I thought seeing the film was more helpful to me in understanding the characters and plot. When reading I didn't find the play very funny, but after watching the clip in class I can see this why this play was considered a comedy. The beginning of the play was very confusing to me when I first read it as the play went from sly and the lord to the play within the play. The movie helped me understand what was going on and was very helpful.
This was the first time that I read The Taming of the Shrew and I found it to be quite humorous. One of the funniest scenes in the play in my mind was the opening scene with Christopher Sly. I find it curious that there was no conclusion to his story in The Shrew. Although there was a conclusion in the appendix for A Shrew. I enjoyed the fact that when Sly woke up outside the pub he was not upset about not being a lord, he was more excited to go home and tame his own wife.
I also found it interesting that this was such a universal tale - that transcends cultures. With the Irish people having over one hundred variations of this story about taming a difficult wife. It amazes me more than a dozen cultures have similar stories.
One part of the story that I found strange was when Vincentio arrived in Padua and the deception was exposed - I found it hard to believe that Baptista could handle it so well that he had been fooled in to giving his prized daughter away to liar. I guess he just was happy she married someone rich in the end. Obviously he showed some dedication to their love by the lenghts he was willing to go to get it.
I ended up liking this play more than I thought I would. I actually found the humor in it and liked it even more when I realized that "10 Things I hate about you" originated from it's plot. Although I am not a fan of Petruccio I found his smart ass ways to be entertaining. I think the movie we watched in class last week put the play into perspective more and made it easier to see what the characters true intentions were. When Kate lectured the widow and Bianca towards the end of the play I was shocked; I understood that she was more under Petruccio's command but didn't realize she was completely whipped. It was pathetic because of how serious she was but funny if you compare it to todays standards, because there is no way that a woman of this day and age would ever let that happen; at least I sure hope not.
Sitting at the computer, I was listening to my music set on random. Up comes "Under My Thumb" by the Rolling Stones. I listened to the lyrics and thought, "my goodness, this is The Taming of the Shrew!" Of course, I was not the first to ever have this particular thought.
I didn't have to go further than Wikipedia to read from the Under My Thumb entry:
The song's lyrics, an examination of a sexual power struggle, were very much in tune with the rebellious, vaguely misogynistic attitude that the mid-'60s Stones had cultivated, though the concept of "Under My Thumb" is arguably more sophisticated--even psychological--than any of the other controversial the Stones had released up to that point.
Jagger's lyrics celebrate the satisfaction of finally having controlled and gained leverage over a previously pushy, dominating woman. The lyrics, which savor the successful "taming of the shrew" with glee (comparing the woman in question to a "pet" and a "cat"), definitely provoked negative reactions among some listeners, especially feminists, who objected to the suppressive sexual politics of the male narrator. It can be reasonably argued, however, that the song is a vignette, or simply an examination of sexual malevolence and tension, and that the maliciousness of both the lyrics and Jagger's performance is theatrical and doesn't seriously advocate male domination. Many listeners also note that the woman who is the subject of the song was previously the dominant figure in the relationship, and that the narrator was originally submissive to her, making the implications of the song more complicated than simple chauvinism. Jagger later reflected on the track in a 1995 interview: "It's a bit of a jokey number, really. It's not really an anti-feminist song any more than any of the others.... Yes, it's a caricature, and it's in reply to a girl who was a very pushy woman."
This leads me to wonder, can we view the entirety of the Taming of the Shrew in the same light as, "a bit of a jokey number," or must we be outraged as feminists?