Looking to go ad free? Then why not try out Curiosity Stream & Nebula? For just $14.79 A YEAR you can get ad free access to our content 24 hour early! Just go to curiositystream.com/extracredits to sign up and get started!
Fun fact - a few years ago, the Royal Shakespeare Company put on a version where all the roles were genderswapped. Not just men playing women or vice versa, but showing an exact version except in a matriarchal society where Catherina was a man and Petruchio a woman, but otherwise played straight. It really helped to sell how uncomfortable it was.
Something we need to take into consideration is that "Comedy" and "Tragedy" have drastically different definitions/connotations back then compared to now. Comedy = Disorder -> Order (often ending in marriage) while Tragedy = Order -> Disorder. A Comedy of Errors begins with characters scattered and ends with everyone married to who they wanted. Hamlet is a tragedy, the queen has been recently remarried and by the end everyone is dead. Shakespeare liked to play around with these mechanics by including plays by adding additional steps or having plays become tragedies or comedies based on the perspective of individual characters. Much Ado About Nothing could be seen as Order -> Disorder -> Order (Marriage -> Death -> Marriage) while Romeo and Juliet is the opposite with Disorder -> Order -> Disorder (Death -> Marriage -> Death). In The Merchant of Venice, the story is a Comedy for the Christian characters (Bassanio/Portia/Antonio) while it can be seen as a tragedy from the perspective of Shylock, the primary Jewish character.
I’m still kinda on Red from OSP’s side with this one. It does feel more like a classic case of brainwashing, even if it is meant to be a comedic, satirical mirror to society at the time. It just doesn’t quite sit right with me… (maybe my mom was trying to shield me from my dad’s anger a lot, and that could tie into it…)
Me when I see the uncritical use of tvtropes which promotes being media illiterate so that you can use their method of story telling create the most boring and worst art ever known to man
Bonanza does a pretty solid adaptation of this. Major change is, the man is prepping the woman for her betrothed, and in the end it turns out the husband, being a Spaniard, was HOPING for a loud, willful woman.
I had this argument about Heart of Darkness with someone once. They were saying that Heart of Darkness has no value to modern readers because it's racist. My argument is that it has value because Heart of Darkness was very progressive for its time. The value in Heart of Darkness is the lesson of how politics and opinions shift over time and how what is progressive today will be considered backwards in the future. In short, time makes fools of us all. The book's value to the modern reader has changed from what value it had in its own time, but that doesn't mean it's lost value.
@@cheezemonkeyeater yes I was just agreeing with you. I hate how fanatical these moralist types get with literature from the past. Trying to ban every piece of work that doesn't hold up to modern sensibilities. Its disgusting and childish.
There's an argument I like that says this play was meant to be a satiric reflection on the "ideals" of society during Shakespeare's days and of how actually far from reality those ideals tend to be. Idk if that was part of the actually point of the play, but I thought the argument fit pretty well regardless. I mean, you have Bianca, who represents the general view of an ideal maiden, but isn't. Katharine is the general depiction of a shrew but is also the only one with a sane head and her turning is more jarring. Petruchio, a man who plays more as the comic relief or fool, all bound in squalor and an inability to control himself as anything near a proper "gentleman," despite being the main love interest and de facto "hero" of the story. Bianca's suitors, who are "upright" gentlemen in the eyes of society, but don't amount to much more than Petruchio at their core,... I can go on.
I cant believe how everyone neglects to mention how this play is being put on for a drunk fool in order to prank him. So therefore this representation of "courtship" is just a farce. For laughs at the expense of the drunk fool in the prologue. It's so clearly satire and all these youtube channels take the bait and start railing against how sexist it is. So dumb
In 1997, the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada put on this play. After the final scene, where Petruchio has won his bet, they showed Katherina and Petruchio laying in bed, surrounded by cash, tossing it into the air in celebration. That reworked the previous scene from a demonstration of Petruchio's power over his wife into one where the two worked together to lighten the pockets of the real chauvinists. Absolutely magnificent, I saw it twice.
@@professorbutters That's really cool! What do you know about the history of that staging? I'd love to know when it was first done and who came up with the idea!
@@professorbutters thanks for looking! I do remember, now, my Shakespeare prof talking about it when we studied the play. It was cool to see it staged only a few years after that. Only time I've gone back to see a play twice!
The 1980s romantic comedy series "Moonlighting" did a version of "The Taming of the Shrew" updated for modern times. Near the end Katherina (Cybill Shepherd) refuses to call the sun the moon. Petruchio, (Bruce Willis) who has genuinely fallen in love with Katherina and no longer wants to break her spirit or win the wager, tells all gathered that if his wife says the sun is in the sky, then it is not because she's a shrew, but because she has wisdom.
I'm not of the view that Shakespeare is the bestest ever, but a comedy can definitely have characters do stuff that's not great, either that's the joke, or they're the joke.
This has always been my favorite work of ol Will. I don't find it problematic at all. It's a satire masking as a real lecture masking as a satire. It doesn't absolutely lecture, but it doesn't hide anything either. It asks questions and offers ideas without declaring what is absolute.
Some years back, I heard an Irish folk tale from the same tradition (possibly descended directly from Taming of the Shrew; possibly just from the same sources), where, rather than being entirely one-sided, the "taming" results in what amounts to a private code/in-joke for the couple - a way of saying "no, really, do this" rather than the wife being entirely submissive to the husband.
@@Cyssane I heard it from a storyteller, and such are not in the habit of announcing titles for their tales. I'd heard "Iron Hans" dozens of times before I discovered its name when I stumbled across it in the Brothers Grimm. I couldn't even swear that the tale was Irish, beyond its having hung around with an Irish teller for long enough.
This sounds somewhat similar to my high school English classes' general conclusion about what's going on in Taming when we read it. We generally felt that the "torturing his wife into submission" interpretation seemed overly simplistic, and that Petruchio's actions were more symbolic and over-the-top acting than literal. Similarly, we felt like Catherine's "lecture" to the other wives at the end was so over-the-top that it had to be more silly than serious, sort of a wink that they're playing their roles in public. Though admittedly, it's entirely possible an Elizabethan audience might not have seen it that way.
