Commentary

So my tweethis statement didn't appear to be as popular as my first about my paper, but the results were still helpful. One person commented: Your thesis is amazing. Just like in Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle takes on the male role by being more outspoken then most women of the time. Shakespeare similarily structures Taming the Shrew with I think Kate being an outspoken woman instead of the submissive lady usually presented :)

I was pleased with this response. Also I haven't received any feedback on my paper so far. I could really use some feedback guys :)

Thanks!

Take One

Here is the link to my Research Paper (fixed).

It is more than an outline and yet a less-than-complete first draft. So there are parts where I say, expound on this or insert quote here, or find that critic quote for this part. I do promise that I have textual and scholarly sources for my paper. I find that it works better for me to find sources then try to write a complete draft and then plug in my sources. That way I don't rely to heavily on them and they don't sway my paper in the wrong direction.

I originally had planned on submitting a complete first draft copy, but my husband and I went to the Draper temple tonight and got stuck in a lot of traffic. So unfortunately it is not as complete as I wanted it to be.

Tweething

(I tried to make a play on words in my post title-tweeting to tweething...alright kinda lame...)

Normally I find it extremely easy to condense ideas into a thesis, but I'm not quite sure how I want to do it with my research paper. So I will try and spell out my process for creating a good thesis/tweethis statement.

Yes, this will be stream-of-consciousness style:

tweethis-short, informative...maybe pithy

my current thesis reads more like a paragraph so I need to shrink it down--

Shakespeare gives more lines to the men in his plays, but the women hold more power. This paper focuses mainly on Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew.  Katherina who doesn’t hold the majority of the lines, but her stage presence and her role, as scripted by Shakespeare, give her more power as Petruchio. She is intelligent and spiteful in the beginning and she transforms in the end. But as she changes Petruchio also changes. By the end of the play, who knows who actually tamed who.

So let's keep Shakespeare, but get straight to the point. What am I proving?

In plays like The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare gives the women more power.

Ok, good. now why do I think this is true?

Because Katherina already exercises power of Petruchio as a woman, before she learns a better way to communicate her feelings. Petruchio may be showing her a better way to experience life ie taming her, but she is the one who decides to make the change. She holds power over herself, her family, and Petruchio.

wow...too wordy. I still have too much to say. What does it boil down to? My tweethis statement!

Plays like The Taming of the Shrew prove that despite the obvious preference for men Shakespeare gave women more power. (Thank you Kayleigh, I would never have reached this without you)

Research Paper : Phase 2

For my Shakespeare class we have been asked to publish on certain topics for our research paper. Here are the links to where I have fulfilled these requirements:

Performance Analysis: Elizabeth Taylor's The Taming of the Shrew
Annotated Bibliography: Annotated Bibliography
Digital Media/ Online Sources: Media Resources
Social Proof: http://taitmikhaela382.blogspot.com/2012/02/peachy-keen-research.html

Peachy Keen Research

I have been talking back and forth with Calvin who is a masters graduate going into his PHD program.He studied English and has focused on Shakespeare. He also did research in London and all over Europe where he viewed a ton of Shakespeare plays as well. Anyway, we have been talking about my paper and my topic and he keeps bouncing me to new ideas and to new conclusions to draw from my ideas. I've been very grateful to him as I move along with this research paper, he definitely helped me start moving in a positive direction.

Annotated Bibliography

I have spent a couple hours now browsing through the Shakespeare section of the library. I must say it restored my excitement in my research paper. There is nothing like looking through volumes of text and absorbing the information inside. I brought home a couple books and found some great information in the Shakespearean Criticism resource books. I didn't know if the criticism I found in the Shakespearean Criticism fit the categories I was specifically supposed to fill for this so I left it out. Also I couldn't get this post to format correctly. I couldn't make the 2nd line hang or get anymore than the first annotation to double space. Does anyone have any helpful hints?

____________________

Dusinberre, Juliet. Shakespeare and the Nature of Women. 2nd ed. New York: St. Martin's, 1996. Print.

