City News

The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare, is a great book that is funny and still relates to today’s age, with its timeless story.  While it is not as famous as Shakespeare’s works, it is very entertaining and fun to read. 

The book starts off with a funny scene.  A drunk sly from passes out outside of a bar, and a noble comes along and sees him.   He decides to prank the sly by bringing him back to his mansion and having everyone act like he is a noble.  They dress him up in nice clothes and act like he has been insane his whole life saying that he is a drunk, as they hoped that he one day he would return to normal life.  They did this when the sly insists that he was a drunk.  Eventually, he falls for it, and to celebrate his awakening, him and his “ wife ” watch a play.   The play they watch is : The Taming of the Shrew. 

The actual story itself is quite complicated.  There are two sisters, Katherine and Bianca.  Everybody loves Bianca because she is pretty and sweet and young, and everybody hates Katherine, and calls her the Shrew because she is violent and rude and ugly.  As Katherine is the older one, their father will not allow Bianca to marry before Katherine, to the dismay of Bianca's many suitors.  Luckily for them, though, they find a man who is willing to attempt to “ tame ” Katherine, as he wants the father’s wealth.  Three men are competing for Bianca, which is a subplot to the main story which is the one I have been describing : Katherine being " tamed " by Petruchio (her suitor). 

This plot leads to some pretty entertaining scenarios.  For example, Katherine is very against getting married, and does not want to do it.   She resents and makes life difficult for Petruchio, who tries to undermine her and get her upset.  He has a very odd way of trying to tame her.  As the story goes on, he eventually tames her and it is interesting to see her shift in personality.  If you are curious how somebody could be tamed and have their personality changed so easily by a man, I recommend you read the play.  Eventually, Katherine learns what it means to be a loyal wife, and that husbands are more useful and important than she originally thought.  I had a lot of fun reading this book and seeing the changes that Petruchio made to Katherine's life.  He tamed her very well, and his plan succeeded.  I recommend this book to anybody who likes Shakespeare or plays like Shakespeare's because it is another interesting plot.  There is even a movie : 10 Things I hate about you, which is loosely based off of the plot of this book.  I watched it after, and was entertained to see how they adapted the story to a high school setting.  It was a really good movie, and I hope you watch it and read the play.  

 Check out The Taming of the Shrew at the Newport Beach Public Library.