I saw this at the Globe Theatre in London ten years ago, and it was great! What made it stand out was a little bit of business the first time we see Kate and Bianca. Instead of the usual staging of Kate abusing poor, helpless Bianca, here they had Bianca being just as vicious, if not more so, to Kate. However, she is fortunate enough to be standing where she saw their father approaching first and immediately turned on the waterworks and went crying to Daddy that she was being victimized. Kate feels betrayed that their father automatically takes Bianca’s side, and the audience was immediately on Kate’s side-as soon as Bianca turned on a dime, the entire crowd went, “Ooooooooo!”
I like that. My theory is that Papa Baptista always played favourites with his daughters, ignoring or scolding Katherine, making her miserable and resentful, while he acted as if Bianca could do no wrong, and spoiled her rotten. So Bianca grew up to look demure and easy to get along with, sure, because when you always get your way, you got nothing to cry about. Until she gets the opportunity to stick it to Katherine every time there's a quarrel.
Honestly, Taming of the Shrew is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, problematic nature of it and all. I love it because it is problematic and it is interesting seeing the warped nature of the past. Also, the comedy is glorious.
From the perspective of a director, I think the fundamental problem with staging Taming is the same problem that Much Ado About Nothing has where the famous parts of the play aren't actually the point of focus. Structurally, the stuff with Katherine and Petruchio is the B story to a convoluted marriage and mistaken identity plot where everyone has identical sounding Italian names. So, the things that make the play infamous, cataloged here, the things that are worth contending with creatively, are surrounded by bullcrap. And that's something that you need to contend with in adaptation, because do you try to make the mistaken identity plot interesting, or do you yadda yadda the intended structure? Obviously there are other answers, but that's the thing that's made me allergic to it. I don't want to have to deal with Lucentio, I'm gonna go stage A Doll's House.
Exactly why I was disappointed in this episode. He spent so much time apologizing for the material he did a terrible job of actually explaining the plot(s) of the play.
Also, Taming is, like, Shakespeare's second play. It's an outlier in the politics of his cannon because it was written at the begining of a career, before the man had matured, and the play was likely a collaboration. This isn't to go at-bat for the play, but I do suggest reading it as earnest rather than satirical is not actually at odds with the rest of the cannon, and instead suggests the evolution of an artist who grew and learned and found new interests over a twenty year writing career.
As a headstrong woman, I have to say I have always loved this play. I think with anything that is written we often bring ourselves to it and read it through our own lens of understanding. This has been one of my favorite place since I was a kid I had the whole thing memorized when I was in grade 12. Lol
@@flinx I love the wit, the retorts the fancy and funny insults. The language throughout was of course fantastic. I see it as it was placed in its time. Not so much from ours. And I see Katherine not just as a headstrong woman but also a bully. My grade 11 teacher said (of Macbeth at the time) that reading Shakespeare is like watching the score board of a basketball game. You get the point, but you miss so much of the experience. So in my vivid imagination I would play it out not as a woman being beaten into submission but equally horrid people continuing the battler for supremacy. But ultimately I love the insults and battle of wits.
My partner directed a production of Taming just before the pandemic in Brooklyn. She racked her head what to do for the ending so that Katherina wins in the end, without actually changing the text. Her idea that after everyone exists the party and the dialogue has ended, she takes out a knife and exists with a smile.
My first introduction to this was through my ex, not school. And, it was a movie where Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were playing the lead roles.
We did the Taming of the Shrew in 6th grade for the entire school, including the kindergarteners, and before I stopped most of my acting it was the first (and last) time I was ever one of the main characters - yeah, I was Petruchio. Wild stuff. Flipped trays and the whole deal.
Katherine has totally played Petruchio at the end. Who doesn't get that? She's not the one who's tamed; she's tamed him. She is ultimately in charge by "allowing" him to think he's in charge.
Yes, that’s an interesting one. He doesn’t try to be “funny” at all. Katherine is portrayed as something like an unhappy child (and no wonder, considering her father’s blatant favoritism), and trapped in behaviors that just don’t work and don’t make her happy. Part of the “taming” gives her a chance to reset everything, like going to school or a camp where they don’t know you.
We just had or rather have a discussion about the work of Karl-May in Germany. A publisher was going to publish some books to accompany a new kids version of Winnetou. But canceled it because of social media backlash. Now that predictably caused backlash from the other side. A suggestion for you: From the New World (Japanese: 新世界より, Hepburn: Shin Sekai Yori) by Yusuke Kishi. It's a fun little story about growing up and discovering some unsettling truths about your utopian society.
Eh depends on the depiction, alot of smooth brians out there base their life on what they personally see and not trying to look at it from a broader perspective
Thank you for not taking the bait and just start railing against this play as sexist like all the other youtube channels. As you clearly pointed out it's a satirical representation of courtship played up for laughs.
you know what might make a good episode for October is a “so you haven’t read…” about Sleepy Hollow! (I mean, there could be plenty of other horror-themed books they could do it on, but, to me anyway, that story will always be the quintessential Halloween story!)
@@MovieFan1912 that’s good too. Just thought I’d put out my own suggestion for what book they could talk about during the most haunted month of the year!
Which is something people say when they want to get women submissive to their needs - "Don't worry ladies, I'll protect you from the scary people who want to take us back into the past."
One staging of this play that I've seen changed the ending to after Kate's lengthy monologue at the end, it is revealed that she has slit her wrists and everyone looks on in horror as Petruchio screams for her. I think it can be supposed that Kate did the only thing she could to escape her servitude to Petruchio and this way, she took back the power she had in the beginning. This is much more tragic, of course, but to be honest, I much preferred it to the original as it fits into and plays with the sensibilities of our time more appropriately.
My favorite take on the tale is the "Atomic Shakespeare" episode of Moonlighting from season 3 (1986) -- which looks to be available here on YT (I'll leave finding it as an exercise for the viewer.) Well worth a watch! Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis at their prime!
I remember playing Petruchio in my eighth grade year in my school's middle school rendition of The Taming of the Shrew. It was pretty awesome, even though I originally signed up for stage crew.
A few years ago the Shakespeare festival in Vancouver Canada put on this play, but they modified the ending so she basically revolts against him, it was quite a nice change and they pulled it of very well
You can order anything from the 5 minute skit menue with your coffee, larger performances are weekly and rotating out on a 3 month schedual. Even when nothing is being paid for, they might be rehersing lines if you are tipping well.
In brazil we had a soap-opera based on The Taming in the past. It was a rom-com. In that adaptation Petrucio is not only a poor, but kind of rough and uncultured. But he and Catarina end up falling in love precisely because he did not follow the culture of his time, and though he expected some gender roles to be followed, Petrucio gave Catarina more freedom than any man before in her life. He learns respects her and she learns to do the same.