This book has sections on femininity vs masculinity and the correlation in Shakespeare. I have only briefly scanned the pages, but it looks promising. This book looks at a great variety of the female characters in Shakespeare. The comparison between the women and their male counterparts during the Renaissance will help me build a strong foundation for my arguement. I found this in my exploration of the Shakespeare section in the HBLL. 

Crocker, Holly A. (Holly Adryan). "Affective Resistance: Performing Passivity and Playing A-Part in The Taming of the Shrew." Shakespeare Quarterly 54.2 (2003): 142-59. Print.

Playing a-Part
This journal article is about the shew as a cultural part of different representations. It also highlights the difficulty in determining the relationship between Petruchio's taming and Katherina's behavior. It provides controversy to my idea that Katherina is tamed because she recognizes the need to change and not because she is conforming to a cultural ideal. I found this article while researching databases online.

Rackin, Phyllis. Shakespeare and Women. Oxford [England: Oxford UP, 2005. Print. 

This book looks at women from Shakespeare's plays in varying historical contexts. It starts in the Renaissance all the way to contemporary Western culture. This book will help me establish the distinction between contemporary interpretations and original interpretations. I found this from an old student that Dr. Gideon helped me find.

Dash, Irene G. Women's Worlds in Shakespeare's Plays. 2nd ed. Newark, DE: University of Delaware, 1997. Print.


This book looks at women's choices within the scope of his plays and analyzes them. This will help me look at the choices the character's make strictly within the scope of a play itself. I found this in the library shelves.

____________________________ My thesis: Shakespeare gives the women in his plays a more central part than what may at first be realized. They are more integral to the play than their scanty lines and short appearances seem to allow. Shakespeare is ahead of his time with his well rounded, witty, and intelligent women. He endows the females such as Katherina from The Taming of the Shrew with a greater and more influential role and the message of the play comes through her.

My

Pinning

I have added new things to my pinterest board-check it out! Pinteresting Shakespearean Ideas

Recent Discoveries

I have been diligently searching for relevant media representations of what I want to look at for my paper. I found this article that was posted today that I absolutely love. We Are Things Among Things The author of this piece discusses how woman can become frustrated to hear themselves acquainted to household objects or being objectified by Petruchio. Ewan Fernie says that "we are things among things". Shakespeare wasn't trying to objectify women, but relate them to the world around. When Petruchio says that Kate is "my goods, my chattels; she is my house, my household-stuff, my field, my barn, my horse, my ox, my ass, my anything" he is not trying to says that is worthless like those things. He is making her as important and more important than anything in his life up until that moment. My favorite lines so far come when Bianca says "that, being mad herself she is madly mated ..." and Gremio replies "I warrant him, Petruchio is kated" because it shows that they are the influence on each other. As much as Petruchio tames Kate, Kate tames Petruchio. From this article I also learned that the "kated" is play on words for the word cated, which means household stuff. So not only can I infer that the meaning is a double entendre...it really is.

In accordance with The Taming of the Shrew, I have found a wonderful clip from the musical Kiss Me Kate. Kiss Me Kate is a play within a play, just like the Taming of the Shrew, in which a broken couple acts out the parts of Kate and Petruchio. They used to date but they broke it off because they couldn't stop hurting each other. This is their lamenting song. I like it because it brings out the tender side of the characters that doesn't get seen full on during the actual play. This is the reason they are in pain and act shrewish and mean.

Oh and did I forget to mention, I have personally met Brian Stokes Mitchell. He is one of the coolest guys I have ever met and so humble for being so well known.

After much searching through new databases for cool stuff on my topic, I have come up with two things, these two books that I want to find in the library.

Women in the Age of Shakespeare

Shakespeare and Women

Elizabeth Taylor's The Taming of the Shrew

I just want to give a little update before I dive into the film I just watched. I emailed Dr. Siegfried and got an out of office response. She is on leave until August...so I'm again looking for someone else. This social discovery is giving me more trouble than anything else.

On another note I watched Claire Bloom's video on her life as Shakespeare female characters and it is a decent film. It shows lots of clips and still shots from the productions she was actually in and she gives insights into how she got her roles. She is a fascinating woman who gives amazing insight into the Shakespearean characters she has played. If you are writing on any of the female characters I would recommend watching the film. It's on Netflix.

Now onto the film adaptation I watched. 

