The taming of the shrew

Taming of the Shrew by Augustus Egg

The Taming of the Shrew (original title, The Taming of the Shrew, also translated as The Taming of the Wild or The Taming of Fury), is a comedy by William Shakespeare. It is one of his most popular works, both inside and outside his country, as evidenced, for example, by the fact that it is the fifth work that has been translated into Spanish the most times out of the thirty-seven that are preserved from his author, only preceded by Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear, and ahead of works like A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar or even Othello.

Main characters

• Baptist: Father of Catherine and White. He's a nobleman of Padua with enough money.

• Catalina: Old daughter of Baptist. It's beautiful, very intelligent and very characterful. Feels devotion to annoy others (especially Blanca). It is a character that evolves in an exaggerated way, a change too radical and in a very short time, to be considered a round character. He is a stereotyped character, which has as function to highlight what the author wants to express.

• White: Youngest daughter of Baptist (and favorite). She's gorgeous, sweet and compost. It is intended by Lucencio, Hortensio and Gremio, and is the central character of the secondary action. But love makes her change and turns to her father and love.

• Lucencio: Young from Pisa who goes to Padua to study, when he sees Blanca and falls in love. He'll try to fall in love with her and get it. In order to enter the house, he will pass as a Latin teacher.

• Gremio: Major and secondary character. It has a small fortune. Gives game to secondary action.

• Hortensio: Friend of Petruchio. He is the last suitor of Blanca and this is also passed as a teacher, of music in this case. In the end he ends up marrying a widow.

• Petruchio: It is Catherine's suitor. He comes from Verona, where his father has just died, who has left him a small inheritance and comes to Padua with the intention of earning money. Strong character, intelligent and very gross. According to what they say, he's the school teacher where they're growing up.

• Tranio, Biondelo. Servants of Lucentio. So that he can enter Bautista's house, they change roles: Tranio will become Lucencio and Lucencio, Tranio.

• Vicencio. Father of Lucencio. He is a wealthy man, who loves his son very much.

• Grumio, Curtis. They are Petruchio's servants. They don't show much esteem for his lord but they do everything he tells them to. They also collaborate in the psychological abuse of Catalina.

Synopsis

The work is based on the wayward and moody character of Catalina Minola, a woman who drives away, not infrequently, with blows, all the suitors who are interested in her before her father. The matter would not have much significance if it were not for the fact that, according to custom, Catalina's father, the rich Bautista Minola, refuses to give his youngest daughter, Blanca, in marriage until he has married the eldest, to the grief of the ambitious applicants for his hand, Hortensio, Gremio and Lucencio. The arrival in the city of Petruchio, an ambitious and carefree young man, and his willingness to woo Catalina provide Blanca's suitors with hope, for which they join their efforts with those of the already almost desperate Bautista.

Origin

Much has been written about the origin of the play's plot, although the only thing critics seem to agree on is the fact that the main plot is not original to Shakespeare. The basic plot scheme of the work is repeated, with very small variations, in various texts of oral or written tradition scattered throughout Europe, Asia and even in pre-Columbian America. One of the best known of these texts is the story "What happened to a young man who married a very rebellious girl" number 35 among those included in El conde Lucanor, by Don Juan Manuel. However, between all these stories and Shakespeare's text there are fundamental differences, and not only with regard to their outcome, which lead one to think that, although it is very likely that the Elizabethan playwright knew the plot from that tradition, was not inspired by any text when composing his work.

Review

The next day, the false Lucencio (who is nothing more than the servant Tranio) appears at Bautista's house with a Latin teacher (the real Lucencio) and Petruchio with a music teacher (Hortensio in disguise). The false Lucencio announces his interest in marrying Blanca and Petruchio his for Catalina to the general astonishment.

The meeting between Petruchio and Catalina is a disaster, she is very surly and he reacts with great irony. In the end Petruchio announces his wedding within a week and leaves Padua for personal reasons.

Catalina arrives at her new house exhausted from the trip while Petruchio continues to treat her with a lot of irony. Any excuse is good for not letting Catalina eat or sleep and thus "tame" the character.

When the real Vincencio arrives in Padua accompanied by Petruchio and Catalina, the wick of the confusion and the mess is lit due to so much change of identities and after some difficulties everything is solved when the real Lucentio tells the whole truth of the matter and announces furthermore, that he has secretly married Blanca. Everyone rejoices and goes to the banquet where Lucencio, Hortensio (now married to a widow after abandoning his idea of continuing to court Blanca) and Petruchio bet 100 crowns to see who has the most obedient wife of all. Said bet is won by Petruchio when Catalina's obedience demonstrates that she is no longer the brave that everyone believed.

Cinema

Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford on a 1929 film poster

• The first adaptation, of 1929, was directed by Sam Taylor and had Mary Pickford to represent the female main character.

• Franco Zeffirelli led in 1967 The Taming of the Shrew, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

• The version with Carmen Sevilla in the role of Catalina: The domaid scornof Antonio Román (1956).

• Ten things I hate about you It is a modern and youthful version of 1999, with Julia Stiles in the role of Katarina (Catalina), Heath Ledger in that of Patrick Verona (Petruchio), Larisa Oleunik as Bianca (Blanca) and Joseph Gordon Levit as Cameron (Lucencio).

Some adaptations for television are:

• The carnal and the rose, Brazilian soap opera issued between 2000 and 2001 by Red Globo de Televisión.

• In Chile, the TVN state channel carried out the soap opera The fieratransmitted in the first semester of 1999.

Theater in Spanish

• Teatre Grec, Barcelona, 1957
  • Address: José Luis Alonso Mañés
  • Intérpretes: María Jesús Valdés, José María Mompín, Adela Carbone, Jesús Puente, Fernando Delgado, Alberto Bové, José María Prada, Mari Paz Molinero

• Teatro Español, Madrid, 1975
  • Address: Juan Guerrero Zamora
  • Scenography: Jaime Queralt
  • Intérpretes: Nuria Torray, Carlos Ballesteros, Margarita Calahorra, José María Caffarel, Guillermo Marin, Teófilo Calle, Antonio Medina (actor), Enric Arredondo, José Caride.