Taming Of The Shrew

Femininity and masculinity or one’s gender identity (Burke, Stets and Pirog-Good 1988; Spence 1985) refers to the degree to which persons see themselves as masculine or feminine given what it means to be a man or woman in society. Femininity and masculinity are rooted in the social (one’s gender) rather than the biological (one’s sex). Societal members decide what being male or female means (e.g., dominant or passive, brave or emotional), and males will generally respond by defining themselves as masculine while females will generally define themselves as feminine. Because these are social definitions, however, it is possible for one to be female, see herself as masculine or male, and see himself as feminine.

The women who were active and self-reliant in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England are reflected in the female main characters in Shakespeare’s plays who freely speak out, behave as they like, and pursue their fortunes. It can be found in the play that Katherine was being an intransigent. The patriarchal society in those days imposed on women the three virtues, which are, obedience, silence, and chastity in order to preserve the social order. The basis of this idea was that because of their inferiority women should be governed by men.

The theme of the play is a farcical comedy but the question is did Shakespeare really believe that a woman was in no way equal to a man or was this play tongue in cheek and was he portraying how men would simply like things to be. However, to say that Shakespeare is trying to uphold the status of women in that particular time, it is contradict with the way Katherine behave at last. Katherine who is believed by the society to be successfully tamed by her husband, was being obedience, and represent how the typical women of Elizabethan era should be.

The major argument against this theory of feminism lies in the words of Katherine’s final speech. In her speech, Katherine proceeds to scold the other wives for their improper behaviour in their wifely roles. The speech seems to defy everything that her earlier character embodied. By paying particular attention to the exaggerated performances of Katherine earlier on in the play and at the closing of the play, it can be suggested that this reversal of thought is all part of Shakespeare’s ploy to demonstrate the strong presence of female intellect going unnoticed in the sixteenth-century. She has gone from argumentative to overly accepting, from aggressive to submissive, and from controlling to controlled in a very short time.