I must say, I knew that the acting style for the 60's was going to be different from ours today, but I didn't bet on how different. I noticed that the promotion for the film and the opening credits were all directed towards Elizabeth Taylor. I felt good that the film would be more geared to a feminist viewing at that point. The 1940's-60's had a lot of pro-feminine ideas and the woman's rights movement was well underway. Women had the right to vote, so I wanted to see if a more feminist approach would be used. I paid very close attention to the acting during the performance because I wanted to see how much  of the focus was on Katherina and what happens when Petruchio 'tames' her.

I was pleased that the acting style was close to Singing in the Rain, a musical produced a few years earlier, because that is what I was expecting it to be similar too. It is a very theatrical performance that focused on very  distinct and over-exaggerated facial expressions. The movements were less life-like and more stylized. They represented an expression rather than being the expression. The comic relief was very stylized as well, but that is what you expect in this kind of film. They seemed to stay with the script as they spoke, but they took away  or de-emphasized the end rhymes which are prevalent in the script and harder to make natural. Even when they used rhyming verses, it was done so well that it was not extremely noticeable. All the actors seemed very grounded in the style of acting that they were performing. No one was more realistic than another. They seemed to all be around the same level of over-the-top.

Elizabeth Taylor seemed to have the most important role. She is the foremost character on the cover and her name appeared in the opening credits for her costume and hair dressing. All the other characters were under the general umbrella of production, Ms Taylor seemed to be the only one with all the special treatment. So needless to say I watched for how that trickled into the film itself. While Shakespeare devotes a greater amount of his play to Petruchio and some of the other male characters, I found that in this version Katherina definitely held the stage when she was on camera. Even if the other characters were talking and she was watching through a peep-hole, the film focused on Katherina at the window peering through instead of direct focus of the speaking actors. She didn't seem to really upstage them, she just had obvious preference. (and honestly, would you rather watch a couple smelly old men talk and brag or watch the pretty and entertaining Elizabeth Taylor?)

Ms Taylor delivered her lines with spite and bile when it was her turn to speak and she delivered all her lines very deliberately. She did a very good job of making the shrew dislike-able, but pitiable. I really felt for her when she was yelling at Bianca about all her lovers, I could hear and see the jealously on Katherina's face. It's easy to be the shrew and just be cruel and spiteful, but Elizabeth made much more go on inside the character. When Petruchio was boasting of his love for Katherina and chasing her around the cotton mill, I could feel the repulsion of Katherina. At the same time, she was a little pleased that she finally had a suitor and one that would stand up to her at that. She was curious and peeved at the same time, and those are hard emotions to express at the same time.

This film really went where I wanted it to, because at the end after Katherina has been broken, she hasn't lost her spirit. When I read it, I pictured this completely obedient Katherina, who still had a way with words, but who was very much tame. In this version, Katherina is still very feisty. She expresses that her husband is her lord and governor and she owes him everything, but when it is time to make their exit, she has already left. Petruchio kind of looks around stupidly before he manages to get his head together and chase after her. I liked that she retains her essential character, but becomes a much better human being. The almost loving/affectionate looks that she exchanges with Petruchio when they see the little children squabbling shows a new side to her.

I really don't believe that Shakespeare would have been anti-feminist if he had been around at this time. He has a way of creating these feisty and intelligent woman and by placing in their sphere of influence they have a huge affect. As much as Petruchio has tamed Katherina, she has tamed the bachelor in him.

Research Paper: Week 1

Part 1: exploration of topic
Part 2: textual analysis
Part 3: social interations

Socializing My Research

This is the hands down, hardest part for me. I don't like contacting people I don't know. So in this blog I will post my baby steps to jumping off and contacting new people.

I reached out on Facebook and got a surprising turn out of responses. All enthusiastic and from all over my Facebook friend spectrum. So I was relatively pleased. I also contacted an enthusiast friend/pre-grad student who I met a BYU, Calvin. He gave me some great ideas on directions I could take my paper as well as referred me to Dr.Siegfried. Who, from the looks of her information page, studies in the exact area I am looking in. So I will be giving her an email as soon as I solidify my topic.