I don't like it when people talk about restricting literature because its "sensitive". Its like that for a reason. Its a reflection. Getting ride of books because you don't like their message says a lot about you.
6:33 i agree to this point. canceling something this day is often means deleting something that someone finds offensive and burry it underground. maybe we shouldn't do that. maybe we should frame it in context, to never forgets it, so we didn't do the same mistake
A modern take on the "Taming of the Shrew" is "10 Things I Hate About You" - but instead of marrying off the strong willed older sister, it's simply arranging for a date so the younger sister can date too.
As a kid I learned about "Taming of the Shrew" from the 1953 movie, "Kiss Me, Kate". I was young enough wear so many concept flew over my head, but I did get there twist on the play focusing more on pride than gender roles. In the beginning of the play Katherine is saying how she is too good to be any mans' wife and her sister might as well get use to being single. At the end of the play the family are sitting around the dinner table, pleased with their skeem to tame Katherine. Bianca makes (I think ) a small disagreement with her new husband. Katherine jumps up and starts lecturing the whole family about the importance of obedience in the same loud and prideful tone she had in the beginning of the play, while her husband just sits there and grins at the foolish family. The moral being that you have to set aside your pride to truly love someone... I think? The movie was complicated enough with it about divorced actors forced to play the leads in the play. I was like 9 when I watched this. I do remember the backstage fight. The Ex Wife whisper yells that the spanking he gave her was supposed to be fake. The Ex Husband retorts that the slap she gave him was supposed to be fake too. It's a lot of this back and forth between these two great actors that hate each other's gut and kiss at the end. Classic Romcom if you think about it. Well that's my experience of "Taming of the Shrew". In the end she wasn't really tamed. 🤷♀️
I'd like to see someone stage or film a full-on captivity horror version of it. Cut most of the silly B-plot about Bianca and her suitors, and just focus on Katherina. That seems like the best way of adapting it for modern times.
@@erikrungemadsen2081 That takes the opposite route, pretty much entirely abandoning the "taming" in favour of a more conventional rom-com interaction.
It's interesting how a modernized version was done a while ago. Instead of obedience, the man was asking for her to be nice. She really wasn't nice at all to anyone. When he was being horrible to her, it was more of a, "See how you like it," The speech at the end about how a woman should treat her husband ended with, "He would do the name for me."
My favorite version is the Marc Singer one, they did an excellent job showing the moment Katerina falls in love with Petruchio, and he her (the twist to this play IS that all the time Petruchio is “killing her with kindness” he actually falls in love for real, and so does she) and it is done in the commedia dell’arte style (think three stooges) that Shakespeare meant this play to be acted in I highly recommend it…
Shakespeare casts shade on many of his comedies through a prelude, epilogue or both. Shrew, like Romeo & Juliet, is just an early Shakespeare play he wrote before he got much better.
The best version is Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. There is tongue in cheek and it also does well comedy wise. But, in a modern lens, it's rough. It has to be viewed in the lens of the time it was written. Much gets lost if you throw out the time frame.
I really appreciate the decision to scast the role of Katherina with a "male" actor, even in animated form. It displays more accurately how the play was staged at the time it was written, and also helps shine a light on a lot of the general uncomfy-ness of the play's content.
Not accurate, though, since female parts weren’t played by fully grown men, but boys, which is different. They were cast for their undropped, pre-pubescent voices, and so unlikely to have facial hair, either.
Since 2023 is the 35th anversery of **The Legend of Drizzt*, could you guys cover the first book published of the saga, *The Crystal Shard** (1988)? **The Legend of Drizzt** goes above and beyond for D&D books by tackling some pretty heavy topics. 🐈⬛⚔️🧝🏿♂️
I actually went to a production of Taming of the Shrew at one of the local universities as part of their Shakespeare Festival. It was largely performed as is, until the very end where Katherina is lecturing about being a good wife, when several members of the audience protested the implications of it (I bet they were actors planted in the audience for this). So, the cast, understanding how badly the ending has aged, suddenly turned it into a standard dance party ending for the curtain call.
Yeah man but 2:14 Let's not forget that as late as the 1950's, Ralph Kramden regularly threatened to punch his wife so hard that she'd land on the Moon...
I actually finished Taming of the Shrew today, and to be honest I don't think it's his best. Of course, to modern sensibilities there isn't a lot that's funny about it today, and ultimately I couldn't really enjoy it. His better works (Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Lear) comes later in the early 1600s, so if you follow the interpretation that the induction is for the "commoner," I would theorize that Shrew was an attempt to make a name for himself. Or maybe he just got better with time. I don't know, not an expert.
I am an expert. No kidding, I teach Shakespeare. And one of the problems is that we read Shakespeare in isolation. We don’t read all that many of his plays, and we read very few of his contemporaries. A lot can be explained by what was popular at the time. The style of comedy post 1600 was Jacobean city comedy: commercialized, local, and meaner than a rattlesnake. I’m serious. Read some Ben Jonson comedies, and try to find just one pleasant character in it. And if you want to speculate about Shakespeare as a person, which is really dangerous to do, consider that when the fashion for comedies changed, he never wrote another one. I notice that you named four tragedies, so that also might cloud what is considered “great.” Lear may be “great,” but I still can’t with it at all.
I've seen filmed versions of this where there was definitely a subtext where Petruchio is the first man Katerina has met who treats her like an equal, actually talking to her and bantering with her, instead of, I dunno, just complaining about how "unreasonable" she is. If she had married one of those other goobers, they definitely would have just beaten her. They hint that P & K really are attracted to each other, but K has never been taken seriously before and no one listens to her, so she doesn't know how to behave around men, so meeting P is a real eye-opener for her.
@@Game_Hero that's true. There are always corrupt people telling you to conform falsehood and accept their idealology to get certain necessities. Today in America I mean it is really rampant with the media unlike any previous age lies are purported as truth and are in our pockets, homes, school's, and minds. No other age could've done this.
I actually like the Taming of the Shrew. I see it as your classic "Jerk gets their comeuppance" comedy: less "Misery" and more "The Emperor's New Groove"
Sometimes an author sets situations and asks questions without providing a clearcut solution or answer. In philosophy and science pondering the questions is often way more fun than be dictated an answer after all. Because an acceptable or perfect solution is not given the answer remains on the table to be pondered and discussed. No preaching but an invite to think for yourself. For the more modern public: Star Trek does this all the time! Is the solution in this play unsatisfactory? Hell yes!!! Does the play ask interesting questions about a society where many find themselves forced into marriages of convenience? Also, yes. And this is Shakespeare, there are always wheels within wheels and hidden meanings and agendas.
