Shakespeare Essay - Taming of the Shrew.
Shakespeare's work is still compelling for today's audiences because he was arguably the greatest playwright ever due to the many strengths in his work.
The strengths in his plays allow a variety of different people to enjoy it; some people see it as it is, like seeing "The Taming of the Shrew" as a simple comedic play or for others looking deeply into the play and attempting to analyze it scruptuously like seeing "The Taming of the Shrew" as a very sexist and derogatory play about a spirited woman being "tamed" into submission.
"The Taming of the Shrew" has many strengths that make it compelling for today's audiences and the audiences of Shakespeare's day, it contains scenes which can seem very real when applied to today's families and situations like the intense sibling rivalry between Katerina and Bianca over their principles - Kate believing a woman should have freedom of choice in life and Bianca believing in a woman's place in the world. Also we can see the humor in the constant bickering between Kate and Petruchio when they first meet, the humor in this is the wittiness of the verbal sparring that Shakespeare has created. Elements of the marriage between Petruchio and Kate can be related to today's audiences, marrying for money - the dowry as well as Baptista (Kate's father) wanting the man with the most money to marry her, which to some extent occurs today.
The "sexist" theme of "The Taming of the Shrew" has been criticized, but an argument is that it is there purely for humor, which is how the common people (who the play was made for) view it.
Another compelling strength is the amount of deceit that goes on in his plays, the disguise and forgery of characters was enjoyed by the commoners in Shakespeare's day and is still enjoyed by today's audiences; such devious actions in the play include Lucentio and Tranio swapping places so that Lucentio can become Bianca's tutor in the hope of wooing her, while Hortnesio becomes her music tutor with the same intention as Lucentio.