To Tame a Shrew

• There are a couple of quotes that I have been looking at that have spurred me into writing about my research paper. The first one is from the Taming of the Shrew and it is Katherina and Petruchio. I find the back and forth dialogue between these two characters to be witty and jarring. It shows the remarkable wit and strength of Katherina as a character. She is quick thinking, intelligent, not afraid of holding her own and what's most impressive is that she isn't afraid to speak her mind. A trait that seems uncharacteristic for the time period and especially between strangers. She does not hide her disdain of Petruchio. Oh there is also foreshadowing in the end when Petruchio says that he will tame Kate.
• 
  
• ACT II Scene I:
• Katherina. Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing:
  They call me Katherine that do talk of me.1030

• Petruchio. You lie, in faith, for you are call'd plain Kate,
  And bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the curst;
  But, Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom,
  Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate,
  For dainties are all Kates, and therefore, Kate, 1035
  Take this of me, Kate of my consolation-
  Hearing thy mildness prais'd in every town,
  Thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded,
  Yet not so deeply as to thee belongs,
  Myself am mov'd to woo thee for my wife.1040

• Katherina. Mov'd! in good time! Let him that mov'd you hither
  Remove you hence. I knew you at the first
  You were a moveable.

• Petruchio. Why, what's a moveable?

• Katherina. A join'd-stool.1045

• Petruchio. Thou hast hit it. Come, sit on me.

• Katherina. Asses are made to bear, and so are you.

• Petruchio. Women are made to bear, and so are you.

• Katherina. No such jade as you, if me you mean.

• Petruchio. Alas, good Kate, I will not burden thee! 1050
  For, knowing thee to be but young and light-

• Katherina. Too light for such a swain as you to catch;
  And yet as heavy as my weight should be.

• Petruchio. Should be! should- buzz!

• Katherina. Well ta'en, and like a buzzard.1055

• Petruchio. O, slow-wing'd turtle, shall a buzzard take thee?

• Katherina. Ay, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard.

• Petruchio. Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry.

• Katherina. If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

• Petruchio. My remedy is then to pluck it out.1060

• Katherina. Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies.

• Petruchio. Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting?
  In his tail.

• Katherina. In his tongue.

• Petruchio. Whose tongue?1065

• Katherina. Yours, if you talk of tales; and so farewell.

• Petruchio. What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again,
  Good Kate; I am a gentleman.

• Katherina. That I'll try. [She strikes him]

• Petruchio. I swear I'll cuff you, if you strike again.1070

• Katherina. So may you lose your arms.
  If you strike me, you are no gentleman;
  And if no gentleman, why then no arms.

• Petruchio. A herald, Kate? O, put me in thy books!

• Katherina. What is your crest- a coxcomb?1075

• Petruchio. A combless cock, so Kate will be my hen.

• Katherina. No cock of mine: you crow too like a craven.

• Petruchio. Nay, come, Kate, come; you must not look so sour.

• Katherina. It is my fashion, when I see a crab.

• Petruchio. Why, here's no crab; and therefore look not sour.1080

• ...

• Petruchio. Marry, so I mean, sweet Katherine, in thy bed.
  And therefore, setting all this chat aside,
  Thus in plain terms: your father hath consented
  That you shall be my wife your dowry greed on; 1120
  And will you, nill you, I will marry you.
  Now, Kate, I am a husband for your turn;
  For, by this light, whereby I see thy beauty,
  Thy beauty that doth make me like thee well,
  Thou must be married to no man but me; 1125
  For I am he am born to tame you, Kate,
  And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate
  Conformable as other household Kates. 
  [Re-enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, and TRANIO]
  Here comes your father. Never make denial; 1130
  I must and will have Katherine to my wife.