The saving grace of this play in the modern age is this; watched thoughtfully and realistically by the standards of social role models of its era, who is it that tames who, how, and to what end? ; ) The makers of this video assume Petrucchio's agency, but who is he? A vagabond, a dashing ne'er do well, only remotely fit for a noble hand- but he is handsome, charming and wise, and as much an outcast as his 'shrew'. Who is she? Too witty and intelligent for the sort of weak willed courtiers her Father finds suitable, but an ideal match in every way for Petrucchio, who she turns into a splendid husband. If you doubt me, watch the movie adaptation Burton and Taylor made- perfect casting in every way!
Oh, god…I just want to ask for textual evidence, because that’s in the production, which I agree is a good one, but NOT in the play! One reason Baptista is ok with this is that he knew Petruchio’s father. And except that he wants to marry a rich woman, there isn’t even an indication that he’s poor. He says “crowns have I in my purse.”
@@professorbutters - did I say he was 'poor', Butters? Kate's kiss in the final speech is Judas' own. Petrucchio has been willed a crown of thorns, death, and despair- all for his need to 'top' his shrew. She in turn, has willed her power to a greater master- multiplying it in his own, with no loss at all.
I remember getting odd looks in English class when I actually laughed at parts of this play. There were certain bits of the comedy that I somehow understood, which made me realize that I had the talent of being able to understand Shakespeare more than most.
Having both read and SEEN this performed, I have to say, you missed the mark HARD on this one. Yes, Caterina / Kate 'agreed' with her husband, but in such a way, that it was clear, she was mocking him. "If my learned husband says so, it must be true, for he has more learning than any man I have met before. If he proclaims the Moon to the Sun, or the sky to be green, or any of such things, who am I, a mere woman, to disagree with so learned a MAN?" She makes these statements at the obvious expense of him, in front of the entire crowd at the wedding celebration, exposing his mockery of her intelligence, his own 'stupidity', and that she can indeed think for herself. She is VERY clever in several other ways as well throughout the entire play, and the way you portray her here sell her short by leaps and bounds. Kiss Me Kate is a more modern take that is a very good version that shows Kate gaining respect from her husband at the end as well.
Looking to go ad free? Then why not try out Curiosity Stream & Nebula? For just $14.79 A YEAR you can get ad free access to our content 24 hour early! Just go to curiositystream.com/extracredits to sign up and get started!
Meh
Hey extra credits crew I think it would be cool if you did a so you haven't read episode about Rodger and Hammerstein
Your ad reads are paaaaaainfully long Matt, you are not doing yourself or Curiosity Stream any favors.
plz put nebula on consoles and other streaming devices! i cant subscribe if i cant watch the stuff
30% of this video was an ad. You're not anti-ad. You've never been anti-ad.
Fun fact - a few years ago, the Royal Shakespeare Company put on a version where all the roles were genderswapped. Not just men playing women or vice versa, but showing an exact version except in a matriarchal society where Catherina was a man and Petruchio a woman, but otherwise played straight. It really helped to sell how uncomfortable it was.
I think this should be done with more works.
That sounds like an interesting idea. Are there any recordings I could watch?
So...more like current year?
@@foristrothbert568 Jesus, if you actually believe that you might be beyond help
As if we didn't already know?
Something we need to take into consideration is that "Comedy" and "Tragedy" have drastically different definitions/connotations back then compared to now. Comedy = Disorder -> Order (often ending in marriage) while Tragedy = Order -> Disorder. A Comedy of Errors begins with characters scattered and ends with everyone married to who they wanted. Hamlet is a tragedy, the queen has been recently remarried and by the end everyone is dead.
Shakespeare liked to play around with these mechanics by including plays by adding additional steps or having plays become tragedies or comedies based on the perspective of individual characters. Much Ado About Nothing could be seen as Order -> Disorder -> Order (Marriage -> Death -> Marriage) while Romeo and Juliet is the opposite with Disorder -> Order -> Disorder (Death -> Marriage -> Death). In The Merchant of Venice, the story is a Comedy for the Christian characters (Bassanio/Portia/Antonio) while it can be seen as a tragedy from the perspective of Shylock, the primary Jewish character.
Yeah Dante's Inferno(the divine comedy) was supposed to be a comedy according to the classic definition of the word.
@@adrianaslund8605 there was that funny little aside when Dante and Virgil were accosted by demons playing brass with their butts.
I’m still kinda on Red from OSP’s side with this one. It does feel more like a classic case of brainwashing, even if it is meant to be a comedic, satirical mirror to society at the time. It just doesn’t quite sit right with me… (maybe my mom was trying to shield me from my dad’s anger a lot, and that could tie into it…)
I agree with Red’s OSP too. It’s straight up blatant brainwashing.
I immediately thought of red too when I saw this video! I agree.
Total agreement here
Me when I see the uncritical use of tvtropes which promotes being media illiterate so that you can use their method of story telling create the most boring and worst art ever known to man
She totally sounded brainwashed at the end. 10 Things I Hate About You was marginally better.
Bonanza does a pretty solid adaptation of this. Major change is, the man is prepping the woman for her betrothed, and in the end it turns out the husband, being a Spaniard, was HOPING for a loud, willful woman.
i have no idea where the idea of sumise latinas come with spaniards being like they are, tbh.
I was thinking of this episode
I had this argument about Heart of Darkness with someone once. They were saying that Heart of Darkness has no value to modern readers because it's racist.
My argument is that it has value because Heart of Darkness was very progressive for its time. The value in Heart of Darkness is the lesson of how politics and opinions shift over time and how what is progressive today will be considered backwards in the future. In short, time makes fools of us all. The book's value to the modern reader has changed from what value it had in its own time, but that doesn't mean it's lost value.
If anything it's gained overall value, because of the added examination of how things change
That's a rather odd thing to claim anyway, given that book was based on the author's real life experiences.
Even if it is racist doesn't that in and of itself make it worth studying. A study of... racism and how culture changes over time
@@Laocoon283 That's exactly the point I was making.
@@cheezemonkeyeater yes I was just agreeing with you. I hate how fanatical these moralist types get with literature from the past. Trying to ban every piece of work that doesn't hold up to modern sensibilities. Its disgusting and childish.
