It is perhaps of no surprise that Katharina's speech in
the final scene of this excellent play is not interpreted very favourably by a large
number of feminist critics, and I would imagine that your average audience would
probably share their dismay. The way in which Katharina recommends complete subservience
to one's husband and stereotypes women as physically weak, going as far as to suggest
that women should match their personality to their physical nature is shocking and
abhorent to an audience who believes in the equality of the sexes. Note what she
recommends to her female listeners:
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and
smooth...
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well
agree with our external
parts?
In addition, Katharina
at various points in her speech describes man as being his wife's king, governor, lord,
head, life, keeper and sovereign. Such terms of reference point towards the attitude of
Shakespeare's time, which presented the Biblical view of teh wife being under the
headship of the husband as the glory of the man. In particular, the lines that would
excite most dismay and disgust are as follows:
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no
boot,
and place your hands below your husband's
foot,
In token of which duty, if he
please,
My hand is ready; may it do him
ease.
Such a symbol of
complete subservience and acceptance of a completely inferior position would definitely
be questioned by a modern day audience, especially given the way that this attitude is
so different from Katharina's attitude during the rest of the
play.
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