RICHARD III

Richard III is seen as not relevant but can be true for present day, in terms of the act of political manipulation. It is just that the method used in order to manipulate the political rule will be or might be different and can be said as more cunning in these days. Political manipulation can happen in any throne and at any time regardless which era. Power-hunger people are everywhere and they will use their tricky and wicked way to fulfill their own needs, grudge and satisfaction.
Why is that it is said as more cunning is due to the existence of strict law that forbid people to kill people without valid reason nowadays. Compared to the Elizabethan era in the play, the present day’s law enforced is stricter. In the play we can see that there are so many murders done by Richard in order for him to fulfill his mission to be the king. However, further and detailed investigation has not been done in order to catch the real culprit of the murder. For example, when Richard put the guilt of the murder of Clarence on King Edward, no further investigation was done to find the real murderer.
The relevance of Richard III to the present day is in several ways. The primary and crucial way used by Richard in order to achieve the political power is through language. Language is his crucial weapon to manipulate other characters in that play. Observation throughout the whole play reveals that Richard has extraordinary skill with words that enable him to manipulate, confuse, and control those around him. For example, Richard uses his skill with language and argument to woo Lady Anne, have Clarence thrown in prison, keep the Woodvilles off his track, blame the king for Clarence’s death, and achieve Hastings’s execution, all at very little risk to himself. Similar to the present day ruling, cunning ruler or political people will use their language skill to persuade, manipulate, claim, disclaim and control people around them especially to those who are weaker than them in order to achieve their personal needs. They can be very sweet in talk but are cunning inside. They can make people trust them by giving false hopes, provoke the people to make them lose trust to the current ruling, and they can blame others for their guilt.
In term of ruling, Richard used secret conspiracy to take over the throne, which is still happened these days. He worked with his right-hand man, Lord Buckingham to campaign for the throne, execute Clarence and burden the guilt onto his sick King Edward to accelerate the king’s illness and death, murdered Lord Hastings, let Elizabeth and the princess unprotected and so on just for the sake that he wants to be the king. In present day, for example, westerners cunningly creating conspiracies by acting as if they are very concern for the life of middle-east people and want to help to control the crime there. They then send their soldier there and create wars. They claim that they want to have a good relationship with Muslims but behind these things they are actually having their own agenda for the sake of their interest. If in the play Richard works with Buckingham, in present day, the conspiracy is done by several countries that work together to accomplish the mission.
Other than that, Richard the third and present day ruling especially westerner use terror to make people fear and follow their order. Richard’s reign of terror has caused the common people of England to fear and loathe him. He has alienated nearly all the noblemen of the court even the power-hungry Buckingham. Meanwhile, nowadays, western countries for example America, uses terror to control the world. Those countries which are seen as having possibilities to go against them will be set into war, for example Afghanistan and Palestine. This makes other countries to fear them and avoid creating problem with them because other countries do not want to let their people to live in suffer.
As shown in Richard the Third, Richard used the monarchy system in terms of ruling. Monarchy can be defined as a form of government in which all political power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual. As a political entity, the monarch is the head of state, generally until their death or abdication, and is wholly set apart from all other members of the state. The person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch. It was a common form of government in the world during ancient and medieval times.
Unlike democracy, it is a political government carried out either directly by the people (direct democracy) or by means of elected representatives of the people (Representative democracy). Even though there is no specific, universally accepted definition of ‘democracy’, there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes: equality and freedom. These principles are reflected in all citizens being equal before the law and having equal access to power and legitimized rights and liberties, which are generally protected by a constitution, secure the freedom of its citizens.
There are several varieties of democracy, some of which provide better representation and more freedoms for their citizens than others. However, if any democracy is not carefully legislated through the use of balances to avoid an uneven distribution of political power, such as the separation of powers, then a branch of the system of rule could accumulate power and become harmful to the democracy itself.
The “majority rule” is often described as a characteristic feature of democracy, but without responsible government or constitutional protections of individual liberties from democratic power, it is possible for dissenting individuals to be oppressed by the “tyranny of the majority”. An essential process in representative democracies is competitive elections, that are fair both substantively and procedurally. Furthermore, freedom of political expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential so that citizens are informed and able to vote in their personal interests.
Democracy may and may not be applicable in the present time. For this reason, people around the world may see monarchy negatively because it gives absolute power for the ruler to rule the country. People’s opinion and voice will not be put into consideration. The ruler will be highly valued and all of the people must obey to his order. Unlike democracy, people’s opinion and voices will be put into consideration and the ruler rule the country based on the law that has been enforced according to the majority. However, one must note that having democracy as their ruling system, and if the laws are not effective enough to be implemented, chaotic would most probably takes place. When everyone wants to speak up on behalf of them, contradiction of ideas occurs. Democracy also is not a good option when you have ruler that is not ruling for the sake of the country, but for his personal gains.
In Malaysia, the federal king, called the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (“Paramount Ruler”) is elected for a five-year term from and by the hereditary rulers (mostly sultans) of nine of the federation’s constitutive states, all on the Malay peninsula. However, the King only has power over the religious part but not the ruling system as a whole.
Though ‘monarchy’ always bring negative connotation towards people, however, for the certain degrees, monarchy will be more effective than democracy. Having monarchy as the ruling system will standardise and stablelise the country. The election of the ruler must be carefully done and chosen because he will have an absolute power later on. As in Richard the third, Richard is having an absolute power over his people but he is not a good ruler. That is the reason why the country is later on corrupted and he lost to the battle at the end of the story.
In addition, monarchy is still relevant to the current time because there are developed countries around the world that are still practicing it. For examples, Japan and Brunei. Their Kings still have power over the ruling system. Brunei is a good example of monarchy for Islamic countries. The King is not just involved in the ruling system, but as well as the religious part. The country successfully implements the Islamic laws and all of their citizens are abiding it.
Hence, it is agreed that Richard the Third ruling system may seen as not relevant to the current time but can be true for the present day.