There's an argument I like that says this play was meant to be a satiric reflection on the "ideals" of society during Shakespeare's days and of how actually far from reality those ideals tend to be. Idk if that was part of the actually point of the play, but I thought the argument fit pretty well regardless.
I mean, you have Bianca, who represents the general view of an ideal maiden, but isn't. Katharine is the general depiction of a shrew but is also the only one with a sane head and her turning is more jarring. Petruchio, a man who plays more as the comic relief or fool, all bound in squalor and an inability to control himself as anything near a proper "gentleman," despite being the main love interest and de facto "hero" of the story. Bianca's suitors, who are "upright" gentlemen in the eyes of society, but don't amount to much more than Petruchio at their core,... I can go on.
Interesting
I cant believe how everyone neglects to mention how this play is being put on for a drunk fool in order to prank him. So therefore this representation of "courtship" is just a farce. For laughs at the expense of the drunk fool in the prologue. It's so clearly satire and all these youtube channels take the bait and start railing against how sexist it is. So dumb
Sounds like coping from people who dont want to accept, that their idol from over 400 years ago did not share their moral and social values.
In 1997, the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada put on this play. After the final scene, where Petruchio has won his bet, they showed Katherina and Petruchio laying in bed, surrounded by cash, tossing it into the air in celebration. That reworked the previous scene from a demonstration of Petruchio's power over his wife into one where the two worked together to lighten the pockets of the real chauvinists. Absolutely magnificent, I saw it twice.
Yes. That’s a very popular final staging, and they didn’t invent that.
@@professorbutters That's really cool! What do you know about the history of that staging? I'd love to know when it was first done and who came up with the idea!
@@wormlunch Dang it! I can’t remember! I started to look it up. No luck. But I think it’s early 20th century.
@@professorbutters thanks for looking! I do remember, now, my Shakespeare prof talking about it when we studied the play. It was cool to see it staged only a few years after that. Only time I've gone back to see a play twice!
The 1980s romantic comedy series "Moonlighting" did a version of "The Taming of the Shrew" updated for modern times. Near the end Katherina (Cybill Shepherd) refuses to call the sun the moon. Petruchio, (Bruce Willis) who has genuinely fallen in love with Katherina and no longer wants to break her spirit or win the wager, tells all gathered that if his wife says the sun is in the sky, then it is not because she's a shrew, but because she has wisdom.
I'm not of the view that Shakespeare is the bestest ever, but a comedy can definitely have characters do stuff that's not great, either that's the joke, or they're the joke.
that's the entire premise of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia lol
@@thechief00 Yeah. It's basically "The Gang is terrible. Laugh at their expense."
This has always been my favorite work of ol Will. I don't find it problematic at all. It's a satire masking as a real lecture masking as a satire. It doesn't absolutely lecture, but it doesn't hide anything either. It asks questions and offers ideas without declaring what is absolute.
Some years back, I heard an Irish folk tale from the same tradition (possibly descended directly from Taming of the Shrew; possibly just from the same sources), where, rather than being entirely one-sided, the "taming" results in what amounts to a private code/in-joke for the couple - a way of saying "no, really, do this" rather than the wife being entirely submissive to the husband.
Interesting, what's the name of the folk tale?
@@Cyssane I heard it from a storyteller, and such are not in the habit of announcing titles for their tales. I'd heard "Iron Hans" dozens of times before I discovered its name when I stumbled across it in the Brothers Grimm.
I couldn't even swear that the tale was Irish, beyond its having hung around with an Irish teller for long enough.
This sounds somewhat similar to my high school English classes' general conclusion about what's going on in Taming when we read it. We generally felt that the "torturing his wife into submission" interpretation seemed overly simplistic, and that Petruchio's actions were more symbolic and over-the-top acting than literal. Similarly, we felt like Catherine's "lecture" to the other wives at the end was so over-the-top that it had to be more silly than serious, sort of a wink that they're playing their roles in public. Though admittedly, it's entirely possible an Elizabethan audience might not have seen it that way.
Would you kindly?
10 Things I Hate About You is a great adaptation of the play
Thank you! I don't know if many people know that movie was based off Shakespeare's play
I saw this at the Globe Theatre in London ten years ago, and it was great! What made it stand out was a little bit of business the first time we see Kate and Bianca. Instead of the usual staging of Kate abusing poor, helpless Bianca, here they had Bianca being just as vicious, if not more so, to Kate. However, she is fortunate enough to be standing where she saw their father approaching first and immediately turned on the waterworks and went crying to Daddy that she was being victimized. Kate feels betrayed that their father automatically takes Bianca’s side, and the audience was immediately on Kate’s side-as soon as Bianca turned on a dime, the entire crowd went, “Ooooooooo!”
I like that.
My theory is that Papa Baptista always played favourites with his daughters, ignoring or scolding Katherine, making her miserable and resentful, while he acted as if Bianca could do no wrong, and spoiled her rotten. So Bianca grew up to look demure and easy to get along with, sure, because when you always get your way, you got nothing to cry about. Until she gets the opportunity to stick it to Katherine every time there's a quarrel.
Honestly, Taming of the Shrew is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, problematic nature of it and all. I love it because it is problematic and it is interesting seeing the warped nature of the past. Also, the comedy is glorious.
From the perspective of a director, I think the fundamental problem with staging Taming is the same problem that Much Ado About Nothing has where the famous parts of the play aren't actually the point of focus. Structurally, the stuff with Katherine and Petruchio is the B story to a convoluted marriage and mistaken identity plot where everyone has identical sounding Italian names. So, the things that make the play infamous, cataloged here, the things that are worth contending with creatively, are surrounded by bullcrap. And that's something that you need to contend with in adaptation, because do you try to make the mistaken identity plot interesting, or do you yadda yadda the intended structure? Obviously there are other answers, but that's the thing that's made me allergic to it. I don't want to have to deal with Lucentio, I'm gonna go stage A Doll's House.
Exactly why I was disappointed in this episode. He spent so much time apologizing for the material he did a terrible job of actually explaining the plot(s) of the play.
Also, Taming is, like, Shakespeare's second play. It's an outlier in the politics of his cannon because it was written at the begining of a career, before the man had matured, and the play was likely a collaboration. This isn't to go at-bat for the play, but I do suggest reading it as earnest rather than satirical is not actually at odds with the rest of the cannon, and instead suggests the evolution of an artist who grew and learned and found new interests over a twenty year writing career.
