become the willing wife that was so desirable. In the end, Katherina is tamed against her strong efforts against it, and becomes a wife. She fought to maintain her freedom by becoming a so-called "shrew", to say to her own society that she is able to be an independent woman without a husband telling her what to do.
Your peer reviewers last time commented that you needed more examples to back up your claims; I was interested to see how you would deal with that this time. I don't really see a lot of examples here--I see more general assertions than specific pieces of evidence that demonstrate that your assertions about Katherina are correct.
ReplyDeleteI really like how your introductory paragraph sets the context of discussion and gives the thesis as the last sentence. This makes it easier for the reader to get into what you're going to say.
ReplyDeleteStill, you need to include some specific examples explaining what specifically Katherina does to "act like the most unattractive woman." Maybe it would be good to use some quotes from Katherina's dialogue in the play.
I think you have a good understanding of what the work is about, however as mentioned I think you need to have examples that back up what you are trying to say. Your response could easily be a lot better if you had examples from the play that would give the reader some context as to what you are talking about. I think if you do this next time, you will have an excellent prompt response.
ReplyDeleteA good pick for this topic, and it was really easy to understand having not read the play (which I sometimes find difficult to do in peer review blogs), so it provided a nice explanation. I agree with the previous reviewers, so overall really good, just a little more.."meat" to it.
ReplyDelete