The Role of Women in Renaissance Drama: Subversion and Gender Politics in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew

This paper deals with the role of women in the Renaissance play with a focus on gender politics and subversion in William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The play consists of various female characters with their position in patriarchal society. While The Taming of the Shrew often provokes objections to its seeming endorsement of patriarchal gender roles, it also contains episodes of resistance and subversion of these stereotypes – perhaps most notably in the person of Katherina. It will seek to determine how Shakespeare understood the nature of power, marriage, and identity by raising the question of how the play's exploration and deployment of the expectations placed upon women of his day do or do not promote or destroy the accepted gender ideals of the Renaissance.