As a headstrong woman, I have to say I have always loved this play. I think with anything that is written we often bring ourselves to it and read it through our own lens of understanding. This has been one of my favorite place since I was a kid I had the whole thing memorized when I was in grade 12. Lol
Why do you love the story of another headstrong woman being tamed?
Yeah I'm curious too
What do you love about the story
@@flinx I love the wit, the retorts the fancy and funny insults. The language throughout was of course fantastic. I see it as it was placed in its time. Not so much from ours. And I see Katherine not just as a headstrong woman but also a bully.
My grade 11 teacher said (of Macbeth at the time) that reading Shakespeare is like watching the score board of a basketball game. You get the point, but you miss so much of the experience. So in my vivid imagination I would play it out not as a woman being beaten into submission but equally horrid people continuing the battler for supremacy.
But ultimately I love the insults and battle of wits.
My partner directed a production of Taming just before the pandemic in Brooklyn. She racked her head what to do for the ending so that Katherina wins in the end, without actually changing the text. Her idea that after everyone exists the party and the dialogue has ended, she takes out a knife and exists with a smile.
Turning her into a murderer doesn't really improve things.
I’m not sure whether I like or hate this. Was there anything to suggest that Katherina was that psychotic?
I’ve heard about versions where she turns and winks to the audience to imply she’s just pretending.
So much like "The Prince" this play is should be seen as one long post that ends with a "/s"
The Prince wasn't satire.
@@stevejakab274Machiavelli was a well known satirist.
My first introduction to this was through my ex, not school. And, it was a movie where Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were playing the lead roles.
It is a great version.
We did the Taming of the Shrew in 6th grade for the entire school, including the kindergarteners, and before I stopped most of my acting it was the first (and last) time I was ever one of the main characters - yeah, I was Petruchio. Wild stuff. Flipped trays and the whole deal.
Sounds pretty fun
Katherine has totally played Petruchio at the end. Who doesn't get that? She's not the one who's tamed; she's tamed him. She is ultimately in charge by "allowing" him to think he's in charge.
John Cleese plays Petruchio in a hilarious BBC production from the 70s
Yes, that’s an interesting one. He doesn’t try to be “funny” at all. Katherine is portrayed as something like an unhappy child (and no wonder, considering her father’s blatant favoritism), and trapped in behaviors that just don’t work and don’t make her happy. Part of the “taming” gives her a chance to reset everything, like going to school or a camp where they don’t know you.
We just had or rather have a discussion about the work of Karl-May in Germany. A publisher was going to publish some books to accompany a new kids version of Winnetou. But canceled it because of social media backlash. Now that predictably caused backlash from the other side.
A suggestion for you: From the New World (Japanese: 新世界より, Hepburn: Shin Sekai Yori) by Yusuke Kishi. It's a fun little story about growing up and discovering some unsettling truths about your utopian society.
It's a good reminder that depictions of problematic or outright abusive things does not equal encouraging or condoning those things.
I am with you on this one. A message doesn't have to be explicit for it to be valid.
Eh depends on the depiction, alot of smooth brians out there base their life on what they personally see and not trying to look at it from a broader perspective
Especially when this behaviour is being done by a character explicitly stated as a villain.
Thank you for not taking the bait and just start railing against this play as sexist like all the other youtube channels. As you clearly pointed out it's a satirical representation of courtship played up for laughs.
you know what might make a good episode for October is a “so you haven’t read…” about Sleepy Hollow! (I mean, there could be plenty of other horror-themed books they could do it on, but, to me anyway, that story will always be the quintessential Halloween story!)
Why not Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
@@MovieFan1912 that’s good too. Just thought I’d put out my own suggestion for what book they could talk about during the most haunted month of the year!
Maybe they could talk about how the Irving copied parts of the book from a "Rübezahl" fairy tale by Johann August Musäus.
@@TheophilusKoriander and that the idea of the headless horseman also is based on the Irish Dullahan.
This play is relevant because there are people that want us to regress back to Elizabethan times.
Which is something people say when they want to get women submissive to their needs - "Don't worry ladies, I'll protect you from the scary people who want to take us back into the past."
One staging of this play that I've seen changed the ending to after Kate's lengthy monologue at the end, it is revealed that she has slit her wrists and everyone looks on in horror as Petruchio screams for her. I think it can be supposed that Kate did the only thing she could to escape her servitude to Petruchio and this way, she took back the power she had in the beginning. This is much more tragic, of course, but to be honest, I much preferred it to the original as it fits into and plays with the sensibilities of our time more appropriately.
Gross. I'm not sure which version represents a less flattering take on womanhood.
This reminds me of when I read "The Merchant of Venice" and was very taken aback on my first read.
My favorite take on the tale is the "Atomic Shakespeare" episode of Moonlighting from season 3 (1986) -- which looks to be available here on YT (I'll leave finding it as an exercise for the viewer.) Well worth a watch! Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis at their prime!
With a final message from the writers "we hate iambic pentameter".
I was so angry when i had to do this for a school assignment when the next class got Caesar
Everyone wants to be Caeser
I remember playing Petruchio in my eighth grade year in my school's middle school rendition of The Taming of the Shrew. It was pretty awesome, even though I originally signed up for stage crew.
I'm writing my essay right now, and I haven't read the book, so I just looked up "taming of the shrew extra credits". Thanks so much!
A few years ago the Shakespeare festival in Vancouver Canada put on this play, but they modified the ending so she basically revolts against him, it was quite a nice change and they pulled it of very well
I wish there was a recording of that.
They ruined it
This sounds like a psychological horror at first. Funny how comedy looks different after several centuries
Only to the weak minded.
Think of it more like "The Emperor's New Groove"...you know where a selfish bully is put through the wringer to learn some humility
@@shogun_arasaka dude...
@@King_Nex A valid if not 100% plausible interpretation.
@@King_Nex Don't know if that view works in this context.
I know it's a throwaway joke, but a coffee shop-stage theatre fusion actually is an amazing idea.
You can order anything from the 5 minute skit menue with your coffee, larger performances are weekly and rotating out on a 3 month schedual. Even when nothing is being paid for, they might be rehersing lines if you are tipping well.
In brazil we had a soap-opera based on The Taming in the past. It was a rom-com. In that adaptation Petrucio is not only a poor, but kind of rough and uncultured. But he and Catarina end up falling in love precisely because he did not follow the culture of his time, and though he expected some gender roles to be followed, Petrucio gave Catarina more freedom than any man before in her life. He learns respects her and she learns to do the same.
