Clyde Fitch Report: It’s difficult for me to get through The Taming of the Shrew without wincing. One of Shakespeare’s first plays, it tells the story of a difficult, outspoken and often rude woman, Katherina, and her gradual taming under the machinations of her suitor, Petruchio. Over the course of the play she is made obedient by bullying, mockery, captivity and even starvation. It’s a situation very difficult to reconcile with any concept of modern feminism
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Shakespeare’s sexism is something I thought a lot about over the course of being on the deck crew for our production of Much Ado About Nothing. Of course, there is no denying the beauty of Shakespeare’s works, and I don’t think it’s fair to blame him, or any other playwright from that time period, of not being liberally minded or fair to minority groups, because times have changed; sexism has always been so deeply ingrained in our society, and we are only now starting to see more of an equal playing field. Back when Shakespeare was writing, there was no way that any man had any concept of what sexism was/ would be able to recognize it in a concrete enough way to put it into a play. However, I don’t think this gives us any excuse as theater artists to put on Shakespeare’s work without any criticism. I do think that it is harmful to perform Shakespeare without putting some kind of critical/ parody-oriented spin on it’s blatant disregard for women. In Much Ado About Nothing, two women are seen as interchangeable due to their similar appearances, and romance prevails as the “saving” factor for Beatrice. While I think that the choice to set it in 70s Italy and have Beatrice be more of a gutsy, dominating character, there isn’t really any way to fully and truly present Shakespeare in a purely feminist context without rewriting some key points. I always look forward to adaptations of old shows which make efforts to make their messages applicable to the (hopefully open-minded) audience member of today. I am especially excited for the Beyonce- inspired CMU remake of Antony and Cleopatra including commentary from Hooks.
I found this article incredibly interesting, and I have tried to discuss it with several people since reading it. However, most people try to place the blame for the discrimination in his plays anywhere but on the author himself. A really common response was that these were just the attitudes of the time and Shakespeare was trying to appeal to the general public with this plays. However as this article says, “We cannot erase Shakespeare’s problems and injustices. Nor should we. To write them off as a product of another time is simply another way of ignoring them.” It is hard to accept that one of the greatest writers in history may not be the perfect genius we would like to place on a pedestal, but to me glossing over the racism and sexism in many of the Bard’s plays is a way of passively accepting those things as a part of our culture and our cultural history. I have loved Shakespeare’s work since a young age, before I could understand the implications of things like the misogyny of The Taming of the Shrew. Therefore as I grew up I began to realize that I was going to have a very complicated relationship with these works that I loved. That was brought up again for me this fall with the controversy over the portrayal of the character Beatrice in Much Ado. I hope that some day we can find a way to perform these great works while still addressing the issues within them instead of ignoring the fact that they exist.
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