原创英语论文 莎士比亚作品解读

In the literature history, there was a very outstanding period called the Renaissance, in which a multitude of works were produced, and the spirit of humanism prevailed in the literature. Shakespeare, living in this age, was a writer of humanism, which was presented excessively in his plays and poems. Quite confusing, the Taming of the Shrew, one of his greatest plays, makes the ordinary think differently for it is a story about how a shrewish lady (quite a different image from others) is forced to be obedient to her husband and gave a speech telling other women to be obedient to their husband, which is against humanism.

Throughout the history, researchers of Shakespeare have formed different points of view upon Katherine’s transformation of character. Some critics claim that it reveals Shakespeare’s masculine attitude towards female by planning such a transformation in his work and it is because of the fact that he is confined to the time he lived and therefore, his idea can’t surpass the entire ideology (Yang Xiaoxia, Zhang Lixia, 2010). However, some traditional say the transformation was made for Katherine’s good, and she transformed willingly and entirely. Some feminists believe that the way Katharine behaves before her transformation is the expression of her pursuit of her own identity (Cao Ye, 2010). While some try to explain her inability to voice her thought from the view of both her psychology and the feminism (Lu Xiumin, 2009).

Exposed to those controversial thoughts, some of which are very valuable to the study of Shakespeare’s works, we will analyze the transformation and its symbols in this paper despite of whatever the transformation is good or not and whether Petruchio does all these out of love or of masculinism. The study of this paper will be done both objectively and subjectively.

Objective study can make us know what is happening actually, its influences and the meaning to the surroundings , while subjective study can let us know better how the characters feel and how we would feel if we were in the play. And these two ways are viewed in a third person position, while the author’s purpose of arranging the plot plays an important part in this. Hence, at last, we will stand in the author’s ground to think of it, as a humanism writer, what will he probably want to express, was it a desire or a satire that Katharine changed her attitude?