So it's nothing like the play.
@@4rumaniThere are many similarities.
I don't like it when people talk about restricting literature because its "sensitive". Its like that for a reason. Its a reflection. Getting ride of books because you don't like their message says a lot about you.
*rid
6:33 i agree to this point. canceling something this day is often means deleting something that someone finds offensive and burry it underground. maybe we shouldn't do that. maybe we should frame it in context, to never forgets it, so we didn't do the same mistake
Thank you.
A modern take on the "Taming of the Shrew" is "10 Things I Hate About You" - but instead of marrying off the strong willed older sister, it's simply arranging for a date so the younger sister can date too.
As a kid I learned about "Taming of the Shrew" from the 1953 movie, "Kiss Me, Kate". I was young enough wear so many concept flew over my head, but I did get there twist on the play focusing more on pride than gender roles.
In the beginning of the play Katherine is saying how she is too good to be any mans' wife and her sister might as well get use to being single. At the end of the play the family are sitting around the dinner table, pleased with their skeem to tame Katherine. Bianca makes (I think ) a small disagreement with her new husband. Katherine jumps up and starts lecturing the whole family about the importance of obedience in the same loud and prideful tone she had in the beginning of the play, while her husband just sits there and grins at the foolish family.
The moral being that you have to set aside your pride to truly love someone... I think? The movie was complicated enough with it about divorced actors forced to play the leads in the play. I was like 9 when I watched this.
I do remember the backstage fight. The Ex Wife whisper yells that the spanking he gave her was supposed to be fake. The Ex Husband retorts that the slap she gave him was supposed to be fake too. It's a lot of this back and forth between these two great actors that hate each other's gut and kiss at the end. Classic Romcom if you think about it. Well that's my experience of "Taming of the Shrew". In the end she wasn't really tamed. 🤷♀️
I'd like to see someone stage or film a full-on captivity horror version of it. Cut most of the silly B-plot about Bianca and her suitors, and just focus on Katherina. That seems like the best way of adapting it for modern times.
I still think Ten things i hate about you is one of the better modern versions.
@@erikrungemadsen2081 That takes the opposite route, pretty much entirely abandoning the "taming" in favour of a more conventional rom-com interaction.
You mean like Misery?
It's interesting how a modernized version was done a while ago. Instead of obedience, the man was asking for her to be nice. She really wasn't nice at all to anyone. When he was being horrible to her, it was more of a, "See how you like it," The speech at the end about how a woman should treat her husband ended with, "He would do the name for me."
*same
The ads start at 7:00, which means they make up almost 30% of the video. Reminds me of American TV!
My favorite version is the Marc Singer one, they did an excellent job showing the moment Katerina falls in love with Petruchio, and he her (the twist to this play IS that all the time Petruchio is “killing her with kindness” he actually falls in love for real, and so does she) and it is done in the commedia dell’arte style (think three stooges) that Shakespeare meant this play to be acted in
I highly recommend it…
Shakespeare casts shade on many of his comedies through a prelude, epilogue or both. Shrew, like Romeo & Juliet, is just an early Shakespeare play he wrote before he got much better.
The best version is Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. There is tongue in cheek and it also does well comedy wise. But, in a modern lens, it's rough. It has to be viewed in the lens of the time it was written. Much gets lost if you throw out the time frame.
I really appreciate the decision to scast the role of Katherina with a "male" actor, even in animated form. It displays more accurately how the play was staged at the time it was written, and also helps shine a light on a lot of the general uncomfy-ness of the play's content.
Not accurate, though, since female parts weren’t played by fully grown men, but boys, which is different. They were cast for their undropped, pre-pubescent voices, and so unlikely to have facial hair, either.
Reminds me of high school, why Extra Credits, getting flashbacks of reading the book
Since 2023 is the 35th anversery of **The Legend of Drizzt*, could you guys cover the first book published of the saga, *The Crystal Shard** (1988)? **The Legend of Drizzt** goes above and beyond for D&D books by tackling some pretty heavy topics. 🐈⬛⚔️🧝🏿♂️
So Andrew Tate and Fresh'n'Fit guys existed even back in the days of Shakespeare?
Nobody involved in this video has ever seen a Lockhorn's comic strip.
Will You do a life of queen Elizabeth video or series?
RIP Queen Elizabeth
If I recall, there was also a love triangle aspect around the younger sister that added to the comedy, with a sing-off and all.
I actually watched your ending ads because you were good enough to put them at the end.
I actually went to a production of Taming of the Shrew at one of the local universities as part of their Shakespeare Festival.
It was largely performed as is, until the very end where Katherina is lecturing about being a good wife, when several members of the audience protested the implications of it (I bet they were actors planted in the audience for this). So, the cast, understanding how badly the ending has aged, suddenly turned it into a standard dance party ending for the curtain call.
Yeah man but 2:14 Let's not forget that as late as the 1950's, Ralph Kramden regularly threatened to punch his wife so hard that she'd land on the Moon...
At which Alice would just roll her eyes, because Ralph was merely blustering.
Yeah, it was always clear that Ralph loved Alice, and he was just venting his frustration at something. He would never actually hit her.
Taming of the shrew depicts the most functional Italian marriage ever recorded.
Gosh dang you guys are a treasure! Thanks for the great story of something I otherwise wouldn’t have checked out
I desperately need "Gender Rolls" as a t shirt or a pin now.
I actually finished Taming of the Shrew today, and to be honest I don't think it's his best. Of course, to modern sensibilities there isn't a lot that's funny about it today, and ultimately I couldn't really enjoy it. His better works (Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Lear) comes later in the early 1600s, so if you follow the interpretation that the induction is for the "commoner," I would theorize that Shrew was an attempt to make a name for himself. Or maybe he just got better with time. I don't know, not an expert.
I am an expert. No kidding, I teach Shakespeare. And one of the problems is that we read Shakespeare in isolation. We don’t read all that many of his plays, and we read very few of his contemporaries. A lot can be explained by what was popular at the time. The style of comedy post 1600 was Jacobean city comedy: commercialized, local, and meaner than a rattlesnake. I’m serious. Read some Ben Jonson comedies, and try to find just one pleasant character in it. And if you want to speculate about Shakespeare as a person, which is really dangerous to do, consider that when the fashion for comedies changed, he never wrote another one.
