There are many ways Shakespeare and Plath show the strength of feeling of woman. The ways they do it is very different though, Shakespeare does it through plays such as taming of the shrew, and Plath does it through her poems that she writes. In both of these sources, the women get their point across very strongly. We know that they are angry with the way woman are treated, and that is very understandable as woman were a minority.
– William Shakespeare shows the strength and felling of woman through a character in his play The Taming of the Shrew. He manages to put this character called Katherina in certain situations to show her opinion about the way people lived at that time. The Taming of the Shrew is a play about a man marrying or taming a woman, but the woman is very stubborn and hard headed and isn’t afraid to share her opinion, this is Katherina, and she is the shrew that needs to be tamed. Katherina isn’t afraid to protect herself and is very independent. She protects herself from male attention by saying “best beware my sting”. She says this as she is being referred to as an animal, but in a sexual way as Petruchio is saying that the wasp’s sting is her backside. Katherina meant that she could hurt Petruchio as that is what wasps do when they protect themselves. This also suggests that she doesn’t like woman being referred to as animals as she takes offence to Petruchio calling her a wasp. Katherina also says “aye if the fool can find where it lies” to Petruchio. She questions a male which at that time in history would never be done, meaning that Katherina must have felt strong for the pride of woman and wanted change. She also labels males as fools meaning she has had enough of them as a whole. This is why Katherina is the shrew in the play as she is very difficult to marry or tame. On the other hand, males in the play refer to woman as an animal that need to be tamed. An example of this is when Grumio says “But will you woo this wild cat”. Katherina clearly has had enough of being treated as an inferior being and decides to stand up for herself. This shows that she had a very strong feeling on this matter and wanted change because she was the only woman in the play that stood up for herself.
– When Katherina replies to someone, she speaks in a very offensive but smart way. An example of this is when she says “If I be waspish, best beware my sting”. As you can see from that quote she is accepting the fact that she is being called a wasp by Petruchio just to get back at him in an offensive way. She says that she is able to hurt him if Petruchio doesn’t beware. This is typical for Katherina as she is independent, but wants to be treated as an equal but hates society as women are minorities.
Like in every play, the characters have an effect on the audience watching it. In the Taming of the Shrew Katherina has a massive impact on the audience. As Katherina is a woman that could stand up for herself, she shows that she can protect herself from a man which was never done in Shakespeare’s time. The effect I believe Katherina had on the audience is that equality would be promoted. Everyone can see that Katherina doesn’t like being treated as a minority and she shows this in a very powerful way. The way Katherina is independent would encourage and motivates woman to be the same, meaning that Katherina could have changed the lives for some woman as they have seen that living as a minority is not a good way to live. Also Katherina could make men sympathise for woman. In the play Katherina ends up marrying Petruchio but is treated very badly as Petruchio wanted to be dominant in the relationship. This was usually the case in Shakespeare’s time. As males saw what they were doing to the person they have married, it could have led them to change the way they treat their wife’s or woman in general.
Back in Shakespeare’s time, woman would have been treated the same way they are treated in the play. Woman would be treated as items and would be expected to do all traditional jobs such as cleaning and cooking. A woman back then would rarely ever stand up for themselves so that’s how Katherina is different from most women in the play. This play shows woman that they can be much more than they are if they decide to not accept that they are a minority, I believe this motivated woman to achieve equality between the sexes.
As well as Shakespeare Sylvia Plath shows the strength and feeling of woman in an equally strong way. Sylvia shows it through making poems about the events she’s been through. One of the hard things Plath has been through is that her father sadly died when she was a young age. She makes a poem about her father and explains how she tried to end her life because of it. This is shown in a poem called daddy. This poem is all about her dad and how he has affected her.
In the poem daddy you can see that she shows what she feels in a very strong way. You can tell she is angry about it because it sounds very violent because of the repetition of words that end with “o” at the end of quite a lot of sentences. She also talks about sad and violent things, an example of this is when she says she tried to end her life..
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