Another quote that I have found was pointed out to me by a Shakespeare enthusiast/ old friend/ English Masters Graduate. I asked him about my topic and he gave me the name of a professor that I should talk to as well as some insight into more female characters. This quote is from Macbeth and it is Lady Macbeth speaking: 

She is calling on the evil spirits to "unsex" her or take away her feminine qualities that give her feelings and would stop her/Macbeth from killing the King. I know that this doesn't seem to fit with what I have been talking about earlier, but in order to become a conspirator in murder, she must get rid of her femininity, which makes me think that Shakespeare did not view women to be evil or capable of such corruption as they are. He reveres the woman figure for her powers of persuasion and intelligence, but he doesn't make them capable of what a man can do. He recognizes the separate spheres of manhood and womanhood that they have importance and two different purposes. He also says with characters like Portia and Viola, that they would be capable of being great 'men' but that is not their intended purpose in the world. Portia saving Bassanio in the court shows she is quite capable of handling herself in the public, but what she is really intended to do is reform Bassanio through their marriage (possibly the significance of the ring that she gives to Bassanio and demands as payment as the doctor)

 HEY! RELIGION! I just found a religious connection between the gospel and Shakespeare...now that was cool.

II've got way too many ideas again...I will have to narrow it down further...

Females in Shakespeare

So the story of my research project so far goes like this:


Me (while reading The Tempest and Henry V): Ooh, I'm going to write a paper on the class relations. Shakespeare was a genius splitting the high class from the low class and yet they get along so well...(for the most part). His plays appeal to all classes too. I like this idea.


Me (while researching Hamlet): Hmmm this article is really fascinating. Is Ophelia necessary for the plot of Hamlet...(the article: JSTOR "Ophelia: Shakespeare's Pathetic Plot Device" ) This would make an interesting paper...I could discuss the French Princess in Henry V and I can add an actual female that seems crucial like Portia in The Merchant of Venice...I like the female aspect...I'll keep that idea.


Me (while trying to decide where to start researching): I kind of want to put a more modern twist in my paper...so that I feel like I have something interesting for the social aspect...maybe I'll do a paper on the women in Henry V and how the 1944 version, the script itself, and the Branagh version differ on the interpretation of the women! Yea...that sounds good. Only wait, the only female in that is only in like two scenes and it's in French...I will be the only one who can read my paper...


Me (today): I want to look at Much Ado About Nothing (which I haven't read) and The Taming of the Shrew (which I've seen a few times) and discuss the female characters as they reflect the time that it was originally produced in and look at the 1993 Much Ado About Nothing and the 1956 The Taming of the Shrew and see how they reflect both the play and more modern feelings towards women.


I also am going to watch Claire Bloom's thoughts on the women characters in Shakespeare and then see if anybody replied to my new facebook status, which reads: "tell me if this sounds interesting: A comparison of Katherine from The Taming of the Shrew and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing and how Shakespeare endows them with spirit and independence only to take it away in the end to comply with the ideas on women of his time and how this translates to modern versions of these two plays."

After that I will read both of the plays and find someone to contact (besides my facebook peeps).

Oh So Graphic

I read the Graphic Classic illustrated by Penko Gelev- just so you know.

When I got it in the mail, I was super excited. It came earlier than expected so it took me by surprise, but the minute I opened it I started to read and look through the pages.

The thing I liked the most was having a page with all the character's faces and their names. That way as I am reading if I forget or a face doesn't look as familiar I can go back and double check to see who it is. The graphics are pretty neat as well. (Although I feel like all the characters look really old with all the shading Gelev did.)

It is pretty easy to follow the story line and the dialogue too. And since it's just a snippet of long speeches and conversations I feel like they did  a decent job of pulling the most important phrases out to illustrate their point. They also interpret underneath in modern english, so you can follow the story along that way if you want.

The only thing I didn't really like was missing all of Hamlet'speeches. I had come to really liking them when I was listening to it so I was disappointed that they really didn't keep any of it.Which I understand it's a comic, I've read many an Archie Comic in my day, so it makes sense that they can't keep everything. Reading it in this version kind of makes me want to make a little Shakespeare comic of my own. Pulling out the lines I find most important and giving summaries. Also drawing beautiful stick people would just make a great comic too.

Hamlet Blitzkrieg

I feel like we attacked that Hamlet blitz in a positive way. It was intellectually stimulating to search and look at all the sites available and information posted. It definitely provided a start point to help me get thinking AND it helped me decide what to write my research paper on. It wouldn't be very helpful to actually use for citing sources and good research sources, but it definitely provides a good starting point to jump off of. All-in-all I found it very useful.