I notice that you named four tragedies, so that also might cloud what is considered “great.” Lear may be “great,” but I still can’t with it at all.
Shakespeare definitely got better with time, his later plays are much more sophisticated than his early ones.
I think Shakespeare might have mixed up one of his comedies with a tragedy. Realized he did, and then was just too stubborn to admit he f-ed up.
These Shakespeare episodes are my favorites from this series.
But for this story, I don’t feel like laughing. This makes me feel sorry for Katherina.
I've seen filmed versions of this where there was definitely a subtext where Petruchio is the first man Katerina has met who treats her like an equal, actually talking to her and bantering with her, instead of, I dunno, just complaining about how "unreasonable" she is. If she had married one of those other goobers, they definitely would have just beaten her. They hint that P & K really are attracted to each other, but K has never been taken seriously before and no one listens to her, so she doesn't know how to behave around men, so meeting P is a real eye-opener for her.
Great video Matt, was fun seeing you at the PAXwest panel! went home and started playing cult of the lamb right away
WOOO MORE EXTRA CREDITS
Yep
The characters he wrote are from the 1500’s no one thinks of emulating them, they’re in a different world.
Now we need to know about Titus Andronicus, I think
Why are you in favor of child murder, Tweek?
Oh yeah, the Roman version of Sweeney Todd.
do the tamer tamed next, studied this at University made me realise Shakespeare is only relevant because we try hard to make him relevant
In today's political climate, it's the taming of the shrew in everyday life. No longer satire but reality now.
The Handmaiden's Tale is closer.
What do you mean "today", it always was like that somewhere in the world, sadly.
@@Game_Hero that's true. There are always corrupt people telling you to conform falsehood and accept their idealology to get certain necessities. Today in America I mean it is really rampant with the media unlike any previous age lies are purported as truth and are in our pockets, homes, school's, and minds. No other age could've done this.
Thank you for the video.
I did this play in high school. I was Lucentio.
3:29 I played him when we did this play in Upper secondary/high school
Being an enbie must've been a lot of fun back then /s
I read a shortened version of it when I was in the 10th standard. Hilarious and well done.
In short, you didnt read it.
Dang I need to check out The Tamer Tamed.
Yeah considering today's gop it's aged very well, they still have those values
"Conform or be cast out" is a line from Subdivisions by Canadian band Rush.
That tilted got me excited for this one
I remember I played Katerina/Katherine a few years ago. It was… strange, to say the least.
Please bring back extra mythology
Music is not a good thing but it is the coolest photo in the last year and I will be
See a doctor, you appear to be having a stroke.
Rip England Queen 💔🇬🇧
Or watch 10 Things I Hate About You... Great take on the material and the soundtrack is incredible.
Been waiting for this one!
I'm going to figure out a way to "tame" Petruchio. Had it in for that piece of work since reading the book in my spare time during high school.
You should do more videos
about the immortal bard.
Some people, such as my English teacher, interpret it as satire rather than Shakespeare agreeing with the gender roles themselves.
I actually like the Taming of the Shrew. I see it as your classic "Jerk gets their comeuppance" comedy: less "Misery" and more "The Emperor's New Groove"
Can you discuss "The Officer of Köpenick"? It is a good example of what happens to people in during militarism and it is a true story too.
Sometimes an author sets situations and asks questions without providing a clearcut solution or answer. In philosophy and science pondering the questions is often way more fun than be dictated an answer after all.
Because an acceptable or perfect solution is not given the answer remains on the table to be pondered and discussed. No preaching but an invite to think for yourself. For the more modern public: Star Trek does this all the time!
Is the solution in this play unsatisfactory? Hell yes!!! Does the play ask interesting questions about a society where many find themselves forced into marriages of convenience? Also, yes. And this is Shakespeare, there are always wheels within wheels and hidden meanings and agendas.
The saving grace of this play in the modern age is this; watched thoughtfully and realistically by the standards of social role models of its era, who is it that tames who, how, and to what end? ; )
The makers of this video assume Petrucchio's agency, but who is he? A vagabond, a dashing ne'er do well, only remotely fit for a noble hand- but he is handsome, charming and wise, and as much an outcast as his 'shrew'. Who is she? Too witty and intelligent for the sort of weak willed courtiers her Father finds suitable, but an ideal match in every way for Petrucchio, who she turns into a splendid husband. If you doubt me, watch the movie adaptation Burton and Taylor made- perfect casting in every way!
Oh, god…I just want to ask for textual evidence, because that’s in the production, which I agree is a good one, but NOT in the play! One reason Baptista is ok with this is that he knew Petruchio’s father. And except that he wants to marry a rich woman, there isn’t even an indication that he’s poor. He says “crowns have I in my purse.”
the movie is not the original version
@@professorbutters - did I say he was 'poor', Butters? Kate's kiss in the final speech is Judas' own. Petrucchio has been willed a crown of thorns, death, and despair- all for his need to 'top' his shrew. She in turn, has willed her power to a greater master- multiplying it in his own, with no loss at all.
@@Game_Hero - touche'. Have you seen the Heath Ledger version, tho?
@@floydblandston108 I haven't yet.
I remember getting odd looks in English class when I actually laughed at parts of this play. There were certain bits of the comedy that I somehow understood, which made me realize that I had the talent of being able to understand Shakespeare more than most.
Disney made a much more PG version called “10 Things I Hate About You”.
I love everything you guys do. Even with multiple degrees, you still teach me something new
Shut up
I am literally starting to read the books from these vids now, and I really gotta see this one now too haha
Have you done/when will you come to Dostovjetsky?
If anything it's great fodder for reinterpretations. I like the Shakespeare ReTold one by the BBC.
Having both read and SEEN this performed, I have to say, you missed the mark HARD on this one. Yes, Caterina / Kate 'agreed' with her husband, but in such a way, that it was clear, she was mocking him. "If my learned husband says so, it must be true, for he has more learning than any man I have met before. If he proclaims the Moon to the Sun, or the sky to be green, or any of such things, who am I, a mere woman, to disagree with so learned a MAN?" She makes these statements at the obvious expense of him, in front of the entire crowd at the wedding celebration, exposing his mockery of her intelligence, his own 'stupidity', and that she can indeed think for herself. She is VERY clever in several other ways as well throughout the entire play, and the way you portray her here sell her short by leaps and bounds. Kiss Me Kate is a more modern take that is a very good version that shows Kate gaining respect from her husband at the end as well.