The Taming of the Shrew Sonnet

For this first unit of our Humanities class, Drama, we learned about plays, and the majority of our class was spent reading a Shakespearean play, specifically The Taming of the Shrew. It had some interesting views on gender roles throughout the play. This is especially true, given the time period it was written in, where women didn't have much power and were supposed to always be subservient to men. Women who defied those expectations were punished, usually until they changed their ways and became subservient. This play is a pretty accurate depiction of life during this time period, and Shakespeare was trying to make a statement that gender roles should be changed, to give the women more power in society. Kate and Petruchio's relationship is an example of what needed to change.

Below is my Action Project, a Shakespearean sonnet that I wrote and recorded myself reading.

Video:

WH, Sonnet Video, 2019

Transcript of the sonnet:

Good sir, you act as if thou art a king,
With many subjects at your beck and call
Why must you see Kate as a merely a thing?
You treat her, good sir, as nothing at all.

“She is my goods, my chattels; my house,
My household stuff, my ox, my field, my barn”
Is that how you treat and see your fair spouse?
Thou untangled her, as a ball of yarn.

But thou, Petrucio, aren’t much better
You are a foul knave, with a tainted view
Thy wasp shall be true, if you will let her,
Dark, storm-ridden, sad days will be but few.

Thus, I entreat thee, change your wicked ways
And it’ll bring light, like the sun’s rays.


In conclusion, I thought that this project was challenging, but engaging to participate in. It was interesting to write a sonnet to a character from the play about their views on gender roles, although I'm not that good at poetry myself.

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